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The Spacious Path: Practicing the Restful Way of Jesus in a Fragmented World
A simple invitation into a life ordered around listening and love
As we live through cycles of change and disruption, our familiar pathways crumble and we find ourselves in fragmented relationships with God, others, and our own souls. We are not the first to experience this disorientation: When Jesus offered the stunning invitation to come to him to learn how to work from a place of rest, he was talking to people weighed down by ill-fitting political, economic, and religious systems. And his life and ministry offer a glimpse of a better way.
For centuries a practice called the Rule of Life—built around rhythms of prayer, work, study, hospitality, and rest—has provided a loving pathway for anyone who desires to live out the whole gospel. More than a historic primer on an ancient practice, an aspirational overview of spiritual life, or a personal inventory focused on habits, The Spacious Path offers companionship through personal narrative, meaningful reflection, and guided prayer for readers to return to as often as needed.
Rediscover an ancient Christian practice to reorient your life around the unforced rhythms of Jesus, not by adding another ill-fitting system but by walking freely and lightly on the pathways of listening and love in the way of Jesus.
As we live through cycles of change and disruption, our familiar pathways crumble and we find ourselves in fragmented relationships with God, others, and our own souls. We are not the first to experience this disorientation: When Jesus offered the stunning invitation to come to him to learn how to work from a place of rest, he was talking to people weighed down by ill-fitting political, economic, and religious systems. And his life and ministry offer a glimpse of a better way.
For centuries a practice called the Rule of Life—built around rhythms of prayer, work, study, hospitality, and rest—has provided a loving pathway for anyone who desires to live out the whole gospel. More than a historic primer on an ancient practice, an aspirational overview of spiritual life, or a personal inventory focused on habits, The Spacious Path offers companionship through personal narrative, meaningful reflection, and guided prayer for readers to return to as often as needed.
Rediscover an ancient Christian practice to reorient your life around the unforced rhythms of Jesus, not by adding another ill-fitting system but by walking freely and lightly on the pathways of listening and love in the way of Jesus.
- GenresChristian
272 pages, Hardcover
Published June 20, 2023
8 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
Tamara Hill Murphy
1 book30 followersTamara Hill Murphy is a spiritual director who has written for publication since 2011 and for a personal website since 2006. Her writing has appeared in Plough, Think Christian, and the Englewood Review of Books. She has worked in ministry roles for twenty-five years and parented four children for over thirty years. She is a Supervising Faculty of Selah-Anglican, a Certificate Program in Spiritual Direction with Leadership Transformations, Inc., and a lay leader within the Anglican Church of North America.
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June 27, 2023
These days I’m slowly making my way through a prerelease copy of Tamara Hill Murphy’s The Spacious Path: Practicing the Restful Way of Jesus in a Fragmented World (Herald), which hits bookshelves later this month. It’s a gentle, approachable invitation to adopt a Rule of Life, a spiritual practice going back to the days of Saint Benedict and the monastic communities he founded.
For some of us, quite understandably, the word “rule” has a tendency to set off alarm bells—especially when applied to the spiritual life. Maybe it gives off a whiff of legalism. Or maybe we’ve been in churches where leaders (whether they mean to or not) weigh us down with burdens too heavy to bear.
Fortunately, this book is neither legalistic nor burdensome. The spiritual practices Murphy invites us to cultivate are, in fact, gifts that can free us from much of what entangles, like anxiety, dis-integration, and godless perfectionism. A Rule of Life is a paradox, much like the “easy” and “light” yoke of Jesus. And it’s a gift not just for ourselves, but for those around us. It is, as Benedict himself put it, a “little discipline to safeguard love.”
The Spacious Path is an invitation to a contemplative way of being in the world, both individually and in community. It’s one thing for a monk to live a contemplative life; it feels like something else entirely for you and me. But we can take steps to cultivate receptivity to what God has to say to us. Even small steps will do.
Murphy writes movingly of a practice her husband, an Anglican priest, has brought with him from one church to another. Because none of us are very good at being silent, we need opportunities to practice. So each week at Church of the Apostles in Bridgeport, Connecticut, usually after the sermon, Fr. Brian gives his parishioners just that.
The idea, Murphy tells us, comes not from Saint Benedict or some seminary class, but from Mr. Rogers. During his short acceptance speech for a Lifetime Achievement Emmy award, Mr. Rogers acknowledged he achieved nothing alone, saying, “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being.” Then he did something crazy. He looked out at the room of entertainers and said, “Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are—those who have cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life?”
