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Sacred Chaos: Spiritual Disciplines for the Life You Have
Life is often chaotic. And no matter how hard you try to find space, to slow down, the chaos always seems to win. Tricia Rhodes's life is chaotic too. But in the midst of a time of household turmoil, Tricia learned to see God and communicate with him in whole new ways--not on a spiritual retreat, but right in the midst of the chaos of life. She offers us here a fresh view of connecting to God, one that focuses on quality time and frees us from the rigidity of a devotional life that may feel stifled, grow stagnant or bring about guilt when we can't keep up. These pages will help awaken you to the reality of God's presence in your life--just as it is--providing new ways to pray, to listen to God, to view others the way God sees them, to be guided by God. Ideas at the end of each chapter and suggestions for prayer experiments give practical suggestions for connecting with God and noticing his work throughout each day. God is not afraid of chaos. If a chaotic life has you running, let Tricia's words offered here help you run to God in the midst of it and discover the ways he can turn even chaos into something sacred.
183 pages, Paperback
First published May 16, 2008
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139 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 24, 2017
Though I didn't see this in my list of books, I'm fairly certain that I must have checked this out of the library previously and skim read it before as it was familiar to me in the reading. The author's decidedly more Evangelical in orientation than my own theology, but I still found much of use in the recommendations to embracing spiritual practices and prayer in the midst of the chaos of daily life rather than believing that one can or will always be setting aside some separate, sacrosanct quiet time for such. It is precisely the desire to meet the holy in the mundane, in the midst, to recognize the presence in all and always that I find of deepest value here. There are, also, some practical practices and a refreshing take on engaging with prayer prompts.
July 13, 2008
While I’m an enthusiastic fan of the spiritual formation movement, one of my hang-ups with it is the lack of space in my life to implement practices like silent retreats or prolonged times of contemplation and meditation. It’s not that I don’t long for such times. It’s just that, with two small children, a job, marriage, and household to manage, there is hardly enough concentrated space in my day to use the bathroom alone, let alone carve out extended quality time to spend with God. I might catch a half-hearted 15 to 20 minute quiet time once or twice a week, and then spend the other days feeling guilty that I didn’t stop to read my Bible or say a prayer longer than two or three sentences.
Such is the background on why a book entitled Sacred Chaos: Spiritual Disciplines for the Life You Have caught my eye. In the first few pages, Tricia Rhodes relieved a good portion of my guilt explaining the blur of her own life, and how she would wearily attempt to read her Bible and end up falling asleep. She tells how God orchestrated inevitable chaos in her daily routine in order to take her out of her comfort zone. “He was drawing me into new territory, expanding my borders by exposing my tendency to be far too focused on hours set aside for prayer as the barometer of my relationship with him,” she writes. “What I experienced in ways I’d never imagined was God entering the fray, injecting my busyness wit respites of peace in his presence, punctuating my chaos with the stunning sense that he was drawn near.”
The book offers many concrete and practical ways to integrate practices of the spiritual disciplines into daily life. Each chapter is short, and focuses on one specific way of connecting with God throughout the day. Each chapter also ends with a short practical activity. Throughout the book are ideas for specific ‘experiments’ in spiritual practices. As I read through the book, I kept a quick-reference notecard recording Rhodes’ suggestions for “making the chaos sacred”. Samples of these suggestions include:
• Using feelings as a springboard for prayer
• Praying about God’s presence in your daily schedule
• Praying for spiritual insight about others
• Practice lectio divina. Read. Meditate. Pray. Contemplate.
• Breath prayers
While I’ve read some books in the spiritual disciplines genre that either too ethereal or too common-sense-y (i.e. ‘I could have googled ‘spiritual formation’ and written the book myself’), Sacred Chaos is simple yet profound, practical yet deeply spiritual. Don’t let one more “Sacred ___” title scare you away. This one’s a keeper.
Such is the background on why a book entitled Sacred Chaos: Spiritual Disciplines for the Life You Have caught my eye. In the first few pages, Tricia Rhodes relieved a good portion of my guilt explaining the blur of her own life, and how she would wearily attempt to read her Bible and end up falling asleep. She tells how God orchestrated inevitable chaos in her daily routine in order to take her out of her comfort zone. “He was drawing me into new territory, expanding my borders by exposing my tendency to be far too focused on hours set aside for prayer as the barometer of my relationship with him,” she writes. “What I experienced in ways I’d never imagined was God entering the fray, injecting my busyness wit respites of peace in his presence, punctuating my chaos with the stunning sense that he was drawn near.”
