Janita Krayniak

He is risen! Now what? In the lectionary church this is the time when we begin to explore the birth of the new church and how the acts of the apostles shaped early Christianity. It is a time for churches to experience the resurrected Christ in new and transformative ways! Paul challenges the church of Corinth in 2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV) with these words: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

The transformation by the spirit … or some might call it spiritual formation. What is spiritual formation? I believe that spiritual formation is a holistic journey toward the restoration of Imago Dei (which means the Image of God); and that this journey is nourished and sustained by what we know as spiritual disciplines. Now some of you are scratching your heads thinking, “What is a spiritual discipline?” And some of you are thinking, “Well I do a daily devotional, that is a spiritual discipline.” And you are not wrong, doing a daily devotional may indeed be a spiritual discipline, but according to Robert Mulholland in his book, “Shaped by the Word,” spiritual disciplines “are not something we choose for ourselves … genuine spiritual disciplines intrude into our lives at points where we are in bondage to something that diminishes the word God speaks us forth to be.” As I read this description, the phrase “Disciplines intrude into our lives” just stuck with me. I began to grapple with what an intrusion into my daily life might look like, and how would God shape that intrusion into a discipline for me? 

Just after I read through this book by Mulholland, I took a break to look at Amazon and some things I keep in my wishlist. As I was perusing the You Might Like section, I noticed a book suggestion I had never seen before, it was called “The Divine Hours” by Phyllis Tickle. I opened the Amazon book description and found that there is an ancient prayer practice of praying the hours. Some of you probably already knew about this, but I could not stop reading about it. To pray the divine hours, or daily office, requires from us a daily practice of a rhythm of prayer. Though I have long held an ongoing conversational prayer with God throughout the day, as I examined it closer, I realized that my prayers were always lifted when it was a convenient time for me. But what if God is asking me to be more intentional with my prayer time? What if God is asking me to set aside intentional blocks of time to be with God in prayer? And then what might that look like, if I set aside intentional times to pray to God during the day: Would those times be convenient for me? Or would they actually be an intrusion into my life? Will I commit to allowing God’s intrusion into my seemingly ordered way of living? 

Perhaps God is intruding into your life in a completely different way, leading you toward a completely different spiritual discipline? Regardless of whatever intrusion, whatever discipline, whatever practice God is nudging you toward … you can rest assured in knowing that God through the spirit, will work through it all to help us find a rhythm that will continue to mold us, to shape us, to transform us (and yes that includes me) into the Imago Dei, the very image of God, that each of us is intended to be. In this post resurrection season, join me in finding a rhythm. 

(Janita Krayniak is the pastor for Powell and Lovell United Methodist churches.)