This Epiphany we are going through Stephen Macchia’s book, Crafting a Rule of Life as part of our focusing this year which is “Ordering the Household of God.” We are following last years’s theme of “The Parish on Pilgrimage.” In the first chapter we are given the guiding principle:
Your personal rule of life is discerned and framed within the context of your primary relationships and your spiritual community and lived out in service to others.
This week we listed out our roles and relationships and ranked them in importance and evaluated how we are doing. in each and where God might be asking us to makes changes. As I looked at my own life I see myself with a pretty good ordering of priority but I still find myself coming up short in areas.
We also reflected on the story of King David and Basheba and David’s confession in Psalm 51. Sin pervades all of our relationships. Even if we could get the balance of life correct, sin gets involved in our desires and expectations. Where do we see God’s grace not just forgiving us our sins but also transforming us in these relationships? Where does the community of Christ fit into the discussion? How can evaluating our relationships help us in asking God to increase his grace so that we can grow in virtue? These are deeply personal questions. I know I had to wrestle with some of them for a bit. If you have been part of our class, hopefully you were able to discuss these with someone you trust. Let’s reflect and let God shape us so we might have a “quiet mind” and be content and not harried (at least all the time.).
This coming Sunday we will look at the gifts God has given us in Chapter 2.