I don’t know how many times I’ve heard not to make prayer a checklist item. But I’ve been thinking about the issue recently, and I want to add a few of my thoughts to the conversation.

One of the big focus topics for us during my first semester at seminary was how we, both as students and in the future as vocational ministers, will make space our own spiritual growth and nearness to God. In fact, one of our course textbooks specifically prioritized this issue.¹ Through this book and other resources we worked through, it was communicated that spiritual growth and nearness to God doesn’t “just happen.” Worse, the sweetness we experience with God will slip away from us if we don’t:

1). Make room for it in our daily and weekly schedules

2). Commit to practicing it faithfully.

Thinking about this has made me re-evaluate the value and incorporation of checklists into my routine. I am naturally split between being highly regimented and an existential fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of guy. I love the theory of regimented structure and the practice of “I’ll do it when the feeling hits me.” But this is no longer feasible for me – it probably never was. The workload of seminary, the demands of my regular job, and the responsibilities to my family require intentional forethought and planning. You might not be in seminary, but there is a good chance you have felt the pressure of life’s demands and how easy it is for good things that we want to do (like prayer) to be pushed aside.

So, how do checklists fit into all of this?

Checklists help us keep track of our priorities and desires. We write them down because they are things we’ve determined have a high priority of needing to be done, and we don’t want to forget about them. Spiritual growth is one of those priorities, but can we include it in a checklist without it becoming, well, a “checklist item?”

I think we can.

In a busy season of life, efficiency is the name of the game to still accomplish everything we need to finish. I’m learning this with seminary. I naturally like easing my way into things. I like long transition periods where I can gradually shift my mindset from one task to another. I am no longer able to do this. I have to be in the right frame of mind when I think about starting a new task. I can no longer take a period of time to think about transitioning into another task. I have to hit the ground running. I have to be focused. Previously, I would have thought this would stifle my spiritual growth, but I am discovering the opposite is true. Spiritual growth is a priority. It is on my daily checklist, but it is the farthest thing from a burden because:

1). I know why I’m prioritizing it

2). I’ve agreed with myself that it is one of my immovable items on the checklist

3). I have set an expectation of what this time will look like each day

4). I’ve conditioned myself to remember the heart behind prioritizing it on my checklist when I see it.

Number four might be the most important. I have noticed that what concerns us about adding prayer to our daily checklist isn’t that we will be reminded to pray but rather that we will approach prayer as a mindless task instead of intentional time with God. Oddly enough, the solution is simple: when you see “prayer” on your checklist, remind yourself of why you’re prioritizing it as well as the heart posture you want to have when praying.

That’s it. Consistently and faithfully approaching God requires discipline. Adding prayer to your list of priorities reminds you of that discipline, and you can train yourself to incorporate the intentional heart posture when you sit down to pray.

Footnotes

1. H. Daniel Zacharias and Benjamin K. Forrest, “Surviving and Thriving in Seminary: An Academic and Spiritual Handbook, Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2017. ↩︎