Spiritual Detox

a devotional for summer

Photo by Jeanyn Santiano on Unsplash

Before we begin our devotional, I wanted to share a Comment Highlight from last week:

Last Thursday I shared an old prayer used by Celtic people to bless the reaping and the harvest. On that post, Scoot commented:

I like this prayer because it causes me to stop and think what it is I am sowing, and what it is I am reaping. Even if not a literal harvest, am I sowing seeds of virtue? Am I reaping fruits of good work? An honest assessment would probably tell me that I am sowing and reaping less than I ought.

Wise words, Scoot, and essential questions for all of us to ponder! You can find Scoot’s writing on Substack here!

If you want a chance to be featured in next week’s Comment Highlight, all you have to do is post a comment on any of this week’s posts or threads. That’s it!

Now, on with this week’s devotional…

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sometimes
my coffee cup
is heavier than usual

with the weight
of the incantations
I've stirred into it;

ruminations of life
and God's names,
matters too big
not to consider,

and not so much where we go when we die
but where we go when we choose to live;

circular ripples
in a fragile vessel
easily broken
but surprisingly strong;

this morning cup
is often the most full,

as it is
as it is
so I am.

I love coffee, and (thankfully) it currently loves me. But it wasn’t always that way.

When I worked as an educator I had a very unhealthy relationship with coffee, especially when I worked in a classroom with a kitchen in the back. I would spend almost all day moving back and forth between my work and the coffee pot, refill after refill, from early in the morning to late in the afternoon. It became not so much a foodstuff as simply a habit, something to do. After a while I didn’t even enjoy drinking it, couldn’t even taste it really, but I kept at it anyway.

As these things go, my body started to let me know that this habit was causing me harm. My physical and emotional health started to send out alarm bells. Headaches, nausea, racing thoughts followed by real feelings of being “down”. No habit was worth the discomfort, so I forcibly cut down on my caffeine intake. Eventually I was able to even things out, after dealing with the unpleasant effects of caffeine withdrawal.

Now that I work from home, and coffee is available whenever I feel like making it, I find that I crave it less. Instead, I focus on savoring it. Treating each cup like a little ceremony, a little pocket of grace in a busy day. Something to pray over, take slowly. Inhale the scent, and exhale whatever is on my mind.

In truth, I only found a healthy relationship with coffee when I focused on the why. When it stopped being a habit and started being a ritual, something intentional.

It makes me wonder: how many other habits in my life am I clinging to, simply because I’ve always done them? How many tiny ceremonies are waiting to be woven into my day, if only I would notice them? And what do I need to let go of, to detoxify from my life, and find a new way forward?

Sometimes we need a spiritual detox, to go through the frustration and pain of realizing that some of our habits—even our spiritual ones—no longer serve us. To cut them out, or modify them, and try something new.

What tiny rituals are waiting for you, at the far side of a spiritual detox?

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