My hope for 2001 is that my devotional life will finally become an established part of my daily routine. I've had periods of devotional fervor before, and it is wonderful to feel my love for Christ welling up inside me and spilling over into everything I do. Naturally, I'd like for this to become a more permanent fixture of the way I live: it just feels too good to be only a part-time activity.

But I'm not content with the idea that we set aside a period of time during the day to read the scriptures, meditate, and pray. This isn't enough! I want to extend my devotionals until they are 24/7: until every activity of my day is incorporated into my life of devotion and worship. I fully support daily Bible study and prayer--I need to make this a more regular item in my schedule as well--but as I have read through the great devotional writers of the church, I have realized how much more I can give to God, who has promised me everything, including Himself, as my inheritance in Christ.

My heroes used to be the great theologians of the church: Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Schaeffer, et al. But now they are the men and women, often of humble circumstance, who have learned to live their entire lives in communion with God, beloved saints like Enoch, Catherine of Genoa, Brother Lawrence, and Frank Laubach. These faithful men and women have shown me that it is possible to take God's presence into every activity of my day, and that every thing I do can become a way to worship the risen Savior. This is my hope for the next year.

This column, then, will be a way of sharing with those of you who are already on this devotional walk. I intend to propose a devotional activity for each week, based on things I have tried in the past or will come upon in the future. I would love to have feedback on these activities: Do you find them helpful? How are you adapting them to fit in to your own circumstances? (The wonderful thing about God is that we can be as creative as we need to be in finding ways to worship Christ!)

I'll start the first week of 2001 with a simple thought-exercise based on something I learned yesterday. God often uses my romantic trials to teach me about the nature of God's love for me. This time, God reminded me how much longing He has for me: how much He yearns for my presence, my attention, and my heart. Throughout Christian history, men and women have used the imagery of romantic love to express their relationship with God: Jesus is, truly, the Lover of our souls; let us to His bosom fly!

What I propose for this week, then, is that we try to be as excited about spending time with Jesus as we would be about spending time with our spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend. Jean-Nicolas Grou points out that when we are with someone who is very important to us, we have no problem paying attention to them, listening intently and doing whatever we area asked to do. How easily we arrange our schedules around a phone call from our beloved! How little sacrifice it seems to us to talk on the phone for two hours with the person we're madly in love with!

I want to have this same attitude about Christ Jesus. After all, is He not madly in love with me? How is it that Jesus is less important to me than my date? How can the creator of the universe, who gave His life for me, be less worthy of my passionate devotion than another human being? How could I be so ungrateful, take Him so easily for granted? No more. I want to foster the attitude of real love for Christ -- of a burning desire to be with Him, of overwhelming joy when I am alone with Him. If I may speak a little casually, I want to be the best boyfriend Christ has ever had!

Care to join me?
--sp