“Ten seconds of silence,” he said. “I’ll watch the time.”
It’s a profound moment. We hear nervous laughter. We see tears in recognizable eyes. No one’s performing anymore.
In the same way, each week Fr. Brian invites his parishioners to sit in silence, not for ten seconds—which, as the awards crowd could tell you, is unnatural enough—but for a full minute or two, saying, “Bow your head and close your eyes. I’ll watch the time.”
Who’s to say what might happen during that minute or two of silence on a Sunday morning at that church in Bridgeport? Maybe nothing discernible at all. Then again, if we never try, we’ll never know. Besides, the monastics teach us that without times of contemplation, we will never be able to live wholehearted lives.
“By keeping silence together, we understand that sometimes we’re just holding space for our friends to hear something from God,” Murphy writes. “Perhaps the most treasured gift of silence is the way that together we can be reminded with no words at all that God loves us and God likes us.”
more at timhoiland.com
For some of us, quite understandably, the word “rule” has a tendency to set off alarm bells—especially when applied to the spiritual life. Maybe it gives off a whiff of legalism. Or maybe we’ve been in churches where leaders (whether they mean to or not) weigh us down with burdens too heavy to bear.
Fortunately, this book is neither legalistic nor burdensome. The spiritual practices Murphy invites us to cultivate are, in fact, gifts that can free us from much of what entangles, like anxiety, dis-integration, and godless perfectionism. A Rule of Life is a paradox, much like the “easy” and “light” yoke of Jesus. And it’s a gift not just for ourselves, but for those around us. It is, as Benedict himself put it, a “little discipline to safeguard love.”
The Spacious Path is an invitation to a contemplative way of being in the world, both individually and in community. It’s one thing for a monk to live a contemplative life; it feels like something else entirely for you and me. But we can take steps to cultivate receptivity to what God has to say to us. Even small steps will do.
Murphy writes movingly of a practice her husband, an Anglican priest, has brought with him from one church to another. Because none of us are very good at being silent, we need opportunities to practice. So each week at Church of the Apostles in Bridgeport, Connecticut, usually after the sermon, Fr. Brian gives his parishioners just that.
The idea, Murphy tells us, comes not from Saint Benedict or some seminary class, but from Mr. Rogers. During his short acceptance speech for a Lifetime Achievement Emmy award, Mr. Rogers acknowledged he achieved nothing alone, saying, “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being.” Then he did something crazy. He looked out at the room of entertainers and said, “Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are—those who have cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life?”
“Ten seconds of silence,” he said. “I’ll watch the time.”
It’s a profound moment. We hear nervous laughter. We see tears in recognizable eyes. No one’s performing anymore.
In the same way, each week Fr. Brian invites his parishioners to sit in silence, not for ten seconds—which, as the awards crowd could tell you, is unnatural enough—but for a full minute or two, saying, “Bow your head and close your eyes. I’ll watch the time.”
Who’s to say what might happen during that minute or two of silence on a Sunday morning at that church in Bridgeport? Maybe nothing discernible at all. Then again, if we never try, we’ll never know. Besides, the monastics teach us that without times of contemplation, we will never be able to live wholehearted lives.
“By keeping silence together, we understand that sometimes we’re just holding space for our friends to hear something from God,” Murphy writes. “Perhaps the most treasured gift of silence is the way that together we can be reminded with no words at all that God loves us and God likes us.”
more at timhoiland.com
January 31, 2024
Summary: In our fragmented world, discusses how the idea of a rule of life, not as an ill-fitting structure but an intimate walk of listening and love with Jesus, may bring wholeness into our lives.
Imagine exiting a frenetic Texas freeway for the quiet of a retreat center. In the middle of it is a prayer labyrinth, a circular maze in which one follows a path with turns until one reaches a center, having prayerfully relinquished prayers and concerns along the way, trusting that the path is not a dead end, quieting oneself to listen to Jesus pace by pace, perhaps meditating on promises from God. At the center are benches where one may sit in quiet. Then one exits, reversing one’s path, praying to hold onto whatever the Lord has given as you walked and rested.
