Mindy Caliguire in her new book, “Spiritual Friendship,” (IV Press), says “a spiritual practice [discipline] can be thought of as anything I intentionally do to become and remain open to the ongoing work of God in my life.” What that means is that any time we do things to help us draw closer to Jesus and be better disciples of him, we are engaged with the spiritual disciplines. Many people have the mistaken idea that the spiritual disciplines are some big project one takes on that consumes a lot of time and energy, that if isn’t a hard, arduous task that you hate doing, then it isn’t a valid practice. While there are disciplines like that that one could choose in to, most of the time, the spiritual disciplines are small, intentional steps we take to try to create good/godly habits in our lives. While we bring very little to the table in the process of becoming more Christ-like, we do bring an openness to God’s work in our lives, as Mindy reminds us in her other book, “Discovering Soul Care” (also IV Press).

Today, choose to do one thing that will bring you joy and that will draw you closer to the heart of Jesus. Do that one thing just for today. Tomorrow, you can do the same thing or choose another small way to say yes to God and no to things that take you away from righteousness and good living.