Creating a Life with God Revised Edition: The Call of Ancient Prayer Practices

By Daniel Wolpert

Over the past four decades, author Daniel Wolpert has answered the question “What do you do for a living?” with “I am a student of the spiritual life.” In the original foreword to Creating a Life with God, Wolpert was called a “Pray—er” – someone who knew how his life was altered and transformed by prayer and someone who accepted the invitation to join Jesus in prayer to tend the longing in his heart. Both statements are still true today.

In the twenty years since this book was first released, Wolpert’s work has inspired many to reflect on the life of prayer and what it means to be intentional about creating daily life with God. The longevity of the book speaks to a deep hunger for the practice of prayer and contemplation. Over the years, interest in spiritual life has grown stronger, both within the church and within popular culture. In the face of a world filled with chaos, uncertainty, and constant change, spiritual practices and prayer shape us into people who can provide healing, love, and compassion in response.

The twelve prayer practices in this book will help you take your relationship with God to a new level by:

Inviting you to solitude and silence
Inviting you to use your mind and imagination
Inviting you to use your body and your creativity
Inviting you to connect with nature and community.

Creating a Life with God invites you to join traveling companions like Julian of Norwich and Ignatius to help illuminate each of these prayer practices. This 20th Anniversary Edition includes two new chapters and two new companions: Saint Brigit, who invites us to take a spiritual look at climate change, and Howard Thurman, noted pastor, author, and contemplative, who invites us to explore how spiritual practices inspire social transformation. These new chapters build on the original twelve prayer practices and ask how we can use the practice of prayer to engage a world in crisis.

Alongside these traveling companions, you will discover how classical approaches to God can deepen your prayer life and help prepare you to engage the world as a fearless ambassador for God’s goodness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Upper Room Books
• Release date: Sep 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9780835820400

Daniel Wolpert

Daniel Wolpert, a healer and student of the spiritual life, worked as a research scientist, psychologist, farmer, and teacher, before earning his Master of Divinity degree at San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS). Co-founder and former Executive Director of the Minnesota Institute of Contemplation and Healing, he has taught in the fields of psychology and spiritual formation in numerous settings around the world. A writer and a spiritual director, he has also played key roles in developing environments for contemplation and spiritual leadership, helping to build or restore monasteries, theological schools, and retreat centers across North America. The author of six books, his most recent work is Looking Inward, Living Outward: The Spiritual Practice of Social Transformation (Upper Room 2024). When not on the road, he lives in Seattle, Washington, hanging with his grandson as much as possible.

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Creating a Life with God: The Call of Ancient Prayer Practices

20th Anniversary, Revised Edition

Copyright © 2023 by Daniel Wolpert

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher except in brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, write Upper Room Books, 1908 Grand Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee 37212.

Upper Room Books® website: upperroombooks.com

Upper Room®, Upper Room Books® and design logos are trademarks owned by The Upper Room®, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture noted AP is the author’s paraphrase.

Cover design: Faceout Studio

Interior design: PerfecType, Nashville, TN

Cover illustration: Summer Sunset, Oil Painting by Pobytov

ISBN: 978-0-8358-2039-4

Epub ISBN: 978-0-8358-2040-0

Printed in the United States of America

To Debra, Sam, and Max,

who every day teach me about creating

a life with God

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Foreword to the 20th Anniversary Edition

Foreword to the Original Edition

Author’s Note on the 20th Anniversary Edition

Introduction

  1  Solitude and Silence: The Journey Begins

  2  Lectio Divina: Encountering Scripture through Sacred Reading

  3  The Jesus Prayer: There Is Power in His Name

  4  Apophatic Prayer: Be Still and Know

  5  The Examen: God in Day-to-Day Life

  6  Creativity and the Divine: To Create Is to Pray

  7  Journaling: Writing What God Shows Us

  8  Body Prayer: The Body and the Spiritual Life

  9  Walking toward God: The Journey Made Visible

10  Praying in Nature: Contemplation and Creation

11  Prayer and Life in the World: The Rubber Meets the Road

12  A Praying Community: Bringing It All Together

13  Praying in an Apocalypse: Facing the Climate Crisis

14  The Religion of Jesus: Prayer as Social Transformation

References

A Step-by-Step Guide to the Prayer Practices

A Retreat Model

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In many ways, I find writing this part of the book the most difficult and humbling. It is like a near-death experience in which my life flashes before my eyes, and I see how truly indebted I am to so many people who have helped me, taught me, put up with me, and even learned from me. I really cannot even begin to name them all.

