The whole of life is for God

Whilst stuck in traffic the other day, instead of being frustrated, I found myself praying for others who might be frustrated. It was important to me that my rule has the ordinary in it and not just the ‘religious’. “I’m not religious” is a phrase we hear often today. Being “religious” is seen as odd but it seems OK to be spiritual. 




Tim Hughes’ song ‘God in my Living’ really expresses how I want to relate to God.
God in my living, there in my breathing
God in my waking, God in my sleeping
God in my resting, there in my working
God in my thinking, God in my speaking
Be my everything, be my everything
(Hughes 2005)
It seems to me that the current trend for mindfulness has a direct link back to Brother Lawrence’s Practising the presence of God and the Rule of Benedict.
Esther de Waal writes that the Rule of Benedict “simply consists in doing ordinary things of daily life carefully & lovingly, with the attention and reverence that can make them a way of prayers, a way to God.” Cited in (Paintner 2011:38). I want to learn to give everything I do to God. Joan Chittister says, “Life is not divided into parts holy and mundane in the rule of Benedict. All of life is sacred. All of life is holy. All of life is to be held in anointed hands.” (Paintner 2011:39)
This makes my spirituality what Sheldrake describes as the “active-practical type” (Sheldrake 2013:16).