Chapter 3 of Henri Nouwen‘s book, Making All Things New, explains the steps to achieve a spiritual life. ‘’A spiritual life requires discipline because we need to learn to listen to God….When, however, we learn to listen, our lives become obedient lives. The word obedient comes from the Latin word audire, which means ''listening. ‘’ p. 67. Discipline is ‘’the concentrated effort to create some inner and outer space in our lives, where this obedience can be practiced.’’ p. 68. The worry in our lives makes it hard to hear God‘s voice be-cause we are inundated by inner and outer noise. The use of discipline opens us up to hear the small, gentle voice of God. The end result is that the Spirit of God has room to pray in us.

Discipline is realized in two ways: Solitude and community. Nouwen‘s words on solitude struck a chord with me. ''If you really believe not only that God exists but also that he is actively present in our lives – heal-ing, teaching and guiding -- we need to set aside a time and space to give him our undivided attention.'' p. 69. Solitude can be unsettling and intimidating because turning off the outer distractions allows your fears, anxieties and doubts to surface. Despite feeling like you are wasting your time when you start, you can even-tually shut out the inner distractions too. Nouwen gave a useful metaphor of a person who, after years of living with his house door open, decided to lock it. Visitors kept knocking seeking entry. They eventually realized that they were not welcome and stopped coming by. p. 73.

The important thing to remember is that regularity is better than longer, intermittent periods of solitude. Regularity helps incorporate solitude into our lives, to a place where we can discover God is with us always. Plan whatever amount of scheduled solitude (walking or other exercise counts) you can tolerate – 5 minutes a day or an afternoon a week. During your solitude or meditation, do not fight the inner distractions. Instead, focus on a biblical phrase, psalm or text meaningful to you. Use this phrase as an anchor to keep you from getting lost in the distractions. Nouwen goes on to suggest that you end the session with the Lord‘s Prayer.

Nouwen encourages us to persist in the practice of solitude even though it may be uncomfortable. If it is done with faith that ''God is with us even though we do not yet hear him, we slowly discover that we do not want to miss our alone time with God.'' p. 73. ''As we empty our selves of our many worries, we come to know not only with our minds but also with our heart that we are never really alone.'' p. 74.

Next time, I will explain the discipline of community and wrap up the book. Contact me at Dorisann@roadrunner.com, if you want to discuss these ideas.

Nouwen‘s book is available in the Church‘s library. Dorisann enjoys receiving any comments and may be reached at Dorisann@roadrunner.com.