Got keys?

Yesterday I attended my Christian Education class. This class helps prepare students for teaching at the college level. We will be studying things like syllabus planning, assessment / evaluation, understanding learning differences, and a few other things.

During the professor introductions, one professor made a comment about Spiritual Disciplines (reading your Bible daily, praying, listening to God, being in Christian fellowship / accountability, etc.). A student had told him that during his time at seminary he had "lost" his spiritual disciplines. I have felt this way often. There's always more work to be done than there is time to do it. Or there's enough time to do it, but not reach the level of excellence. Or two different professors assign a paper due on the same day. Spiritual disciplines often get pushed aside. My professor responded to the student by asking, "What do you do when you lose your car keys?"

The obvious answer is that we STOP EVERYTHING ELSE until the car keys are found. We need those car keys. Even if the grocery store is down the street, we would never walk to the store. We cannot go to work. We cannot run errands. We cannot go to the dentist without a set of car keys.

But we often do all of these things and leave our "spiritual keys" at home. The Bible is on a shelf collecting dust (or in the backseat of the car where it is not noticed until Sunday morning). Prayer only comes to mind when a crisis happens. We can handle the good times alone. We skip church because our favorite preacher is out of town this Sunday. But this is not how God intended us to function. Adam walked with God daily in the Garden of Eden. Daniel, even while exiled in Babylon (Iraq), would pray three times a day. Jesus would get up before dark and find a place to pray to the Father.

Where are your spiritual keys? How do we avoid losing our spiritual keys? There's no easy one-size-fits all answer. Here are a few suggestions. Put reminder post it notes around where you will see them. Come up with a set time when you can focus on God. Put it on your to-do list. Sign up for a daily Scripture reading or daily verse that gets emailed to you. Have a friend / family member hold you accountable. Spend your waiting in line time reading the Bible on your phone (there's an app for that!).

I'd love to hear your thoughts / responses / success stories about this post.

-JMG