Daily Bread

Recently I discovered a podcast that has me thinking.  

"The Thinker" by ajk408 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

I should actually back up a step and confess that it's only recently that I started listening to podcasts at all, thanks to one of my millennial daughters who regularly mentions this-or-that intriguing or helpful idea she's discovered via podcast.

The podcast I stumbled across is an LDS Living podcast titled "all in." The podcast tagline question is "What does it mean to be 'all in' the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the latter days?"  (You can find the podcast homepage here.) In our modern-day-hurry-up-instant-gratification world, I think this is both a pertinent and significant question.

"In A Rush" by class M planet is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Precisely because we live in a modern-day-hurry-up-instant-gratification world, I have been wrestling with the challenge of carving out time for myself to be still and reflective.  This has been no easy undertaking for me, because my default mode is to be task-driven.  I'm also prone to allowing my sense of self-worth and value to become linked with how busy I am, or how many things I have checked off my to-do list. 


Episode 42 titled "Living a Mindful Latter-day Saint Life" gave me lots of food for thought, not only about mindfulness, but about both the ordinariness and importance of the daily things we do for spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional sustenance.  Jacob Hess (one of the podcast guests) offered this rumination:

"I was reflecting on how we love dramatic things in the American culture.  Like we want to be able to say 'I’m going to India to sit with the gurus, and you can follow me on Instagram in my journey….'  Are we willing to do the non-dramatic? To sit and listen to an untrained speaker in sacrament meeting share in fumbling words how they’re trying to find God?  I’ve noticed in myself that it’s a certain kind of practice to sit in a situation that is kind of routine, and maybe even boring sometimes. You know daily bread is just daily bread, it’s not a daily feast.  It’s not a cruise/luxury dining experience, it’s bread. … Our gospel culture is full of simple, normal, even routine, even boring sometimes opportunities where we can actually, if we’re listening, commune and hear God’s voice."

"my daily bread" by eltpics is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

He also quoted Christian author Tish Warren contemplating spiritual experiences:

“There are indeed moments of spiritual ecstasy in the Christian life and in gathered worship.  Powerful spiritual experiences, when they come, are a gift. But that cannot be the point of Christian spirituality, any more than the unforgettable meal I ate years ago is the point of eating.  Thousands of forgotten meals have brought me to today. They sustained my life. They were my daily bread.”

I thought both these insights were great reminders that it is the day-in, day-out, small and simple things that we do which will enlarge our spiritual strength (or our physical vitality, our mental capacity, or anything else we're trying to improve). These are the "Primary" answers: scripture study, prayer, attending church, and temple worship. (Once when I was discussing with someone the "Primary" answers, it occurred to me that another meaning of the word "primary" is "highest in importance;" which gives a whole new meaning to this idea of "primary" answers.) These small and simple things truly are our daily bread, the spiritual nourishment we need on a consistent basis in order to produce the spiritual strength to face the challenges of our lives in mortality.

"Rock Climbing" by Pablo Benedito is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0