September 7, 2021
Dear friends,
One of my favorite quotes from Richard Rohr is, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” He has written it several times in many of his books, and it took me probably until I sat down with him and him explaining it to me for me to really appreciate it and understand it. How you do anything is how you do everything. A quick google search will show you that Richard may be quoting it from someone else, and that this quote has been used and misused in all kinds of areas. There is the business area, where it uses this mantra to climb the corporate ladder. There is the athletic area where it shows you how to win the race. But in the religious area, the space where we become fully alive, how you do anything is how you do everything can show us a deeper path in life.
For example, if you are a highly organized person and that is what you value, then the lack of control that comes with following God is going to be a major obstacle. A highly organized, highly controlled person is going to have a prayer life that is more like a grocery list, and so my suggestion is to intentionally build silence and inactivity into your day. If you are a person who gets very excited about things, borderline obsessive, but only for a short while (I refer to this type of person as a bottle rocket, and I include myself here), then a good practice is to commit to something that is routine and ongoing, with no end date (my dogs help me out a lot here).
The key to all of this, to paraphrase William Shakespeare, is to know yourself, because how we do anything is how we do everything. So, whatever we are going through, we might know how to approach it. My suggestion is to start small. How do you pray? When do you pray? What resources and tools do you need to pray? Think of a time in your own life when you felt close to God, what were you doing? How you do that, is going to show you how to do everything else. If we want to be good and loving people in this world, reflecting the incredible love of God, are we good and loving to ourselves, to our neighbors, to creation, to God even in our prayers? How we do anything, is how we do everything.
Peace,
Jordan