Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, January 2, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
How shall we return? This is the essence of all spiritual practice—showing up for our covenant relationship with God. There are as many forms of spiritual practice as there are people in this world, and in this diversity, God finds joy, I am certain. My practice includes (almost) daily prayer journaling time, regular participation in worshipping with my church community, daily literature/writing time for my recovery programs, and the every-meal spiritual sacrifice of my food (in committing it ahead of time, and then weighing/measuring it to my “prescription”). It can also include walks in nature, deep spiritual and philosophical discussions with my partner, and the practice of writing for Clergy Stuff. Then there are all the times God meets me wherever I happen to be in some serendipitous moment and I stop to offer gratitude. There are as many ways to “return to God” as there are to wander away, I suppose. And I admit to doing that on the regular, whether in thought or word or deed. So these spiritual “returnings” help center me—remind me who I am and whose I am, reminders I need all the time. The best news of all, of course, is that as many times as I return, God is there waiting with open arms, happy to see me, keeping up their side of the covenant always.
What different kinds of spiritual practices do I have? Are there things I do that I didn’t even realize were actually spiritual practices?
