5 Ways to Tend Your Spirituality in the Summer
It has been a sweltering summer! I hope you are doing well as you read this message and that you are having a good summer. One of the wonderful things about summer is how it disrupts our routines in ways that make us feel refreshed. But with chaotic schedules, summer is also a time where we can feel disoriented or untethered to our usual routines and practices, including our spiritual practices. Here are 5 ideas to be intentional about tending to your spirituality while your schedule is not in its usual routine patterns.
- Find a core spiritual practice that you can do whether you are at home or traveling. This might be a specific prayer pattern, or it might be another spiritual practice like a prayer journal, a devotional book, or a Bible reading plan. Some people will find a summer reading list of books that speak to their spirituality. Find something meaningful (and manageable) and try to stick with it. If you get off track, don’t let that be an excuse to stop. It’s ok to start again. Just make sure you are completing your spiritual practice on a regular basis and that it enriches your inner spiritual life in a tangible way.
- Worship whenever or wherever you can. Whether you are at home or on the road, try to make it to church once a week whenever possible. Sometimes while traveling it isn’t practical to make it to church every single week but keeping a pattern of attendance will help you stay grounded in the Word and in prayer, and the variety of hearing different preachers while on the road can be a nice change of pace. If you cannot attend, catch a service online (on demand). Leaving church out of your regular routine over the course of several months during the summer can supply a stumbling block later on when you would like to return to church, but it is hard to get back into the rhythm.
- Remember your stewardship practices. I am not saying this as part of a fundraiser effort, but because I know that when I write my check for my offering, I must give a minute’s pause to remember why I am giving an offering and to pray over its benefits to the world. Besides giving of money, other stewardship practices can lose energy over the summer, too. How can you use your time to dedicate it to God’s mission of love and reconciliation in the world? How can you use your talents? Taking an extended vacation from these can lead to a feeling of spiritual dryness over the course of time.
- Plan for an extended time to give intentional and energetic attention to your spiritual development. Mission trips, Montreat Youth Conference, Montreat Music & Worship Conference, a pilgrimage to someplace that has spiritual significance to you, etc. Our spiritual lives need to be tended, like a garden or any other important project. Tending your spiritual formation is fluffy language for investing time in your connection to God. It is not God who needs to practice this…God’s already waiting with open arms, grace, love and wisdom. It is we who must practice it for the connection to be realized fully in our hearts.
- Find a Prayer Partner. Often, we are the most successful in our difficult projects when we have a partner. Whether it is to work out or complete an important goal, partnerships bring a sense of teamwork, mutual accountability, and mutual support. Meeting with a prayer partner (or a group of 3 or 4 or more!) once a week to share your concerns with each other, to pray with and for one another, and to bring scripture to one another can be very spiritually nourishing.
Of course, these 5 things are not the only way to help tether yourself spiritually during a chaotic season, but hopefully this list might be helpful in considering your own spiritual care this summer, and even to start planning for how you will tend your spirit in seasons to come.
Grace and Peace,
Rob
