This post from Velveteen Rabbi is wonderful – go read it!
In it she talks about the competing “voices” that we encounter as we go about practicing faith. In her example she relates this necessary tension to the “mundane” practice of morning prayer. One says but this and that need to be done, and of course if you don’t pray this morning because of these, God will understand.
“Well, of course God understands. But that’s not remotely the point, is it? Prayer primes the pump of gratitude, and awareness, and praise. Prayer keeps my spiritual muscles stretched and ready. And, like writing, prayer shouldn’t be a luxury to be engaged in when I happen to feel so moved; it’s a practice which sustains itself and sustains me. But I have to overcome inertia and do it.”
Prayer is just one form of practice – there are others, like kindness, charity, and openness to “the other”. Throughout our active lives of faith we are challenged, “accused” by that voice that says – no, not today, not now, its embarrassing, its boring, later, do you really think this matters. . .
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