Practice.
The literal translation of the words “pray always” is “come to rest.” The Greek word for rest is hesychia, and hesychasm is the term which refers to the spirituality of the desert. A hesychast is a man or a woman who seeks solitude and silence as the ways to unceasing prayer. The prayer of the hesychasts is a prayer of rest. This rest, however, has little to do with the absence of conflict or pain. It is a rest in God in the midst of a very intense daily struggle.
~ Henri Nouwen
rooted, 8.
Today’s post is a timely excerpt from Jerome’s book Gravitas: The Monastic Rhythms of Healthy Leadership (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2020), 36-37.
My move to the mountains of North Carolina, from a place of long-cultivated relationships to a place of almost none, rocked me internally. The geography was familiar, having imprinted itself on my young soul during childhood vacations to my grandfather’s place, so I wasn’t entirely prepared for the internal vertigo of the move. And there is only one prescription for healing this malady: time. Time to put new roots down in a new sphere of community.
How we need a rock of internal stability from which to exercise our leadership. Gravitas is forged from such stability, creating men and women of substance. Are you that person? Am I? Jesus paints a compelling scene…
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matt 7:24-27)
Pressure. Stress. Uncertainty. Risk. There’re part of life and amplified for leaders. What about you—how do you carry it? Do you internalize it? Externalize it? Fake it? Ride it?
Jesus highlights the tipping point from sand to rock with a single word: practice. What we might call doing what you know to do. Not intelligence… although smart leaders are people of action. Not experience… although seasoned leaders are often marked by such integrity. Not charisma or timing or market savvy or any of a long list of other potential assets. Those who hold steady in the storm are those who have cultivated a life of practice, and for our purposes, I’ll zero in on spiritual practices.
We all live, every one of us, with some degree of gap between what we want to do and what we actually do. Those who become monks in the marketplace aren’t those who have eliminated the gap but those who pay attention to the gap. They have filtered out the noise of culture enough to “hear these words of mine” of Kingdom import, those who have created a personal rhythm that places spiritual practice at the very core of life—and at the center of leadership. These are not things we do when time and space make it convenient, nor things we do at break of day so we can get on with the real business of the day. These are practices that form a container to hold the day. That’s where we’re headed in the coming chapters. That’s what roots look like.
growing your soul
What does spiritual practice mean to you? What practices have proved most “rooting” for you?
serving our world
Which of your spiritual practices serve the larger sphere of your community?
takeaway
Put into Practice.