Tamara Hill Murphy offers this as an image of a life of practicing the restful way of Jesus through a rule of life. While we want to escape fragmented and frenetic lives, the idea of rule often seems confining, rigid, restricting. Drawing on the teachings of Benedict and the invitation of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30, Hill proposes the idea of a rule of life as a spacious path, one in which we come to Jesus, learning from him the unforced rhythms of grace, the unforced life of obedience as we take his yoke, walking and working with him. It is a way of listening and safeguarding love for God and neighbor against both license and legalism. It is a way that is both contemplative and communal
Having established this spacious path of listening and love with Jesus and his people, she writes of how we center ourselves and our rule on that spacious path. She explores how we hold both spacious stability and change together within such a rule. We learn that what unites us as a spacious community is that we are the baptized beloved, drawn in all our diversity into relationship with the Triune God through our shared baptism and shared eucharistic table. As we center in Jesus, we learn to relinquish our religious false self–all the pretenses we keep up with each other. At the same time, she writes about discerning safe spiritual leaders, offering valuable principles.
Only then does she focus on settling into a rule. She explores ideas of spacious work with room for prayer and rhythms of work, rest, and sabbath including seven rhythms of sabbath time: sabbath as a day, daily rhythms of work, prayer, rest, scripture, and self care, and similar weekly. monthly, seasonal, annual, and sabbatical rhythms. She then explores how we may walk the path of the church year, and in Tish Harrison Warren’s words, the liturgy of our ordinary days with their routines. All these may be woven into the rhythm of a rule of life.
The final part recognizes that life can upend our routines, our rules of life when unexpected guests call out the practice of hospitality, when we are confronted with injustice in which we are all implicated, and when tragedies like a global pandemic strike. She explores how lament, repentance, and examen help us know the blessing of God in such times. In an epilogue, she proposes five best practices for beginning and beginning again on the spacious path. I love her first: begin and begin again with a rule for rest and prayer.
I found this a book that was “spacious” toward the reader. Murphy shows rather than tells, describing what for her and others life on the path is like, and how we might take our first steps to begin (and begin again) with Jesus. While offering both principles and practices, the sense in this book was of describing what life on the spacious path is like. This seemed to me a winsome and right way to invite people into the practice of a rule of life.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
Imagine exiting a frenetic Texas freeway for the quiet of a retreat center. In the middle of it is a prayer labyrinth, a circular maze in which one follows a path with turns until one reaches a center, having prayerfully relinquished prayers and concerns along the way, trusting that the path is not a dead end, quieting oneself to listen to Jesus pace by pace, perhaps meditating on promises from God. At the center are benches where one may sit in quiet. Then one exits, reversing one’s path, praying to hold onto whatever the Lord has given as you walked and rested.
Tamara Hill Murphy offers this as an image of a life of practicing the restful way of Jesus through a rule of life. While we want to escape fragmented and frenetic lives, the idea of rule often seems confining, rigid, restricting. Drawing on the teachings of Benedict and the invitation of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30, Hill proposes the idea of a rule of life as a spacious path, one in which we come to Jesus, learning from him the unforced rhythms of grace, the unforced life of obedience as we take his yoke, walking and working with him. It is a way of listening and safeguarding love for God and neighbor against both license and legalism. It is a way that is both contemplative and communal
Having established this spacious path of listening and love with Jesus and his people, she writes of how we center ourselves and our rule on that spacious path. She explores how we hold both spacious stability and change together within such a rule. We learn that what unites us as a spacious community is that we are the baptized beloved, drawn in all our diversity into relationship with the Triune God through our shared baptism and shared eucharistic table. As we center in Jesus, we learn to relinquish our religious false self–all the pretenses we keep up with each other. At the same time, she writes about discerning safe spiritual leaders, offering valuable principles.
Only then does she focus on settling into a rule. She explores ideas of spacious work with room for prayer and rhythms of work, rest, and sabbath including seven rhythms of sabbath time: sabbath as a day, daily rhythms of work, prayer, rest, scripture, and self care, and similar weekly. monthly, seasonal, annual, and sabbatical rhythms. She then explores how we may walk the path of the church year, and in Tish Harrison Warren’s words, the liturgy of our ordinary days with their routines. All these may be woven into the rhythm of a rule of life.
The final part recognizes that life can upend our routines, our rules of life when unexpected guests call out the practice of hospitality, when we are confronted with injustice in which we are all implicated, and when tragedies like a global pandemic strike. She explores how lament, repentance, and examen help us know the blessing of God in such times. In an epilogue, she proposes five best practices for beginning and beginning again on the spacious path. I love her first: begin and begin again with a rule for rest and prayer.
