Making Time For An Appointment With God Workshop Focuses On Finding A Place For Spirituality In A Hectic Life

Weeks ago, Karen and Robert Edwards, pastors of neighboring Lutheran churches in Lincoln County, made plans to attend a Spokane workshop on time and spirituality.

It’s been an important topic for the busy couple - and their congregations.

But at the last minute, Robert Edwards couldn’t make it. A farmer friend needed him to help with the harvest.

Finding time for prayer, worship and spirituality is a pressing issue among people in the pews. From stressed-out single mothers to the overworked middle class, the faithful are looking for spiritual meaning in a life run by the clock.

As soon as Tuesday’s workshop at Gonzaga University was announced, the 70 available seats were filled. As the waiting list grew, dozens of disappointed callers hung up without leaving their names.

The ranks of frustrated worshippers are growing. They’re tired of going to church on weekends and not seeing immediate results.

“In terms of allocation of resources,” Microsoft founder Bill Gates told Time last year, “religion is not very efficient.”

Better time-management isn’t the answer, said the Rev. Dorothy Bass, a professor of religious history and editor of the book “Practicing Our Faith.”

“We live in an economy and a society that is demanding too much of people,” she said.

Fourth-graders in her hometown of Valparaiso, Ind., are required to take day-at-a-glance appointment books to class to learn how to manage their time.

“It’s an early warning to those children that they are growing up in a society where time will use them,” she said. “Our clocks are actually strapped to our (wrists), instead of tucked into our pockets, like they used to be.”

During the day-long workshop sponsored by Sisters of the Holy Names, participants shared stories of being squeezed by clocks and calendars. They talked about soccer schedules, academic years, fiscal calendars and the consumer culture.

When Marlee Naddy, 73, went blind 10 years ago, time took on a whole new meaning. Suddenly, she was forced to revert back to a more natural rhythm - her internal clock.

“It’s the same world,” she said. “I realized that time is very important, but not in the way I thought it was when I could see.”

Where many societies used to function around the church calendar, they now operate on schedules designed for economic productivity.

“It’s a question the church needs to struggle with: helping people create time and Sabbath in our own lives, then helping them reconnect with the church’s calendar,” said the Rev. Beth Jariette, pastor at St. Marks Lutheran Church in Spokane.

The answer lies in reframing the way we think about time, Bass said.

“It can be discouraging to know that time is out of whack, and that you don’t have the time to make up a new response,” she said.

The good news is you don’t have to, she said. Religious traditions and practices were designed to make time spiritual. The fact that the secular world no longer honors those traditions makes following them more of a choice than a cultural norm.

While the book she edits discusses 13 of those practices, Bass discussed only one Tuesday: keeping the Sabbath.

Bass defined the Sabbath as mindful rest with the purpose of honoring God. For Christians, it should happen every day, not just Sundays.

Bass recommended that everyone find creative ways to honor both a weekly and daily Sabbath. On top of going to church, she doesn’t spend money on Sundays. Others don’t drive cars, don’t work, don’t go to meetings - even church meetings.

Keeping a daily Sabbath involves understanding time as more than a ticking clock.

“Days keep us humble. They come one at a time and they require the vulnerability of sleep,” she said. “When we begin work, we are joining in a process that has already begun.”

By marking the passage of days with rituals such as morning and evening prayers, even when those rituals slip into routines, Bass said she gains an alertness to God.

The Rev. Susan Briehl, a retreat center director and author of a devotional book, encouraged people to follow the church calendar, celebrating the feasts and participating in the fasts.

By observing the weekly and seasonal rhythms of the church, Briehl said her family has come to know God more closely. But it’s important not to treat such observances as Advent, Lent and Pentecost as events to add to already busy schedules, she said.

“It’s about letting go of those other calendars,” she said. “So our lives are re-formed.”

In her closing comments, Bass pointed out that Americans in particular are adept at escaping one great truth in life.

“Our time is limited; we will die,” she said. “Many of the forces in our culture that misshape our time want to deny that reality.”