I begin by thanking God from whom all blessings flow. Living in northwest Minnesota means that one encounters, and kills, a lot of mosquitoes. Yet every time I crush one, I realize that I am destroying a marvel of engineering that, compared to a welding robot, for example, is a thing of beauty and brilliance and is something I could never produce. So without the amazing creativity of the Divine Persons, I never could have begun to write a book about creating a life with God.

Then I must acknowledge all those who have taught me the spiritual craft. I have been blessed by encounters with a number of remarkable spiritual teachers, both before and after being baptized. I think particularly of Father Poulin, who baptized me, and Bede Griffiths, who not only baptized my wife but also taught us so much about contemplative Christianity.

All whom I encountered recently in the programs of Christian spirituality at San Francisco Theological Seminary not only have given me wonderful opportunities to work and pray but also have served as a supportive Christian community for me and my family. Then there are the people of Crookston, Minnesota, and the First Presbyterian Church, who are willing to struggle with us as we together attempt to determine what it means to witness as the church in the world.

Finally I would like to thank Robin Pippin and all those at Upper Room Books, who for some reason believed in me and in this project. I continue to count Robin’s support for me, an untested writer, as one of the great miracles of my life.

Peace

Daniel Wolpert

Crookston, Minnesota

FOREWORD TO THE 20TH

ANNIVERSARY EDITION

In June 2001, Daniel Wolpert and I were walking the Beach Loop Trail of the Torrey Pines State Reserve in San Diego, California. Both there for a meeting in El Cajon, we descended the sandy trails down to the ocean’s edge, talking about the possibility of him writing about ancient prayer practices. I wrote in my journal later that day: We talked about the book that Daniel may write. It sounds really good. I hope it can come together.

Just a few months before that, at the end of a spiritual retreat for youth workers in Nashville, I had written in the same journal: Several hints this week about the spiritual disciplines book that I want to write or have written. It’s needed, it’s not out there. How will it come about?

In retrospect, it says a lot about my desire for such a book that I even considered writing it myself. As an acquisitions editor for youth and youth ministry books at the time, I did not have the expertise or the time to do that. But the thought of such a book—simple descriptions of prayer practices with steps for leading them—had been simmering within me for a while, marinating in rich experiences like the interactive prayer spaces at annual Youth Specialties conventions, learning about the Youth Ministry Spirituality Project led by Andrew Dreitcer and Mark Yaconelli, and helping bring the Sabbath Retreat for Youthworkers to Nashville for a few years. Daniel Wolpert had been a leader in many of these settings, and his name often came to mind as a possible author for this book.

Though books about prayer practices abound now, twenty years ago I couldn’t find anything like Creating a Life with God in the Protestant book market. Practices such as lectio divina, solitude and silence, and the Examen had existed for centuries and even thrived in the Roman Catholic Church and other select corners of Christianity, but these ancient modes of prayer still seemed suspect in a lot of evangelical and even mainline churches—too Eastern, too Buddhist. Published in 2003, Creating a Life with God anchored itself in Christian history with traveling companions such as Julian of Norwich, the Beguines, and Saint Benedict. It was the right book at the right time. Interest in the life of prayer and ways to sustain that life has exploded over these past two decades.

Twenty years later, this book stands the test of time. It is as relevant as ever to new and experienced seekers of God. I am especially impressed with the two new chapters added to this edition: Praying in an Apocalypse: Facing the Climate Crisis and The Religion of Jesus: Prayer as Social Transformation. In these new chapters, which read like dispatches from the field of real life, Daniel continues to instruct us about the urgent relevancy of the life of prayer in our times.

Embodying the prophet pray-er’s role, Daniel made live videos from the very place where George Floyd was killed, which was only blocks away from where Daniel lived. Watching these videos a few years ago, I could see that many years of prayer practice had emboldened him for this moment of fearless reporting. As he writes, contemplation and action are two sides of the same coin. In the last chapter, with Howard Thurman as our inspiration and traveling companion, Daniel states, A deep listening to Jesus draws us both into our selves and onto the streets.

Daniel has lived the very life of prayer and social transformation that he writes about and encourages each of us to engage the world as a fearless ambassador for goodness.

This is a book for our times, and Daniel is a prayer leader for our times. Listen to him.