I found this a book that was “spacious” toward the reader. Murphy shows rather than tells, describing what for her and others life on the path is like, and how we might take our first steps to begin (and begin again) with Jesus. While offering both principles and practices, the sense in this book was of describing what life on the spacious path is like. This seemed to me a winsome and right way to invite people into the practice of a rule of life.
____________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
July 22, 2023
I was drawn to read “The Spacious Path: ” particularly because of the subtitle and description.
The book explores how we can live each moment—whether good, challenging, or otherwise—centering ourselves in the truth that we are loved by God, walking with Christ from the place of rest and doing life with Him. This aims us toward rightly posturing our hearts and perspectives in daily life no matter the season.
This is beautifully written book is especially for those in need of refreshment and re-centering the posture of their hearts to rest in Christ while living a rule of life.
While reading I kept finding myself asking “so *how* does a rule of life affect this or that…?” in what the book mentions because, as someone new to this spiritual practice, I want to better understand what it looks like in the day-to-day. Thankfully, the book’s epilogue contained lots of resourceful information toward this. I honestly wish I had read that part first because it was very helpful.
Some things I highlighted in the book:
“…we aren't left to map out our lives by our own intelligence, self-discipline, or sheer good luck. We aren't even responsible for finding a grand scheme we might label as ‘God's will for our one life.’ We are invited to seek God. Even then, we discover that more faithful than our seeking is God’s commitment to finding us…”
“A Rule of Life is not a new system to initiate spiritual growth on our own terms but rather makes space to say yes to Jesus’ invitations to unforced rhythms of freedom and commitment.”
“Spiritual disciplines expand us, making space for the Holy Spirit to make us more spacious, open, receptive to God’s love, wisdom, and action in our lives.”
The book explores how we can live each moment—whether good, challenging, or otherwise—centering ourselves in the truth that we are loved by God, walking with Christ from the place of rest and doing life with Him. This aims us toward rightly posturing our hearts and perspectives in daily life no matter the season.
This is beautifully written book is especially for those in need of refreshment and re-centering the posture of their hearts to rest in Christ while living a rule of life.
While reading I kept finding myself asking “so *how* does a rule of life affect this or that…?” in what the book mentions because, as someone new to this spiritual practice, I want to better understand what it looks like in the day-to-day. Thankfully, the book’s epilogue contained lots of resourceful information toward this. I honestly wish I had read that part first because it was very helpful.
Some things I highlighted in the book:
“…we aren't left to map out our lives by our own intelligence, self-discipline, or sheer good luck. We aren't even responsible for finding a grand scheme we might label as ‘God's will for our one life.’ We are invited to seek God. Even then, we discover that more faithful than our seeking is God’s commitment to finding us…”
“A Rule of Life is not a new system to initiate spiritual growth on our own terms but rather makes space to say yes to Jesus’ invitations to unforced rhythms of freedom and commitment.”
“Spiritual disciplines expand us, making space for the Holy Spirit to make us more spacious, open, receptive to God’s love, wisdom, and action in our lives.”
January 16, 2024
While spending time in this book, walking with Ms. Murphy through this wide but safe path, and enjoying the peaceful surroundings of a Benedictine lifestyle, I found my way, or rather, was led into a new and truthful way, of comprehending where I've been and where I am. The author demystifies and redefines "rules" in a way that makes a rule of life not only palatable, but downright tasty.
The author draws you in immediately with vulnerability as she takes you to the streets of Austin, Texas. Amidst the chaos of the Austin street grid, God shows her the beginning of this path she now shares with us. I find that vulnerability, which is an underappreciated, often unrecognized strength, draws one in, even if one doesn’t understand why it is they are drawn in.
She weaves her story and what she’s learned on and about this spacious way, well and one feels that Jesus, she and you, the reader, are walking the way together. She is a trained Spiritual Director and uses scripture and lectio Divina, to ease us into the path that Jesus has been calling us all to for two millennia.
And of course, there’s the Benedictine Rule of Life. Ms. Murphy takes the sting out of “rule” and shows us how a rule of life is actually a key to freedom. The themes of spaciousness, unforced rhythms, grace, and communion/community permeate the text and one can’t help but relax and slow down. Peaceful is the reading of it.
