Last month I wrote about letting things go to make room for God to work in our lives. This month, I need to remind myself, and thus you, of why I did this.
One of the most spectacular aspects of the Episcopal Church, for me, is the concept and practice of corporate worship. Having grown up in a religion where the individual experience of God is the most important and telling measure of one's faith, it has been a liberating homecoming to be in a place that celebrates the communal nature of Christianity. But this does not negate or diminish the importance of personal devotions. Even the BCP, our community guidebook, has a liturgy for individuals, called Daily Devotions (p 136 if you want to have a look).
Of course, I have a recently discovered and much indulged fascination with communal worship, so what I really want to do is start morning and evening devotionals with my whole family. I want to show my children just how important and fulfilling God is every day, but I know that this would constitute a fight twice a day with my house full of nature's audience members. All this would really accomplish is even less time to spend in prayer and devotion.
So for now, I think I need to stop trying to force my good intentions on others and in doing so, actually avoid the personal time I need to be allowing God to speak to me. I need to lead by example. Instead of squeezing my own prayer into the twilight corners of my day, when I am in truth perhaps worshiping my coffee cup or pillow more than God, I ought to dedicate some of the prime time to my prayers and study. Then, perhaps, when others see me, they will be truly touched and want to know more of God themselves.
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