Religious Practice: What’s Important to Me?

I want to consider what aspects of religious practice are important to me as I start looking at new churches (the first visit is planned for this week and I’ll definitely post about it).

Let’s start with prayer. I pray almost every day, but just once a day. For those of you who consider meditation to be basically the same thing, I also practice mindfulness on a regular basis. I don’t pray in the traditional Muslim way because, for those of you who don’t know me in real life, I’m a large woman and I can’t get up and down off the floor with any degree of grace.

Prayer is a discipline for me, and it’s something I value. I also really enjoy communal prayer although I can get by with a moment of silence if it’s long enough to get some substantial private God talk in. Still, it’s a compromise. What I really want is for the person at the front of the room to lead us in worshiping our Creator.

So, while I’m opening myself up to new experiences and practices, I don’t plan to drop or reduce prayer as a part of my personal world. Churches that Marie and I visit that pray together? Total bonus points! That is the #1 thing I miss from a mosque.

I don’t eat pork due to the Koranic restriction. Obviously, I don’t obey every edict in the Koran. I pick and choose and this is one I’ve chosen because I believe it’s important to have a degree of religious discipline in my life and this one seems like obvious, low-hanging fruit. It matters to me that I do certain things for God. I would be willing to trade this aspect of religious discipline, this rule, for others that have a traditional foundation. But I don’t have anything in mind. I certainly hope I don’t get inspired to give up alcohol! I like my glass of wine after work.

I read religious books. Y’know, faith memoirs in different traditions, books about prayer or exploring what it takes to live a life of character, books that highlight portions of the Koran. I think about religion a lot and I like to know what other people are thinking and how they practice their faith. I don’t see myself giving that up but maybe if I settled in somewhere I would do less exploring. But maybe not. There are a lot of really awesome books out there about religion and religious practice.

I try to walk the walk of living a good life. I concentrate on a couple of things at a time. I pray about them and I work on them in my everyday life. Until now this has been a very personal practice but I can see my place of worship influencing what I choose to work on.

I fast to the best of my ability during Ramadan. It can be a fulfilling practice. I can’t say I enjoy it because it’s a little too difficult for that but it’s important to me to try. If I converted to a different faith, I would stop fasting during Ramadan. It’s uniquely Muslim and I’ve had enough of a mish-mash of things. I can see Lenten practice taking its place.

I know that Christianity has its own traditions and I am open to considering them. Without knowing much about them, I’m assuming they’re about how to treat other people, and service. Service is really important to me in particular. More bonus points for some meaningful ritual during the church services!

Part of my problem is a lack of understanding of my options, a lack of theological sophistication, a lack of imagination when it comes to God. I’m rules-oriented and that holds me back when I’m trying to put together a faith practice. I feel like to be legitimate, it has to come from the outside. So I’m looking for beliefs and practices that have roots in tradition, have stood the test of time, and yet ring true for me personally.

And I’m willing to do a little exploring and experimenting to see what works.