practice not perfect

                I don’t know about you, but I can get lost in the world of dreams, imagination, and abstraction. I watch a movie or binge-watch a TV show and I’m caught up in another world. Or I read books and articles, and chase ideas and forget that ideas that are fruitful, are ideas that are embodied in real life.

                Spirituality can be a bit like that. We talk about what we believe about God, the world, and eternity, but are deepest-held convictions should enable us to inhabit a new reality. We are meant to be transformed in our ethical life, in our care for the poor, the widowed, orphaned, and alien. We are made to experience change in our spiritual lives as we give ourselves over to the practice of prayer and meditation, experiencing a deeper union with the Divine.

                The cliché is “Practice Makes Perfect.” But I don’t know anyone who is perfect in their spiritual practice. Still, learning to practice helps us live a new life we couldn’t live before. The way is made by walking and sometimes the truth must get in our bones and muscles before it makes its way into our souls.                  

Join me for a journey in Spiritual Practice, rooted in the Christian tradition. I will be launching a Podcast discussing the role of practice in the spiritual life, and I will be speaking to contemplatives, activists, and other spiritual practitioners about what it means to practice their spirituality and faith. The podcast is called “Practice Not Perfect.”