You could reasonably call me a productivity nerd though that would probably be a bit of an understatement - I’m more of a productivity obsessive.

Growing up, one of my favourite things to do was write elaborate schedules for my days and weeks. It was rare I actually followed through on my complicated plans. 

When the pandemic hit, I transitioned from a job that had been extremely in-person (working as a parish youth minister) to extremely online. It was a whiplash shift that I was totally unprepared for and amidst it all, I found myself going from managing tasks to inventing work for myself to avoid complete and total boredom.

My productivity brain went into hyperdrive.

Ironically, one of the periods of time in my life where I had less to do quickly became one of the most stressful. Instead of learning to be still, I was putting my pressure on myself to live up to a relentless vision of productivity.

Unfortunately, I was also learning that lesson in the spiritual life. In that season, my prayer life had gone stagnant. I spent the next two years trying to revitalize it through various intense regimens of discipline and a Jesus-ey kind of productivity - from joining small groups, to doing street ministry, to reading the Bible in a year. All of these were good, but ultimately left me just as burnt out in my life with God as I was in my work.

That’s when I stumbled onto the concept of a Rule of Life. A Rule of Life is simple - it’s a structure used by Christians throughout history made up of spiritual practices, advice for growing in discipleship, and guidance for life in community.

At first glance, a Rule of Life sounds like just another one of those regimens for spiritual productivity and, implemented poorly, it can become that. 

Rule comes from the Latin word “regula,” which many scholars believe referred to a trellis in a vineyard. The role of a trellis is to lift the grapes off the ground, expose them to the light of the sun and protect them from predators. Importantly, the grapes bear no responsibility for keeping up the trellis - it’s squarely the other way around.

Saint Benedict, the writer of the most famous Rule of Life in the Christian tradition, begins by saying that he does not want the practices he recommends to become burdensome but to be usable by any of its followers to become more like Christ.

So instead of yet another productivity hack for life with God, I decided to do the opposite of what I’d done in the past and slow my life down around the presence of God and community, just as a Rule of Life recommends.

For me, the first discipline I needed to implement was the practice of a weekly Sabbath. I was living at a pace so fast that I couldn’t even start to examine other disciplines. I needed to practice something that would reintroduce margin into my spiritual life and from that place, consider other habits.

After a few months, my wife and I, alongside our community, had established a solid habit of Sabbath keeping and were excited to take up another practice. We used a pre-created Rule of Life from a ministry called Practicing the Way to guide the order in which we introduced other disciplines - working one by one through habits of prayer, fasting, solitude, community, and more. 

It was important for me to not just build a Rule of Life based on what I was interested in - having a framework meant that I could trust on the guidance of other wise people and let the structures they had created lead me to their intended formative effect. 

These disciplines weren’t just internal - the Rule of Life we follow emphasizes the importance of spiritual formation for ourselves but also for the sake of others.I was able to lead from a deep spiritual well and experience ministry as restorative and life giving, rather than exhausting.

Over time, these practices began to transform me and my family. Instead of showing up to my prayer trying to manufacture some kind of transformative experience, I started to abide with Christ, letting His quiet and humble presence do its transforming work on me. In turn, it was easier to carry that peace into my day, extending the grace and patience Christ gives me to my wife and daughter.

Sundays, rather than being a day I avoided doing unnecessary work (and always finding some reason for the work I was doing to be considered “necessary"), became the highlight of my week. It was a day I cleared the calendar to worship with my Parish, cook a delicious meal, go to the beach, and relax with close friends and family.

Community nights became evenings where I could share openly and vulnerably about my walk with God instead of events where I needed to prepare in-depth teaching and catechesis.

All of the spiritual disciplines, under the gentle and stable frame of a Rule of Life became restorative, transformative, and abundant, rather than exhausting. Since implementing it, I have continued to revisit its specifics alongside my community and my spiritual director, receiving from them a gentle permission to relax disciplines according to the seasons of my life and at the same time, loving admonitions to try harder when it’s important.

Living this Rule in the context of community has transformed me from the inside out. I can let God carry the bulk of the effort in my formation and trust His goodness to carry me through when I don’t have the strength. In Jesus’ beautiful words “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30). 

In the last few years, as I’ve lived out a Rule of Life, I have discovered Jesus’ easy yoke and I don’t ever want to follow Him any other way.