Welcome to the blog, friends from the 2011 Inner Journey spiritual disciplines retreat! What a great time. I loved spending a weekend in worship with you all.

Below is the resource list I mentioned at the retreat for practicing prayer and the daily offices.

Click on any title to view that book at Amazon.

The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn & Wintertime	The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime
The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime	The Divine Hours: Pocket Edition
Celtic Daily Prayer	Prayers Across the Centuries
Mosaic Bible Imi. Leather	Mosaic Bible Hardcover

I felt much the same way, but also I found the specific schedule she suggested fascinating… which I’ll explain after the video:

What strikes me about Gamble’s schedule is how similar it seems to the schedule of fixed-hour prayer, especially the practice of rising during “the watches of the night” in order to pray (if you’re not aware of this practice, I highly suggest reading up on the biblical basis and history of fixed-hour prayer; for starters, check out the Judaism & Early Church section of the Wikipedia Canonical Hours article).  Just look over the table below, which shows the Greek Orthodox hours, and compare the highlighted sections to what Gamble said in her talk:

When I first heard about the practice of waking up in the middle of the night to pray, I thought, How in the world did monks do that? I’d be completely exhausted. It sounds kind of weird/ascetic/unhealthy. And then I watched that video. What if this practice actually far better matches our natural sleep patterns than our modern schedules do?  I also found surprising the language Gamble employed when she describe the clarity people experienced upon waking.  During the day our minds are pulled so many directions that undistracted prayer is extraordinarily difficult.  What if this moment of clarity were experienced during prayer and silent listening?  Could we finally pay attention to the “still, small voice” of God’s Spirit?

This video became intensely personal for me at about two minutes, when Bell talks about inviting people into a life we are not living.  Every worship leader (really, anyone in “church work”, whether volunteer or paid) has felt this way during those weeks when everything is going wrong, every moment has been spoken for, and there is no end in sight.  We push through, only to arrive at our worship gathering anxious, exhausted, and uncentered.

The problem is that for many of us, these moments have become a way of life.  I know I’ve been there.

Most of us have heard talks or read articles about how to lead worship honestly from a place of surrendered brokenness, and we have heard something similar to the following: Moments of feeling completely overwhelmed are inevitable.  Fighting for joy and surrender in those times is critical, and crawling toward God in the midst of those things becomes itself an act of worship that will blossom into joy.  That’s all great stuff, and it’s true.  Those moments can center us and result in worship.

But the hard, unlovely fact of the matter is that for the most part, my times of exhaustion have not been God-ordained valleys I’ve had to struggle through; they have been self-inflicted deserts I’ve entered through overcommitment and spiritual malnourishment. Bell’s assessment is moving for me precisely because it has described me at different points in my life.  I’ve had to find ways of overcoming my own tendencies toward desert living.

One of the practices I have found is the “divine hours” or “daily offices,” which are essentially fixed-hour prayer and meditation.  I’ve only been struggling at it for a few months now, but already it has been one of the most difficult — and rewarding — disciplines I have practiced.  I suspect that this is because it provides opportunity for both spiritual centering and healthy daily rhythms if practiced consistently.  Also, the sort of prayers (often Psalms) used in these books are so different from my habitual prayers that they cause me to look at God, myself, and life in a different way.

If you’re interested, check out The Divine Hours trilogy by Phyllis Tickle and/or Celtic Daily Prayer by the Northumbria Community.  The first I picked up at my brother/friend Aaron’s house (I’d call him my brofriend, but that just sounds shady), and the other I stumbled across on Amazon.  I’ve found that the mixed use of both has been most beneficial for me.