Sacred Rhythms
Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation
by Ruth Haley Barton
Summary
When we find ourselves desiring more of God, we can establish practices in our life that keep us open and responsive to His presence. Silence and solitude provide the necessary conditions for rest: time away from noise and distraction, and elimination of our need to perform. Scripture reading, prayer, and meditation help us to know God better and to allow Him to search us and know us on a deeper level. And an effective way to incorporate these practices of spiritual growth into our life is to set a Rule of Life. This rule is be based around the question, “How do I want to live so I can be who I want to be?”
Author’s Website:
Sacred Rhythms - Ruth Haley Barton
If you like this content, check out the Live Well Discussion that also uses an excerpt from this book. The retreat materials use the imagery of trees to help focus on being rooted, built up, and strengthened by the love of God and the practice of setting boundaries in order to live a more well and centered life.
Favorite Quotes
“Your desire for more of God than you have right now, your longing for love, your need for deeper levels of spiritual transformation than you have experienced so far is the truest thing about you.”
“One of the most important lessons I have learned over the past few years is how important it is to have time and space for being with what’s real in my life—to celebrate the joys, grieve the losses, shed my tears, sit with the questions, feel my anger, attend to my loneliness…it means allowing God to be with me in that place and waiting for him to do what is needed.”
“Many of us try to shove spiritual transformation into the nooks and crannies of a life that is already unmanageable, rather than being willing to arrange our life for what our heart most wants. We think that somehow we will fall into transformation by accident.”
