Out With The New & In With The Old

Often times we have a tendency to go after the newest thing, craze, or fad.  We believe that because it is new or runs on electricity that it has to be better than what came before.  However, when we do this often times we find that we have just as many issues, if not more, with the new as we did with the old.  While new inventions at times solve old problems they also create new ones.  Sometimes, the old is flat out better than the new.  That's why we have the saying, "they don't make 'em like they used to."

This can be true in the spiritual life as well.  We are always going after something new that we forget about what the saints before us did.  Now, I'm not saying what was done by our spiritual forefathers and mothers was always entirely correct or that it is without the need of being tweaked a bit.  However, there is a lot that we can learn from our past so that we don't, in an agonizing fashion, reinvent the spiritual wheel.

One such lesson that I recently learned this in is that of prayer.  I was introduced the concept of Ignatius of Loyola's examen a little over a month ago.  This examen is a way to pray.  Now I'm not saying that this is the only way to pray nor am I hoping on the Ignatius and Jesuit bandwagon.  What I am saying is that this man was taught by God a way of communicating with Him that should be given a chance in our lives.  I'm saying that I don't believe that the believer shouldn't get stuck in a prayer rut.  That this is just one of many different ways to pray that we all should incorporate on a rotating basis so as to avoid dead tradition and keep a vibrant relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.

Ignatius believed that we should spend time reflecting on the past 24 hours in prayer.  We should do it as follows:

1.  Ask the Holy Spirit to guide us as we look back on the past day.  Ask Him to let us see these events not with our eyes but with His.

2.  Where did we most fail as a follower of Christ that day.

3.  When did we most look like a follower of Christ.

4.  Lastly, ask the Spirit to show you what you need to do the next day to improve and be more like Him to those you encounter.

By dealing with the troubles and problems in our life we are able to leave them behind.  We are able to forget them and move forward to focusing on Christ.  We are in turn able to better focus on how we can improve our relationship with Him.

Now there are other great ways to focus our attention in prayer like Lectio Divina, A.C.T.S., the Lord's Prayer, Meditation, and many more.  I think what needs to happen is that we experiment with different ways of speaking with Christ.  We then need to make sure our relationship / conversations don't get in a rut by changing up how we discuss the issues of life with Him.  Try it more than once.  Give it a chance.  I bet you will see a great difference in your prayer life and closeness of your relationship with Jesus!