This morning I listened to a Henri Nouwen Now & Then Podcast, with Karen Pascal interviewing Marjorie Thompson, author of the Christian classic, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life. The topic? Caregiving. Something we’re intimately acquainted with, right?
Marjorie talked about her journey of caring for both her mother and mother-in-law, in her home, for years before their deaths. Something she said hit me like a thunderbolt.
Karen asked Marjorie how caregiving impacted her spiritual journey, and what spiritual practices she found most helpful. With a laugh, Marjorie responded that caring for her mother and mother-in-law was her spiritual practice.
The pieces fell into place. Marjorie had just articulated what I knew in my heart. For 25 years my son, Joel, who has autism, was my spiritual practice.
Like Marjorie, I teach and write about spiritual practice.
Spiritual disciplines, such as centering prayer, journaling, lectio divina, gratitude, simplicity and solitude, are tools we use to practice the presence of God and open ourselves to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. We set time aside for these disciplines, practicing them daily, just as we would practice the piano or learn a new language. We practice for 30, 60, or 90 minutes, and then we get up from our chair and enter into daily life again. Our hope is that practicing these disciplines will make us more aware of God throughout the rest of our day. We pray they will open us to the Spirit’s work to be transformed more and more into the image of Jesus.
I love this quote from Ruth Haley Barton, author of Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation:
While we cannot transform ourselves into the image of Christ, we can create the conditions in which spiritual transformation can take place. This is where spiritual practices come in. Spiritual practices are not ways to make brownie points with God or to prove our spiritual superiority to others. They are not a self-help program by which we take control of our journey and change ourselves. Rather, spiritual disciplines are concrete activities that we engage in in order to make ourselves available for the work that only God can do (Transforming Center: What We Believe About Spiritual Transformation).
Caregiving is a spiritual practice. Raising a child with significant disabilities is a spiritual practice. This isn’t time set aside for transformative practice. This is total immersion, sort of like moving to France before you know French, and learning to speak to the locals through living with them.
Source: Special Needs Parenting- Key Ministry
