As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 

~Colossians 2:6-7

Where Grace Takes Root

I'm going to break one of the unwritten rules of writing these kinds of reflections: you're not supposed to write about the process of writing them. But that's where this story begins.

I sat down at my desk this morning, coffee in hand, to write about individual piety and how being rooted in spiritual practices can sustain us through difficult times. I started the way I often do – reading what others have to say.

The United Methodist Church lists acts of individual piety as reading and studying scripture, prayer, fasting, worship, healthy living, and sharing our faith with others. Thomas Merton beautifully described our spiritual journey as one of “growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts.” Diana Butler Bass shares how spiritual practices “shape us to be better, wiser, more gracious people now, even as these very practices anticipate in our lives and communities the reality of God's kingdom that has entered into the world and will one day be experienced in its fullness.”

It was all good stuff. I kept reading, taking notes, following one inspiring thought to another. And through it all, my phone kept buzzing. Another political text message. A notification with a troubling headline. Messages from people I love, carrying questions or struggles that I didn't quite know how to respond to. I kept falling into a rhythm: reading a few paragraphs, checking another notification, wondering what to say, and returning to my notes. Somewhere along the way, my coffee got cold.

I put on my tennis shoes and went for a walk. No phone, no news podcast in my ears, no agenda or step-counting watch. Just some time to move my body, to feel the rhythm of my feet on the ground, and to be in the presence of God.

When I got home, I copied down a psalm and a chapter of scripture – not for a lesson or anything I needed to produce, just to spend time in the Word, writing slowly and letting the words settle in.

John Wesley called practices like prayer, searching the scriptures, and fasting means of grace. These aren't things we do to earn God's approval or pass a faithfulness test. They're ways we open ourselves to the grace already at work in our lives, giving God room to nourish us, challenge us, and continue forming us.

So much is happening in our lives and in the world around us. Things demand our attention, break our hearts, and leave us wishing we could change them but not knowing how. Spiritual practices don't give easy answers to any of it.

When I got back to my desk, the messages, the unfinished work, and the concerns I was carrying were all still waiting. I hadn't figured out what to do or say about any of it. But I'd spent some time with God, and something had shifted, even if only a little. I think that's part of what it means to be rooted – making room, again and again, for God's grace to do its quiet work in us.