The book is divided into four parts and each part ends with scriptures on which to meditate, questions on which to reflect, and additional practices, varying kinds of “walking shoes” to try on as you begin, continue, and go on this gentle, safe, enriching, and efficacious walk.
Part one is the invitation. Ms. Murphy opens the backpack and identifies the contents, helping us to see the true usefulness of rules, obedience, borders, contemplation, and listening. The world has mis-defined these many of us have fallen for the lie without paying much attention to them. She shows us how these are, paradoxically, items that lighten our backpacks. And to this lightness she adds the gear of spiritual direction and Lectio Divina.
In part two we are shown that the path is so spacious that it allows, and even requires community. The more diverse the fellow travelers, the wider and smoother and straighter and restful the road becomes. There develops stability as we walk together, in conversation and mutual support, and we each change, becoming less diverse and more and more like our Father. As one Eucharistic people, we live our lives, melding into one Spirit, one Church, one Bride, one Beloved. We are offered centering prayer and inner healing communities to add to our bag, to lighten it even further.
Part three introduces work into the journey but restoring it to its initial purpose and stature. Work was invented by God to bring humanity into loving partnership with God, to tend to His creation, to provide for each other, and to maintain all that He owns. We are to be good stewards. Work is incomplete without Sabbath, unappreciated without Sabbath, and toil instead of joy without Sabbath. Sabbath is an overstuffed chair to sit in while looking at the fruits of your labor. When this patterned life is normalized and work is tamed, other time becomes available for nurturing family, friends, co-workers, and others that cross our path, or, hopefully, walk with us on our path. We are offered six spheres to look through and utilize as we are drawn into and onto the spacious path of a rule of life. We are encouraged to add to our backpacks, prayer walking, post-walk reflection and sabbath rest, as these will continue to lighten our load.
By the time we get to part four, we are well on our way, practicing hospitality, loving strangers, and shod with the gospel of peace. As we grow in love, walking this spacious path with many others, pain is inevitable. Love suffers. But the road is open and well-used. Then we’re given our final two pieces of camping equipment, to lighten our load even further. Examen unloads the unnecessary equipment that we tend to “think we need,” and contemplative activism shows us how to walk with spacious purpose. All we do is to glorify God, and to glorify God is to demonstrate His character. And He showed us through Moses what that is, glorious goodness, mercy, graciousness, and compassion.
The Epilogue provides us our walking stick from Saint Benedict, “always we begin again.” AA talks about always being able to start your day over, to start a new day. Paths are made without speed in mind. If we come upon a tree, we walk around it, admiring its stability. We are not really meant for roads, always in a hurry, knocking down trees, all about getting to a destination without seeing the journey. Paths invite us, force us, to slow down, to see what’s around us, to stop and admire, and then to begin again.
For me the labyrinth became a healing icon as I began to see my life in it. I had always looked back and saw chaos, often lived in perplexity as to where I was going and assumed the future would continue to be uncontrolled wandering. But in the labyrinth, I saw God’s purpose as He moved me toward the center in an orderly way. Sometimes I was very near Him and seemed about to enter but then a turn would come, a turn that might surprise me in that I began heading, it seemed, away from my goal. And then another turn, always seeming to reverse course, but always moving me with the ultimate goal being the center. Even when I seemed far from Him, He was still with me, guiding me in a planned route that had the goal of the center. So now as I continue my journey, I see in the labyrinth that I will continue to come to turns which sometimes seem to lead me toward the center and sometimes away from the center, but always knowing that at the end I will arrive at the center, my home in His Home. While in the labyrinth, one can’t see how it will get me to where I want to go. I need to trust that God, who prepared my labyrinth from the beginning of time with great love, has made it so that it will indeed bring me Home.
It is indeed a fragmented world, but within is still a spacious path, a labyrinth, ordered, with boundaries, that, if one stays the course, leads to peace through peace in the company of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. Labyrinth Maker Extraordinaire!
Walter J
The author draws you in immediately with vulnerability as she takes you to the streets of Austin, Texas. Amidst the chaos of the Austin street grid, God shows her the beginning of this path she now shares with us. I find that vulnerability, which is an underappreciated, often unrecognized strength, draws one in, even if one doesn’t understand why it is they are drawn in.
She weaves her story and what she’s learned on and about this spacious way, well and one feels that Jesus, she and you, the reader, are walking the way together. She is a trained Spiritual Director and uses scripture and lectio Divina, to ease us into the path that Jesus has been calling us all to for two millennia.
