Post Script | October 3, 2022

The both-and of principle and practice

When I traveled to Wichita last month, I delivered a plenary talk and two workshops. One of those workshops was called, “Getting Things Done: The Illusion of Time Management.”

One man shared a heart-wrenching story when he introduced himself. “I’m a pastor, and I feel like I’m failing in every area of my life,” he said. “When I’m at work, I feel guilty about the family responsibilities I’m neglecting. When I’m at home, I think constantly at work. I’ve gotten so far behind in ordinary life tasks that the bank called recently to tell me I was $2500 overdrawn on my account. I thought someone had stolen my identity. But then I realized I hadn’t deposited any of my paychecks from the last two months.”

As this man shared, participants nodded along. One woman even started crying. Everyone sympathized with his experience of modern time-misery.

I don’t think I exaggerate to put it this way, that we feel desperate to meet time’s impossible demands. We are running breathlessly through life, hoping for rest, for reprieve, for a free Saturday when no one needs to be driven to soccer and the laundry does itself. But as I shared with the participants of this workshop, we aren’t imagining life’s accelerating pace. According to German sociologist Harmut Rosa, in our technological age, we really are living faster.

The participants of this workshop didn’t simply want me to sketch the modern conditions that make for time-anxiety, even time-misery. They wanted answers. What was to be done about it?

I appreciated the question, even if I can also admit I have tended to hesitate in offering practical advice to people. I generally have confidence in people’s capacity to apply truth to their own unique lives. Further, I don’t trust a technique-based approach to solving life’s problems, which can undermine the search for wisdom and the practice of virtue.

But I’m starting to understand the need for a both/approach (hello: paradox!) as I continue speaking and writing on the subject of time. I can both sketch big ideas that inform a Christian perspective of time and I can distill practical ideas that help us to live in time well. The latter is never a substitute for the former, of course. You can have all the tips and tricks in the world to plan and schedule and execute and review, but those practices are secondary steps. These suggest important skills of executive functioning, but they are not actually time management skills. Because you can’t manage time, only receive it from God and live in it as faithfully as possible with his help.

I think what all of us really want, as we pursue time management tips and tricks, is the assurance that we are living our lives well, that we are fulfilling the purposes God has for our lives. And the good news is that we can be very intentional about this, following examples of Christians throughout the centuries who thought very deliberately about the practices of faithful obedience to Christ.

You know what I am about to suggest, right? Writing a rule of life. Thanks to many readers of Post Script who have already given me wonderful suggestions about how I might approach any rule of life content I might offer. You want it to be realistic, capable of addressing the many different lives we’re living—and the many different seasons we’re living within those wild and precious lives.

I’ve been working to finish my own rule of life and considering how to lead others through exercises to write their own rule. Saint Benedict, whose rule has been foundational for Christians throughout history, understood that everyone needs habits to help us cultivate the capacity to listen—and listen carefully—to God. (The Latin word for rule, or regula, suggests making “regular” our obedience to Christ.) Yet Benedict’s words strike at the near impossibility of this posture of holy attention in the 21st century. We are near-drunk on distraction, finding it difficult to attend anything longer than a Tik-Tok video.

In the riotous conditions of modern distraction, a rule of life acts like a rudder: it’s an exercise of setting holy intention, or direction, to our lives. And as Benedict writes, it’s certainly not an exercise of self-reliance. “Every time you begin a good work, you must pray to him most earnestly to bring it to perfection.” A rule is a both-and practice: both the practice of receiving the grace of God and consenting to its transforming work. A rule of life is a yes to Christ: a yes of repentance, faith, obedience, humility, worship in every area of our lives, even to the use of the tools in our kitchen and garage. As Benedict writes in his rule. “Whoever fails to keep the things belonging to the monastery clean or treats them carelessly should be reproved. If he does not amend, let him be subjected to the discipline of the rule.”

How’s that for comprehensive?

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Now for the big announcement I’m excited to tell you about.

As a bonus for pre-ordering a copy of my book, In Good Time: 8 Habits for Rethinking Productivity, Resisting Hurry, and Practicing Peace, I’m inviting you to join me in January for five Zoom sessions on writing your own rule of life.

As 21st century hurriers, we need a new set of questions: not, “How can I get more done?” but “How can I more live faithfully in response to God’s voice? We need new vocabulary: not, “productivity” but “fruitfulness.” And most importantly, we need new methods: not time-management hacks but practices of time-wisdom.

I’d like to suggest that writing a rule of life is just that kind of practice of time-wisdom. My own rule represents a work in progress over the last couple of years, and I will be sharing parts of it with you. Fortunately, a rule of life isn’t a “once-and-done” exercise, but a practice of naming our desires, confessing our distractions, articulating our intentions, and yes, even acknowledging the costs of choosing the one necessary thing Mary chose at the feet of Jesus in Luke 10:42: “One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

I hope you’ll join me in beginning a new year with holy attention and intention. You can pre-order here and register for your pre-order bonus here. (And by the way, you might also want to poke around my website, which my wonderful son, Nathan, just recently redesigned for me.)

Comments are OPEN today! Tell me what interests and intimidates you about this invitation. Tell me why the first (or last) thing you’d want to do is attempt to write a rule of life. Tell me what questions and curiosities I might still need to answer in order to entice you!

Sunday, January 8, 2023, 7pm EST

I. Introduction:

What is a rule of life?

Why do we need it?

Sunday, January 15, 2023, 7pm EST

II. Where are you?

Name your desires.
Examine your current time habits.

Sunday, January 22, 2023, 7pm EST

III. What are you seeking?

Name your vocation (roles and responsibilities).

Articulate time intentions.

Sunday, January 29, 2023, 7pm EST

IV. Do you want to be well?

Translation intention into specific (daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual) habits.

Acknowledge the costs of choosing.

Sunday, February 5, 2023, 7pm EST

V. Who condemns you?

Set up structures of accountability.

Plan to review and revise.

H/T to Lore Ferguson Wilbert and her book, A Curious Faith, which suggested these questions as subject titles for each session.