Practices for the way of Jesus

Sabbath is a 24-hour period set apart each week to stop all work, rest deeply, enjoy life with God and others, and worship. In an era of chronic exhaustion and burnout, few practices are more countercultural — or more needed. It's not laziness; it's trust. A declaration that the world does not depend on our output.

Ways to try it

• Choose one day — the same one each week — and make a simple list of what you will not do
• Start smaller: even a Sabbath afternoon, and build from there
• Plan something that brings genuine delight — a walk, a meal with people you love
• Begin and end the day with a short prayer of thanksgiving

Jesus regularly withdrew from the crowd — even from his disciples — to be alone with the Father. Solitude is not a place but a practice: retreating from distraction to be fully present with God. Silence creates the interior space to hear his voice above all the others competing for our attention. Without it, spiritual life becomes noise without signal.

Ways to try it

• Start with 10 minutes each morning before reaching for your phone
• Sit quietly and simply be with God — no agenda, no list, no performance
• If your mind races, gently return to a single phrase: "You are here"
• Build toward a longer monthly hour of extended quiet

Prayer is the central habit of anyone following Jesus. It's not a spiritual performance — it's a conversation. There are four deepening levels: talking to God (using written prayers, psalms, liturgy), talking with God (your own words — your joy, pain, gratitude, need), listening to God (quiet attentiveness to his voice), and being with God (simply resting in his presence).

Ways to try it

• Try the Lord's Prayer slowly — one phrase at a time, as a framework not a formula
• Use the Psalms to give language to what you're feeling but can't say
• Set a fixed time each day — same time, same place builds the habit
• Try the Daily Examen each evening: where did I sense God? Where did I resist him?

The digital age teaches us to read quickly and move on. Scripture resists that pace. The Bible was written for slow, prayerful reading — the kind that lets God's thoughts settle into our minds completely. The goal isn't information; it's formation. Reading the Bible to meet Jesus, not merely to know about him.

Ways to try it

• Try Lectio Divina: read a short passage slowly four times, pausing to notice what stays with you
• Choose one Gospel and read it in full before jumping around
• Memorise one verse a week — store it in your body, not just your notes
• Read with a question: "What is God saying to me today through this?"

Fasting is the voluntary choice to go without — most often food — in order to create a deeper hunger for God. Jesus assumed his disciples would fast (Matthew 6:16), and the church has practised it across two thousand years. The point is not punishment but reordering: redirecting our appetites toward what genuinely satisfies. Each pang of hunger becomes a prompt to pray.

Ways to try it

• Begin by skipping one meal and using that time to pray instead
• Try a 24-hour fast once a month — from dinner to dinner
• Fast from something other than food: social media, news, TV — and fill that space with God
• Don't fast to earn anything; fast to open your hands

Jesus talked about money more than almost any other subject — because he knew how powerfully it shapes us. Generosity is not primarily a financial act; it is a spiritual one. Every time we give, we are announcing that we trust God more than our bank balance, loosening money's grip on our hearts and aligning ourselves with the economy of the kingdom.

Ways to try it

• Start with a tithe — 10% of income — as a baseline rhythm of trust
• Give to something you'll never personally benefit from
• Practice unexpected generosity: pay for a stranger, tip extravagantly, give quietly
• Review your spending monthly and ask: does this reflect what I actually value?

We don't grow alone. Jesus formed his disciples in a community of twelve. The early church gathered daily. Community is not a programme or a social perk — it is the environment in which the character of Jesus is formed in us. It's where we are loved past our best version of ourselves and confronted past our worst. You cannot fully become like Jesus in isolation.

Ways to try it

• Get into a small group — not just attend one, but actually show up and let people in
• Find two or three people to practise with: share your rule of life and check in monthly
• Prioritise the meal table — eat with people regularly and unhurriedly
• Learn to receive help, not just give it: community requires vulnerability both ways

Jesus came not to be served, but to serve — and he calls his disciples into the same posture. Service is not only volunteering at an event; it is a way of moving through life. It is the willingness to do the unseen, unglamorous, unnoticed thing. It means choosing others first — particularly the vulnerable and those who cannot repay you — not out of guilt, but out of a transformed heart.

Ways to try it

• Find one regular place to serve — in church, in your neighbourhood, in Washington
• Practice the hidden service: do something kind this week that no one will ever know about
• Notice who is on the margins around you — and move toward them
• Let your service be shaped by your gifts, not just available slots