When I boil down my life to the bedrock values that I live by, here are the 7 that rise to the top.
- Silence and solitude.
- Prayer.
- Spiritual direction.
- Truth.
- Physical care is soul care,too.
- Family.
- Sacrifice.
Each of these values are expressed in my own rule, or rhythm, of life with specific goals or actions assigned to them. Every six months or so, I revisit my rule of life and consider if it still feels life-giving to me. If not, I rewrite. If so, I consider how living these values is looking in this season and where I feel invited to grow towards greater wholeness.
My rule of life is about purposefully reserving space for God to enter in and deepen the transforming work that was begun within me. When this truth stays center stage, none of this introspection is truly about control, orderliness, or even productivity. Instead, this rhythm is one way to express that I believe all of life is an opportunity to experience God and therefore spiritual transformation. When I refuse to divide my own life into the spiritual and non-spiritual, the boundaries between myself and God become blurred so that hopefully it is difficult to tell where God ends and I begin.