Monday, May 21, 2007

Commuter Spirituality

com·mut·er (kə-myū'tər)
n.
  1. One that travels regularly from one place to another, as from suburb to city and back.
One of the things I haven't really had to deal with a lot in LA is a long tortuous commute. And so while I talked about how to integrate your spirituality while sitting in downtown traffic (in theory from the pulpit/class), now I get the chance to really "work out my salvation" in this regard. One possible area of theological reflection is how this liminal space/time--the "borders of life"--between home and work can also contribute to formation.

I've thought about things like driving with worship music, praying, listening to sermon/podcasts, sitting in silence (no radio/music/speaking). What works against me right now in terms of options is that I only have a radio that has one station that doesn't come in all the time. This morning I tried to let the Spirit lead me to situations and people to pray about, since this was a fuzzy station morning (difficult to say the least).

If anyone has any other insights on what they do to make commuting a part of their daily worship, hook me up!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i just drive safely :D being a good example on the road ;) and listen to Air 1 :)

Victor said...

When we carpooled, Karena and I would always take time to pray together. When she drives alone, she always sits in silence and sometimes prays or sings, as the Spirit leads.
I've gotten away from the practice lately, but I've found that focusing on worship by prayer or through music, especially in the morning, is almost a necessity in this town.
It keeps you from yelling at the guy who just cut you off. And it gets you to work with the right perspective.

Jules said...

It usually takes at least half of the commute time to pray, and sometimes all the way up to coming out of the elevator to my office. It all depends. I also listen to NPR on 89.3fm and KNX 1070am for traffic news. Other than worship music, I've listened to books on tape for the commute in the past.

I've been listening to different books of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia every now and then, which causes me to extract biblical truths or examples out of the stories. I think I've listened to all the books at least three times if not more. It's kind of like watching a movie over again, because there might be details and clues that I missed in the first watch. Anyway, I don't just listen in the car but when I go to bed sometimes.

Anonymous said...

I just try not to get into an accident and make it to work on time! :P No, but really it's hard to keep that at the forefront of your mind when you are stuck in traffic. Sometimes I just put my mind on auto pilot and pretty soon I'm at work!