by
Bill Tenny-Brittian
Introduction
High Voltage Spirituality. Words like shocking, electrifying, and hair-raising leap to my mind. It sets an exciting sort of tone for a topic that is traditionally quiet, tranquil, and peaceful. When I think of spirituality, I think Psalm23 and pastoral scenes of green pastures and gentle waters.
I don't know about you, but I don't live there. My surroundings are anything but pastoral. My calendar reminds me "Hurry up, you have a deadline and two other appointments this afternoon." My cell phone beeps and says "you've missed two calls that you need to return." And my to-do list, well, thankfully it doesn't talk. I actually have to look at it to see what I have to do. My life is less about green pastures and gentle waters and more like shooting the Colorado River rapids in a rubber raft with only one paddle and without a guide.
That's why the title of this book is High Voltage Spirituality.
But there's another reason.
Busy people, by definition, are busy. Their lives are filled with responsibilities, appointments, and to-do lists. Their prayer, whether they are persons of faith or not, is for an extra hour in each day, an extra day in each week. Their plates are full and they can't add even one more thing to it, but somehow most of them have difficulty saying, "No." So something else gets the short shiff like our family or our faith. So they go through the motions of life without a significant connection into the Divine Power Grid, the source of our spiritual power.
I was one of those people. I spent many of my years way too busy to seriously develop my faith. Which was a scary thing – I've been in the professional ministry for over fifteen years.
I discovered early on that a life devoted to the work of the church is not the same thing as a life devoted to deep spirituality. Sometimes, being a pastor is like almost any other job. Get up, go to work, be faithful in your responsibilities, go home (typically with some sort of home work or evening meetings), go to bed, repeat. I regularly worked over fifty hours a week, and often over sixty. I was busy. Too busy for spending extended time practicing spiritual habits. Though there's an expectation in the church that pastors and professional ministers are deeply invested in their personal spiritual development, it isn't necessarily so.
Now, if ministers have trouble cultivating their spiritual life because they're so busy, it's a cinch that folks who aren't in professional ministry may have some difficulty. Indeed, as I preached and taught and extolled the virtues of a deep and satisfying spirituality, I was often disheartened at how few of those in the church "got it." The problem may have been that I hadn't "got it" either.
I came into the practices of spirituality later rather than sooner. Over the years I had watched my wife, Kris, continuously nurture he spirituality. She'd practiced a number of different habits. She worked with a spiritual director. For a time she was an oblate in a religious order. And she prayed – she prayed a lot. I couldn't figure out how she could get all her work done and still have time to practice so many spiritual habits (she is a professional minister as well). But she did.
Now, I wouldn't say I was envious of her, but honestly, I did covet her connection with the Divine Power. So I began to look for ways to fit some spiritual habits into my schedule. I had spiritual giants telling me they got up at four a.m. every morning for prayer – I'm a morning person, but I'm not that much of a morning person. Others told me about week long and month long retreats they went on. I took note of what these sages had to offer and began to incorporate a piece here and a practice there.
My breakthrough came when I learned how to pray. I'm one of those folks who can't sit still, so long meditative practices that require motionlessness only served to frustrate me. But when I experienced deep, soulful prayer for the first time, my appetite for other spiritual practices was like a black hole that was determined to capture every ray of light it could reach. I found my connection into the Divine Power Grid and my spiritual batteries began to recharge.
What follows is a compendium of spiritual habits adopted and adapted for busy Christians. You'll discover habits you can practice that won't put a ripple in your time. These you practice "as you go." Mostly they just take an awareness and a commitment to make them habits to slip into your everyday life. Other habits will take some time, but they can be easily added into your busy schedule because they are particularly suited for multi-tasking. If you commute to work, if you run errands, or if you're a soccer parent, there are a number of habits you'll love. And then there are spiritual practices that take a significant time commitment. Some you can practice during lunch. Others need to be scheduled. But in my experience, those habits that take extra time are worth the effort – they have the potential to take you deep rapidly.
There's no need to read this book from cover-to-cover like a novel. Each chapter is self-contained, so you can read it in stages. Don't feel compelled to read it straight through nor to read the chapters in any particular order. In fact, the last chapter of the book breaks down the various habits into a series of tables. For instance, Daily Projection is an early morning practice (for most people), whereas Imaging Prayer can be practiced almost anytime of the day. Use the tables when you're ready to add a spiritual habit into your life, but don't know which one to choose. By deciding whether you want to take on a practice at home or at work, whether you have ten minutes or an afternoon, and so on, you can more easily make an appropriate choice.
You'll also discover that the majority of the spiritual habits are layer-ins rather than set-asides. In other words, you layer them into your daily routines rather than stopping and setting aside a time to practice them. On the other hand, multi-tasking is not a recommended method to engender an effective connection with the Divine even though some of the spiritual habits in the book can be practiced simultaneously while you are otherwise occupied. Just don't rely solely on multi-tasking spiritual habits to increase your faith and to put an end to your spiritual power shortage!
Each spiritual habit has been assigned three symbols that tell you how much time the practice takes, whether you need to be in solitude or not, and if the habit is multi-task friendly. Below is the key to the symbols.
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My fondest hope is that these spiritual habits will offer hope that you can have make a vibrant connection with the Divine and that your heart, mind, and soul will be empowered. But I want to close with a final word about priorities. The fact is, if you don't make an effort to develop your spirituality, it isn't going to happen. You will have to make it a priority – as a friend of mine reminded me.
Before I began writing this book, I was speaking with a retired executive from a large and prestigious company about the spiritual habits he practiced over the years. He was known by his friends, coworkers, and fellow church members as a deeply spiritual man who had managed to balance his very busy life of executive management, family, and significant church responsibilities. But there was more to just balance in his life, he had carried with him throughout his working life a vibrant faith that informed his decisions and made him both light and salt to the world. This man shared deeply and honestly with me. He told me stories that stirred my heart. He spoke of the spiritual practices that kept him grounded. It was a good conversation. But towards the end, he got rather still and pensive. I wouldn't go so far as to say he was blinking back tears, but I knew the next words out of his mouth were going to be significant. I waited as he thought and then he spoke. "It used to be that while I was working sometimes I felt like I was too busy to have family devotions, a prayer life, and so forth; like, ‘Boy, I just don't have time to do that.' But you know, when I retired and had the time, things really didn't improve much. So a lot of times I think that ‘being busy' is just an excuse—you need to just get your priorities sorted out."
He paused for a time, as if looking for the right words. The silence of the setting sun added to the mounting tension. Finally, he took a deep breath and in a voice shaken by regrets he finished our conversation: "All of those years it wasn't just lack of time, but a lack of desire."
My benediction for you as you begin this journey is that your desire will outweigh your schedule. May your spiritual batteries capture every amp of God's yottavolts so that you experience the promised fullness of life.
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