Changing the Liturgy of Our Lives
It finally hit me, around the end of May, that the amount of time I was spending on social media and the news was destructive to my soul.
To be fair, there was a lot to know about it. But as I said in my previous post, maybe it’s not all for me to know. Or at least, not all for me to carry. And carry it I was.
But consuming those sources was habitual. I checked my notifications each morning. Over breakfast, I read the news. Hopped onto Facebook a couple of times each day to see what was new. Pulled up Twitter to catch what was trending.
Until I didn’t. Until I decided that I could, and should, change the liturgy of my life.
Liturgy seems like an antiquated thing. I think of gregorian chants and mindless rote recitations. But liturgy, I’ve learned, simply means the habits we embrace, the order of how we live.
I grew up in a church with a pretty clear liturgy. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until recently, as I’m in a program of spiritual formation that meets for quarterly retreats. During the retreats, we practice praying the hours-in the morning, before lunch, before dinner, and before bedtime.
The question isn’t, “Do I have a liturgy?” but “What kind of person is my liturgy shaping me to be?”
It’s important that we examine from time to time the habits, the order of our days, and ask, “Is this shaping my soul the way I desire? The way God desires?”
We are often unconscious of the liturgy of our days.
What Is the Liturgy of Our Days?
Throughout my walk with God, I’ve taken up the popular habits of Bible reading, prayer, fellowship. I see the value of these to incline my soul toward God and others. What’s more challenging for me, and I imagine most of us, is seeing the value of the ordinary, “non-spiritual” (seemingly) habits I have.
I never thought much about how what I read or listen to shapes me as much as my study of scripture. If I had enough of the latter, I thought, it wouldn’t matter.
It’s easy to separate our lives into the spiritual and the secular, but I’m learning that all of life is an opportunity to pray, to experience the presence of God. I start my day with devotional time, but what about the rest of my day?
If we desire to be attentive to the presence of God, do we order our days in such a way that we make space to hear from Him? Or are we filling our minds with noise, internet arguments, the anxiety of the world? Not only do we rob God of space He could have in our lives, we rob ourselves of peace.
Seeking a more peaceful liturgy to our lives seems critical right now. We cannot control the chaos of the world, but we can choose how much we allow it to infiltrate our souls.
So I deleted Facebook and Twitter off my phone. I check them occasionally just so I’m not completely ignorant of what happens in the world. I usually read a book or work on a puzzle over breakfast instead of reading the news (does doing puzzles make anyone else feel really old?).
It felt strange, at first. I feared missing out. And it’s true, I’m not the first to know something anymore. But I am redeeming a space that feels freeing. It’s like I shut the door on a world of noise and am learning to enjoy the silence.
Admittedly, there’s a temptation to fill the space I’ve reclaimed with alternative noise. I’m not yet at the point where I simply eat my breakfast in silence; hopefully, I’ll get there. But shifting even this small thing makes me conscious of all that I am taking in, and it forces me to question all the habits of my life. Do they make space for God or not?
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