Prayer on the go: A busy pastors spirituality

My brother-in-law almost never goes to church, yet he’s much more disciplined in his spirituality than I am. An addict nearly ten years into recovery, he begins every day with at least a half hour of reading and prayer. His copy of AA’s The Big Book is crammed with margin notes written over the last decade. The first time I saw the book, it reminded me of my late grandfather’s onionskin KJV New Testament, with a thousand little thoughts that he had lovingly penned into the margins.

If my brother-in-law and I are together, he invites me to read and pray with him in the morning. The readings from The Big Book and a smaller Nar-Anon volume are down-to-earth, almost gritty in their spiritual honesty. My brother-in-law’s prayers are honest and true—no whisper of pretense. He never misses a morning. The practice has changed his life.

I can hardly excuse my own spiritual ill discipline by telling myself that my minister life is more demanding than his lawyer life. It’s not. I’ve occasionally tried to rise extra early in the morning and begin every day with 30 minutes of Bible study and prayer. But my resolve is soon sunk by late nights, early meetings, plain laziness, or all three. I have finally decided that although I have the highest regard for Benedictine monks who tithe the hours, I cannot do what they do. I’m not wired for a spiritual life shaped by a segmented time of day set aside for scripture and prayer.