A version of this post first appeared in Light Reading, our weekly email newsletter. If you would like to receive messages like this every Sunday, please send an email to info@ChristInst.org.
Have you ever had one of those days where you knew there wasn't enough time to do everything, and that knowledge somehow made you forget to do half of what you knew you could pull off? It's the kind of day when the check engine light is angrily flashing on your car dashboard at the same time you've noticed how much expired food there is in the fridge, and just last week you awakened to how untidy your closet had become. So you make a to-do list and set aside a day for accomplishing all those tasks—or at least one. But when you leave the house to pick up some boxes to start organizing, you reach your car and realize you've forgotten your keys. You double back, grab your keys and get to the store, only to realize you'd also forgotten your wallet.
Unfortunately, there isn't a verse in Proverbs or Psalms that celebrates the virtues of remembering your car keys; nor do the letters of Paul discuss whether it's better to buy office supplies before groceries, or deal with your laundry before you handle your mail, or if you have time to get breakfast either way. However, spirituality does help us better understand our priorities and ultimately achieve them.
To practice spirituality is to know what matters in all its nuance. That's because spiritual practice considers our total identity as a physical, communal, psychological and spiritual being. Spirituality helps us organize how we meet the needs of those different aspects of ourselves, in part by leaving none of them behind.
When Jesus compared the bounty and the effortless simplicity of nature to the forced finery of King Solomon, he was stressing the importance of God's presence in our lives over our attraction to physical things. However, he wasn't saying to embrace our souls and ignore our bodies. Instead, he was respecting the necessity of nourishing and protecting our physical selves with food and shelter; if those weren't vital to our well-being, there would have been no need to mention them. Jesus was simply reminding us not to destroy ourselves with stress over those things—after all, there is more to us than what we eat or wear.
Jesus was warning us against worrying about tomorrow. Tomorrow is not here yet, and so it is beyond our sphere of influence. We can prepare for it, but we can only do so today, and worry beyond that will not give us a minute more advantage. Stressing about tomorrow simply wastes our time, while spirituality gives us tools to consider upcoming challenges in a clear and thoughtful way. Practices like prayer, meditation and study are about providing us the abstract space to process things, including our values and needs, which informs how to spend our time.
Planning is one thing, but productivity is another. Spiritual practice teaches virtues like prudence and diligence, as well as purpose and joy, which can influence productivity for the better. Spirituality helps us recognize our capacity for those virtues, and nurtures their quickening through personal unfoldment. We develop a sense of responsibility to see daily tasks through; we have humility to accept when we cannot do everything in one day; we have faith that things will ultimately work out; we have awareness to know what we accomplish each day has purpose, which helps us both be satisfied in what we have done and carry our commitment to accomplish into tomorrow.
Does applying spiritual virtues to everyday errands cheapen them? Not at all. It is an acknowledgment that our higher values trickle down into our material lives, which in turn helps us maintain the foundation to pursue even greater metaphysical achievement. Again, a life lived fully aware - from our physical to our spiritual selves - takes the greatest care and consideration of our total wellness and being.
The next time you feel overwhelmed by what you have to do or disappointed you let something slip by, give yourself pause and show yourself grace. Collect your total being, and you might find you have the time to get everything you need done for today, as well as the strength to do so.
Let us pray:
Dear God,
Thank You that every day is a first chance—
And thousandth chance—
To be who we need to be;
To become who we are meant to be.
May Your Presence fill us,
May Your Wisdom help us see,
And may Your Strength help us do.
May our immediate worries never cloud our judgment,
And may our achievements ever remind us
Of the Divinity of their source.
Amen.
"When you pray, the Lord answers your prayers. When you think, His mind enlightens your thoughts. When you decide, His will strengths your decision. When you determine the way of righteousness, His presence guides you. When you act in harmony with His law, Heaven and earth stand behind you and release their might and forces on your behalf." - Hanna Jacob Doumette, "Psalms For Today"