Disciplines to celebrate and support

Disciplines to celebrate and support

Discipline is a concept that many in our culture shy away from, viewing the rigor that it implies as a negative thing to be avoided.

A study guide from the Denver Institute for Faith & Work explores the value of regular spiritual practice as a supporting framework for our lives, particularly in the workplace. Spiritual Disciplines For Your Work: A Reflection Guide, contains a set of 12 chapters with seasonally appropriate calls to contemplation, listening and responses.

The January chapter focuses on brokenness and renewal. It challenges readers to enter a space of reflective awareness, lamenting, hoping, welcoming and acting.

Becoming part of God’s call to participate in a ministry of reconciliation can only occur as we are aware of the brokenness within the world, the study suggests. It calls on readers to keep a running reflection on aspects of brokenness with their work, to respond in lament centred on how we feel rather than how we think, and to engage in hope as a practice of “active passivity.”

“Prayerful hope is a posture of rebellion against the status quo, holding ourselves and situations be

fore the possibility of God’s healing. It becomes an antidote to cynicism, jadedness, despondency, and other forms of withdrawal from our work.” Other chapters in the 67-page devotional guide explore the concepts of simplicity, silence and solitude, listening, fixed-hour prayer, sabbath, self examination and confession, liturgical prayer, and celebration and gratitude, among others. Each section

ends with suggestions for action.

Seasoned with scripture passages and sayings from church leaders and authors, the booklet aims to promote “formative liturgies” in a culture that can too often promote workplace practices that are less helpful or “de-formative liturgies,” according to Brian Gray, the Denver Institute’s chief operating officer.

Intended as a support tool for daily life at work, the guide can be started at any point of the year. “As you see yourself respond emotionally to a boss, or feel the pang of disappointment at a lost opportunity, or wonder about your future career path, use these to quiet your heart and turn your focus to Christ,” Denver Institute founder and CEO Jeff Haanen writes in the introduction to the guide. “He alone can provide what we’re looking for.”

The epilogue, the Rule of Life, suggests daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual practices to help readers sustain practices of intentional spirituality. ◆

Spiritual Disciplines for Your Work: A Reflection Guide, is available for a $10 (USD) donation per book by scrolling to the bottom of the following webpage: https://denverinstitute. org/spiritual-disciplines-for-your-work/