And of course, there’s the Benedictine Rule of Life. Ms. Murphy takes the sting out of “rule” and shows us how a rule of life is actually a key to freedom. The themes of spaciousness, unforced rhythms, grace, and communion/community permeate the text and one can’t help but relax and slow down. Peaceful is the reading of it.
The book is divided into four parts and each part ends with scriptures on which to meditate, questions on which to reflect, and additional practices, varying kinds of “walking shoes” to try on as you begin, continue, and go on this gentle, safe, enriching, and efficacious walk.
Part one is the invitation. Ms. Murphy opens the backpack and identifies the contents, helping us to see the true usefulness of rules, obedience, borders, contemplation, and listening. The world has mis-defined these many of us have fallen for the lie without paying much attention to them. She shows us how these are, paradoxically, items that lighten our backpacks. And to this lightness she adds the gear of spiritual direction and Lectio Divina.
In part two we are shown that the path is so spacious that it allows, and even requires community. The more diverse the fellow travelers, the wider and smoother and straighter and restful the road becomes. There develops stability as we walk together, in conversation and mutual support, and we each change, becoming less diverse and more and more like our Father. As one Eucharistic people, we live our lives, melding into one Spirit, one Church, one Bride, one Beloved. We are offered centering prayer and inner healing communities to add to our bag, to lighten it even further.
Part three introduces work into the journey but restoring it to its initial purpose and stature. Work was invented by God to bring humanity into loving partnership with God, to tend to His creation, to provide for each other, and to maintain all that He owns. We are to be good stewards. Work is incomplete without Sabbath, unappreciated without Sabbath, and toil instead of joy without Sabbath. Sabbath is an overstuffed chair to sit in while looking at the fruits of your labor. When this patterned life is normalized and work is tamed, other time becomes available for nurturing family, friends, co-workers, and others that cross our path, or, hopefully, walk with us on our path. We are offered six spheres to look through and utilize as we are drawn into and onto the spacious path of a rule of life. We are encouraged to add to our backpacks, prayer walking, post-walk reflection and sabbath rest, as these will continue to lighten our load.
By the time we get to part four, we are well on our way, practicing hospitality, loving strangers, and shod with the gospel of peace. As we grow in love, walking this spacious path with many others, pain is inevitable. Love suffers. But the road is open and well-used. Then we’re given our final two pieces of camping equipment, to lighten our load even further. Examen unloads the unnecessary equipment that we tend to “think we need,” and contemplative activism shows us how to walk with spacious purpose. All we do is to glorify God, and to glorify God is to demonstrate His character. And He showed us through Moses what that is, glorious goodness, mercy, graciousness, and compassion.
The Epilogue provides us our walking stick from Saint Benedict, “always we begin again.” AA talks about always being able to start your day over, to start a new day. Paths are made without speed in mind. If we come upon a tree, we walk around it, admiring its stability. We are not really meant for roads, always in a hurry, knocking down trees, all about getting to a destination without seeing the journey. Paths invite us, force us, to slow down, to see what’s around us, to stop and admire, and then to begin again.
For me the labyrinth became a healing icon as I began to see my life in it. I had always looked back and saw chaos, often lived in perplexity as to where I was going and assumed the future would continue to be uncontrolled wandering. But in the labyrinth, I saw God’s purpose as He moved me toward the center in an orderly way. Sometimes I was very near Him and seemed about to enter but then a turn would come, a turn that might surprise me in that I began heading, it seemed, away from my goal. And then another turn, always seeming to reverse course, but always moving me with the ultimate goal being the center. Even when I seemed far from Him, He was still with me, guiding me in a planned route that had the goal of the center. So now as I continue my journey, I see in the labyrinth that I will continue to come to turns which sometimes seem to lead me toward the center and sometimes away from the center, but always knowing that at the end I will arrive at the center, my home in His Home. While in the labyrinth, one can’t see how it will get me to where I want to go. I need to trust that God, who prepared my labyrinth from the beginning of time with great love, has made it so that it will indeed bring me Home.
It is indeed a fragmented world, but within is still a spacious path, a labyrinth, ordered, with boundaries, that, if one stays the course, leads to peace through peace in the company of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. Labyrinth Maker Extraordinaire!