The book offers many concrete and practical ways to integrate practices of the spiritual disciplines into daily life. Each chapter is short, and focuses on one specific way of connecting with God throughout the day. Each chapter also ends with a short practical activity. Throughout the book are ideas for specific ‘experiments’ in spiritual practices. As I read through the book, I kept a quick-reference notecard recording Rhodes’ suggestions for “making the chaos sacred”. Samples of these suggestions include:
• Using feelings as a springboard for prayer
• Praying about God’s presence in your daily schedule
• Praying for spiritual insight about others
• Practice lectio divina. Read. Meditate. Pray. Contemplate.
• Breath prayers
While I’ve read some books in the spiritual disciplines genre that either too ethereal or too common-sense-y (i.e. ‘I could have googled ‘spiritual formation’ and written the book myself’), Sacred Chaos is simple yet profound, practical yet deeply spiritual. Don’t let one more “Sacred ___” title scare you away. This one’s a keeper.
April 7, 2016
Very easy to read. I would say a very good started book about spiritual disciplines. The title is intriguing but she really does not address the issue of how to do handle life in chaos. She writes about different ways of practicing the disciplines and she had practical ideas that I really appreciated and want to make note of. The book reminded me of the one I read while in AU last March.
She contrasts her book with The Soul At Rest which is a book about contemplative prayer "for those wanting to meet with God far from the madding crowd."
(15) "What I hope you'll glean from Sacred Chaos is that there is another face, one that lifts our sights to his commitment to come alongside us, to accompany us on our spiritual journey, whatever it may look like on a given day."
April 2016:So thankful that my friend Ron G loved this book and has bought a bunch of them and handing them out!
She contrasts her book with The Soul At Rest which is a book about contemplative prayer "for those wanting to meet with God far from the madding crowd."
(15) "What I hope you'll glean from Sacred Chaos is that there is another face, one that lifts our sights to his commitment to come alongside us, to accompany us on our spiritual journey, whatever it may look like on a given day."
April 2016:So thankful that my friend Ron G loved this book and has bought a bunch of them and handing them out!
March 21, 2014
As a new mom, my life is more hectic and unpredictable than it has ever been. Of course, that has led to my feeling as though my spiritual life needed a boost and that I need to find realistic ways to engage with God on a more regular basis. This book has provided me with many new ways to implement and experience (as the subtitle says) "spiritual disciplines for the life [I] have." No doubt, I'd love to go on weekend-long retreats and completely immerse myself in prayer, Scripture reading, worship, meditation, etc. But for those of us who feel as though life's busyness is steamrolling our spiritual endeavors, this book not only offers many ways to pursue God amid the chaos, but also gives you hope that such a pursuit is possible.
September 14, 2014
I did this book with a group of girls and we were all a little bit distracted during this series, so we didn't get as much into it as we'd hoped. I think it was a partly due to being summertime and partly because it was very simple and review for most of us - though sometimes review is good!
As far as the layout goes, we spent one week to read and discuss the chapter and then the next week we put her practical ideas into practice (ideally, again, it was summertime and we just seemed to fail a lot).
My rating might be higher if it hit another point in life, but for our whole group we just failed to really connect with this text at this time.
As far as the layout goes, we spent one week to read and discuss the chapter and then the next week we put her practical ideas into practice (ideally, again, it was summertime and we just seemed to fail a lot).
My rating might be higher if it hit another point in life, but for our whole group we just failed to really connect with this text at this time.
March 28, 2015
A beautiful look at how to bring God out of the margins and into the midst of a chaotic life. What does loving God look like when you are a busy college student, a single mom, etc. It was amazingly impactful, and easy but inspiring read.
August 30, 2012
Interesting, practical, diverse ways to try to incorporate spiritual practices into everyday life.
July 28, 2011
Here's a book that is refreshing and contemplative. I took my time through this one and relished every moment of it. I keep it on my desk to go through the spiritual exercises again and again.
February 2, 2013
A favorite book. So practical and powerful.
July 10, 2016
I really like Tricia's writing. I can't wait for her latest book (just released 10 days ago) to arrive. So many great reminders in this book. Highly recommend.
December 14, 2023
A great read for those who would like to incorporate spiritual practices into their busy lives.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews