A friend shared the other day that she wanted to take down all of her Christmas decorations, clean things up, get back into the swing of things… but was holding out for Epiphany, the formal close of the twelve days of Christmas.

She waited, is waiting, in spite of herself and her desires.

The spiritual disciplines are those things of God that we are asked to do in spite of ourselves. 

Lauren Winner, in her book Mudhouse Sabbath, reflects on the spiritual disciplines of Judaism in light of her conversion to Christianity. She longs for these habits. Most of them, it seems to me, are the things of God that we are asked to do in spite of ourselves.

The irony, of course, is that God knows what is best for us and that these habits, these spiritual disciplines, are better for us over the long run.

Wait for Epiphany.