From Volume 9, Number 1, Summer 2002

Praying the Way

I worked out my personal way of life nearly a decade ago. It seemed pretty reasonable at the time and for quite a while it was an important challenge in my day-to-day existence. However, in recent years it became fairly stale and routine. Since I was still following the way in substance there was no pressing problem in this, only a nagging sense of dis-ease. It was during my prayer time one morning that I sensed a call to begin a new discipline. Starting the next day I wrote the ten elements into my prayer journal and began to pray over each of the ten elements every day.

 As I prayed, I found my attention being drawn again and again to the second element, “Anamchara.” I had to reread the element, and found that nothing in particular leapt out. However, after persevering I found that the reference to pilgrimage began to stand out.

 I discussed this experience with my soul friend and together we determined that the Spirit was not asking me to consider the physical pilgrimage, but the pilgrimage of launching my coracle into the unknown, allowing the wind of the Spirit to blow me where he would. Hitherto I had not been considering any new venture and wondered what this might mean. So far the only answer to this prayer has been “It’s in My hands, be prepared.” It is not the most comforting message I’ve ever had from God, but there is no doubt that the sameness of my personal way of life is being shattered.

 This, however, is not the end of the project. Since that time, in praying about Study (Element One) God has drawn me back to a book, The Celtic Way of Evangelism, by Dr. George Hunter (and I promise I’ll start it as soon as this issue of The Wild Goose has gone to press!). In praying into the 3rd element, “A Daily Rhythm of Prayer, Work and Rest,” God has been after me to stop giving up so easily when my first attempts to find balance fail.

 This new adventure in praying the Way of Life has shown me how “stuck” I’ve become. There is a temptation, upon discovery of a new approach to spiritual discipline, to rush out and preach this as the cure of all ills. It is certainly not that. Nonetheless, I do commend it as a possible way out of stuckness. In the end, the Aidan Way is not about Celtic romanticism or our personal passion for any one element (i.e., creation, wholeness, openness). It is about yielding ourselves to God for our continuing transformation into the likeness of Christ. After months of stagnation, I feel like I’m on the road again. “Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” (I John 3:2)