Photo illustration by Jessamyn Rubio

Wallis’s complaint about the rapid-fire pace of his life is common for many Americans.

“If we are not deliberate about ordering how we live, in time we are just going to be washed away,” said Dorothy Bass, who studies Christian spiritual practices as head of the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith at Valparaiso University.

“There is a 24-7, 365 culture out there, and it is becoming even spiritually difficult to just sit still. But there are ways of shaping our lifetimes that acknowledge that we do not have all the time in the world, and that time can be used and opened in ways that we can be more present to God and to one another,” she said.

Bass and colleague Craig Dykstra explained their ideas about Christian spiritual practices in their 1997 book, “Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People.”

Bass takes a broad view of what makes a Christian spiritual practice and emphasizes that almost anything we do in the course of a day can become one if approached with intention and openness to the spirit. In this way, the preparation of family meal, the welcoming of a guest, the keeping of the Sabbath can all become Christian spiritual practices. Even the taking of bath can become a Christian practice if one approaches it with the idea that caring for the body is caring for God’s creation.

Humility and authenticity

Richard Land knows the value of staking out a time for his spiritual practice. As president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, he is constantly on the road, bouncing between his offices in Nashville and Washington, D.C., as he represents the SBC’s social and moral concerns to lawmakers.

To Land, maintaining a sense of awe is critical for leaders because without it they risk becoming too complacent in their relationship with God and, ultimately, in their work.

“I think it is essential to maintaining authenticity,” Land said. “I believe that it is critical that we understand that we are dealing with an infinite, holy word from a sacred source…. We must always understand that we are never going to be fully able to grasp or scale the heights of God’s revelations to us. But we will understand more in humility than without it.”

Humility is critical for spiritual practices, even more so for those who lead others. Without it, there is a risk of becoming too sure, too certain that the fruits of the practices -- clearer communication with God -- make one right and unchallengeable.

“The silence is deafening when you go too far, when the racket in your head sounds remarkably like you,” Tickle said. “If you think you are getting to be a real spiritual warrior you better watch out because you are all of a sudden going to be standing there alone because the Spirit is going to have left you.”