Walter J
July 31, 2023
I rarely write reviews before I have finished a book, but this is one of those times. I am enjoying this book far too much to rush through it for the sake of a timely review.
I value the benefits of a rule of life and I love the author’s ability to invite you beyond the modern, negative connotations of the word “rule,” into its proper historical understanding as a motif, a pattern or a rhythm. The entire book is an invitation filled with grace and goodness.
I’ve read a number of books on spiritual practices and the idea of a rule of life. This one is, so far, the most gracious and engaging one I’ve ever read. I’d absolutely recommend it as a starting point for people who want to grow and thrive in their spiritual life, but don’t know what the path to that desire looks like. I’d also recommend it to those who have already spent years walking a path toward spiritual thriving as I’m finding it still has invitations for me to embrace.
I received a digital, pre-release copy of this book with the understanding that I’d provide my honest opinion. I’ve added A Spacious Path to my list of “purchase next” books, because I want to have a hard copy on my shelf.
I value the benefits of a rule of life and I love the author’s ability to invite you beyond the modern, negative connotations of the word “rule,” into its proper historical understanding as a motif, a pattern or a rhythm. The entire book is an invitation filled with grace and goodness.
I’ve read a number of books on spiritual practices and the idea of a rule of life. This one is, so far, the most gracious and engaging one I’ve ever read. I’d absolutely recommend it as a starting point for people who want to grow and thrive in their spiritual life, but don’t know what the path to that desire looks like. I’d also recommend it to those who have already spent years walking a path toward spiritual thriving as I’m finding it still has invitations for me to embrace.
I received a digital, pre-release copy of this book with the understanding that I’d provide my honest opinion. I’ve added A Spacious Path to my list of “purchase next” books, because I want to have a hard copy on my shelf.
June 20, 2024
“…to live a humble life shaped by contemplation and community. The foundational elements of a Rule of Life—prayer, work, study, hospitality, and rest—would all spring from this twofold call.” In Matthew, Jesus gives five invitations: come to me, take my yoke, walk with me, work with me, and keep company with me. To learn how to follow this spacious path, we must listen (contemplation) and live in community (love). Simple yet profound and hard to do in our spiritual, relational, intellectual, emotional, financial, and missional lives. The spacious path has no dead ends, only pauses until you see the next step; it’s more a way of being rather than doing. A beautifully written book, a grounding in Christian faith.
August 10, 2025
5/5 My friend gave me this book (inscribed by the author!) knowing I would love it. It is an excellent supplement to Ruth Haley Barton's "Sacred Rhythms" in that it describes how a Rule of Life can be a spacious path for following Christ intentionally. The author doesn't give certain practices to try or even an example of a Rule of Life to use as a template. Rather, she uses personal stories, Scripture, and thought-provoking & short chapters to invite the reader to consider what you want your life to look like. I'll be re-reading it with a pencil, and it would be a great book for a discussion group.
July 5, 2023
Excellent read. The Spacious Path feels like a guidebook to being spiritually grounded.
The author shares about a monastic faith practice of intentionality known as a “rule of life,” and then patiently guides us through the process of designing our own.
In my own application, I found developing a Rule of Life to be a way to self-examine, identify core values, and then go about finding practical, ordinary ways to consistently pursue those ends and integrate with the community of Christ. Highly, highly recommend this read.
The author shares about a monastic faith practice of intentionality known as a “rule of life,” and then patiently guides us through the process of designing our own.
In my own application, I found developing a Rule of Life to be a way to self-examine, identify core values, and then go about finding practical, ordinary ways to consistently pursue those ends and integrate with the community of Christ. Highly, highly recommend this read.
July 9, 2023
What a beautiful book about finding rest in our rhythms with Jesus. The book is about creating a rule of life, but as I’ve told a few people, even if you don’t create an actual “rule” (rule is a misnomer, as you will see!), the book is still a gentle reminder of Jesus’ loving invitation to rest in Him. It is about living intentionally and making time and space for what matters in contemplation and community. Definitely a must read if you ever feel tired or overwhelmed with life!
August 12, 2023
“Spacious” is the perfect word to describe this book. The author invites us to explore the ancient Christian practice of a Rule of Life. If you are weary of never doing enough or never being good enough, come exhale, read, and feel the loving comfort of Tamara’s words. She walks you through this intentional and meaningful contemplative practice while centering it all on our identity as a beloved community. You’ll walk away feeling more loved by God and feeling more love for our humanness.
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