SPIRITUALITY FOR BUSY PEOPLE

Contemporary Spirituality for the Busy Professional

Purpose: To design a contemporary discipline that would enable a busy professional to remain conscious of God’s spirit throughout the week and to test the impact of such a practice on their overall experience of life.

FOUNDATION

The foundational framework would draw upon the ancient practice of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths with respect to the practice of prayer. The assumption was that life is lived to the fullest when we are conscious of the spirit of God within us and that the continual demands of our lives tend toward distracting and therefore weakening that awareness. Therefore each of these faiths has a tradition of prayer 5 times a day as a means of continually reawakening our awareness of God’s presence in our lives. The proposal is for five brief but conscious interruptions of our daily routine to sensitize us to the presence of God within our daily lives.

FIVE TIMES A DAY

A tentative framework of a day would look like the following.

RISING

1.Upon rising you would be asked to take 3 to 5 minutes to pray. During that time you would review the prospective day before you and simply offer it up to God.

For some people this prayer might occur immediately upon rising. For others it might be while they are shaving or driving to work. A particularly good time for some would be the first three minutes after they have parked their car before getting out and entering the office.

MIDMORNING

At as regular a scheduled time as possible at mid-morning, preferably marked on one’s calendar, you would take a 5-minute break in your routine for prayer. During that time you would read the brief scripture provided and ask yourself what God has to say to you about your day. This might take place in an office or cubicle or it could even take place in a bathroom stall for increased privacy.

LUNCH BREAK

During the lunch break, or immediately before or after if you have a luncheon appointment, you would take 5 to 10 minutes and try to reflect on your life and God’s will for it.

MID-AFTERNOON

At a scheduled mid-afternoon break, you would offer a 5 minute prayer for your family and close friends.

EVENING

In the evening before retiring, you would thank God for the day completed.

Additional notes:

If possible, each participant would be in contact with the pastor through e-mail and receive a message of support during the week.

The weekly scripture could be provided on Friday for the following week.

The practice would be modified during scheduled days off because those days are often less structured.

THREE MONTHS EXPERIMENT

The initial experiment would be for three months. During that time it would be recognized that there will be days when the practice will not be implemented but there would be a commitment to continue to try to put it into practice.

There would probably be value in an occasional gathering of participants for reflection on the process. This might be worked out on a Sunday morning.

The keeping of an occasional journal in which a person would write some reflections on how the week is going once or twice a week would be helpful

Other Spiritual Practices:

Below are listed several other types of spiritual practices which might be integrated into a person’s experience from time to time.

A modern practice of the examen in which a person would be encouraged to set aside a regular time in which they would review the signs of God’s blessing.

The development of a contemporary form of rosary which would trigger our memory of core beliefs which counter our cultural pressures.

A contemporary form of a sacred meal. The person would go alone to a restaurant, deliberately order a Spartan meal and slowly eat it while consciously reflecting on the presence of God in their life and listening to God’s message for them.

Utilizing a lectionary based devotional during the week which would then assist in making a clear connection with the scriptures that would be used on Sunday during worship. Over time this would assist in helping connect work with worship.

Consciously choosing to offer a midweek charitable gift to some person or agency as a spiritual act. Or one could consciously choose to perform a charitable deed for someone in the same manner.