During the season of Lent a few years ago, I decided that I would commit to a morning habit of not turning my phone on until after I have had my personal prayer time with Jesus. Part of my rule of life is to find a practical way to connect with Jesus first in the beginning of my day. I found this to be more challenging than I anticipated! Bombarded with constant texts, emails, messages, Instagram, and Facebook notifications, my phone controlled me more than I liked to admit. Plagued with a compulsion to scroll, I had become a slave to technology. Choosing not to reach for my phone to check messages first thing in the morning for forty days turned out to be an interior battle. I knew I couldn’t do this on my own, so I needed to ask for God’s grace everyday and I had to come up with a practical game plan. Each night, I put my phone on “airplane mode” and set my alarm for the time I would get up to pray in the morning. When I would wake up, I would deny myself the urge to turn airplane mode off to see who had messaged me. In order to stay focused, I had a routine: I would set a timer for how long I was going to pray, read the gospel readings of the day, read my devotional book (Jesus Calling by Sarah Young), and pull out my journal. I would reflect on what spoke to me from the readings, and re-read any parts that would resonate with me (Lectio Divina). Through my imagination, I would place myself in the gospel scene with Jesus (Ignatian Spirituality). I would then listen to hear what He had to say, and journal any insights down. After my timer had gone off, I would end with an Our Father.
For me, I have come to understand a rule of life as a set of practices that I intentionally create or implement in order to preserve something precious. For example, I make it a practice to go to confession at least once a month, in order to cleanse my soul from my sins and failings. During this particular season of Lent in my life, I needed to take action against the vices of being distracted by my phone and neglecting my personal prayer time. I knew that if I made time for Jesus first, the fruits of the spirit - peace, love, hope, and joy - would be a natural result of this commitment.The blessings that came from consistently living out denying myself my phone first thing in the morning during Lent were absolutely astounding. My prayer life was able to flourish because of it. By creating a sacred space for daily prayer and pushing back the onslaught of tasks and endless to-do lists even for just a while, I experienced an unexpected calm, productivity, and avalanche of grace being poured into my life. I noticed a “flow” to my day that I could not have planned or organized myself. Somehow, my work meetings were more productive in a shorter amount of time. Things fell into place in my schedule with a coordination that only the hand of God could have orchestrated. This surprised me, as I had foolishly thought that somehow delaying turning on my phone to pray would make me “fall behind” in starting my day. How delightfully wrong I was!
If I am to be honest, there are days when I don’t feel like praying. When I’ve had a bad night's sleep, the temptation to sleep in and forego my prayer time is very real. When I slide into a rut of not praying in the morning, or through weakness, cave in and check my phone first, I feel the effects the rest of the day. I feel more anxious. I feel off-center. I make decisions more out of anxiety rather than from a place of calm. I often feel guilty when this happens. However, God always steps in to remind me that He is merciful and that I can try again! He is not limited to a length of prayer time or to a specific time slot during the day. The goal is to pray unceasingly. When I fall off track from my morning routine, I carve out time over my lunch hour, or take time in the evening after work to have quiet time with Him.
When temptation and fatigue hit, it is only natural to ask ourselves, is a “rule of life” good for me? Well, I think we find the answer when we ask: does this type of discipline imitate the life of Jesus? Does it make me holier? When I evaluated my decision to not turn my phone on in the morning until I connected with Christ, I realized that in a little way, I was imitating Jesus by spending one-to-one time with the Father before attending to the “crowds.” In our modern day culture, our minds can become crowded with so many things other than prayer. For me, the results of this daily prayer habit were so fruitful that I had to continue it beyond the season of Lent. This small but challenging practice taught me that when I put the Lord first in my life, He ordered my day better than I could have possibly planned for myself. I discovered that He truly did honour the time that I gave Him each day, and showered me with more blessings than I could have imagined.
Over the years, I have imperfectly held to my daily rhythm of making time for Jesus first. However, I have noticed that during different seasons, the Lord has inspired me to try something fresh to keep things vibrant in my relationship with Him. I have noticed that incorporating a praise and worship song at the beginning of prayer to enter into worship has been incredibly lifegiving. I’ve also found that during the summer months, I like to meet Jesus outside in a quiet place in nature for our one-to-one time.
If you are considering taking on a rule of life this Lent, I encourage you to ask the Lord what He desires for you. If my experience can inspire you, I pray that the Lord will work wonders in your life as He has in mine!