Robin Pippin

Former Executive Director of Publishing

The Upper Room

FOREWORD TO THE

ORIGINAL EDITION

I could barely make out Daniel’s words through the pop and crackle of the radio. I held the receiver to my ear: . . . the demons . . . are in place . . . the abba is ready. . . . We’re good to go. I smiled, clipped the walkie-talkie to my belt, and skidded down a large sand dune toward the group. It looked like a hostage situation: sixty high school students and fifteen adults all in white blindfolds. They stood in a single winding line, their ears cocked and attentive, each person placing a hand on the shoulder in front. We walked up and over mounds of sand, the sun bright and warm, brief patches of coastal fog drifting over and among us. At last we came to a secluded place surrounded by rolling sand dunes, native grasses, and clusters of craggy cypress trees. The group sat down and removed their blindfolds.

There in front of us sat an abba, a desert father, dressed in rough and fraying burlap. His face was rugged and bearded. He sat in front of burnt logs and ashes. With closed eyes he rocked back and forth, his hands weaving a small cloth. We all sat in silence, taking in the figure. Then slowly, in the quiet within the breeze we began to hear his words, slow and steady, Jesus, . . . Son of God, . . . have mercy on me. Jesus, . . . Son of God, . . . have mercy on me.

Suddenly a group of ghostlike figures draped in shimmering fabric began to creep over the dunes, whispering all kinds of distractions to him: You’re wasting your time. . . . You think you’re holier than others. . . . You should have gotten married and had a useful career. . . . Saint Anthony continued to pray, continually calling on the name of Jesus to keep his spirit directed toward God. Slowly the demons retreated. Silence. Then Saint Anthony stood and greeted us. He told his life story and invited questions from the young seekers. He taught the Jesus Prayer and summoned the group to spend the rest of the afternoon praying it in the solitude of the desert wilderness. We wandered out across the dunes, finding places to sit and open ourselves to the presence of God.

This is the image that comes to me when I think of Daniel Wolpert. In 1999, the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project was leading a weeklong spiritual retreat for a group of high school student leaders. For weeks Daniel had been studying and praying, preparing to play the role of Saint Anthony, one of the desert fathers. Together we were seeking to help these students experience and explore the rich praying tradition within the Christian faith.

I had asked Daniel to play the role of Saint Anthony because I see him as a living desert father. He is one of those rare Christian pilgrims who have foregone career and comforts in order to spend long periods of their lives in prayerful solitude seeking to know and be transformed by the presence of Christ. He has lived in monasteries and intentional Christian communities. He has spent years practicing and teaching spiritual direction. He has led numerous silent and spiritual formation retreats.

Creating a Life with God is the fruit of Daniel’s years of searching and struggling to know and receive God. Unlike Daniel, few of us have hitchhiked to Alaska on a spiritual quest, driven a broken-down truck cross-country to pray in a Nova Scotian monastery, or ridden overcrowded buses through India searching for the living Christ. And yet Daniel recognizes that all of us are living the life of the seeker; all of us long to let our desire for God burn within us—refusing to reduce our faith to a ministry or career. Daniel knows this hunger, this desire, and he has given us a book that responds to it.

Daniel is a pray-er. He knows the pain, boredom, and joy of silence. He knows the anxiety of waiting for a word from God. He knows what it’s like to have your life slowly altered and transformed through regular periods of prayer.

Daniel is also a guide. He has served in local and national settings as pastor, spiritual director, and retreat leader. He has spent hundreds of hours listening to the spiritual longings of teenagers and retirees, ministers and laypeople, seekers and lifelong Christians. Creating a Life with God is sensitive to the variety of spiritual longings and resistances that arise in the human heart.

The techniques of prayer, as Daniel states, are amusingly easy. And yet we seem to need permission. We need space. We need companions. This book offers all of these. We are all like the students I led into the desert, blind and groping, hands grasping the shoulder in front of us, stumbling out toward God. And yet God has given us guides, teachers who point the way. Daniel is one of these teachers.

As you read these pages, know that this is more than a guidebook. It is an invitation to join Jesus in prayer. It is an invitation to recognize and tend the longing of your heart. As you read these pages, may you deepen your awareness of the God behind the practices, the God who waits between the words.

And as you pray, know that you are not alone—that sometime today, somewhere in the Minnesota plains, Daniel Wolpert is also sitting and praying. He is sitting with the desert mothers and fathers. He is sitting with Benedict and Julian, with Francis and Hildegard, Ignatius and Anthony. He is sitting in prayer, opening to the One who loves us, the One who holds and guides us. He is sitting with you and me.

May this work encourage and lead you into the timeless community of Christian pray-ers who continue to welcome the living Christ into the world.

Mark Yaconelli

Codirector Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project

San Francisco Theological Seminary

AUTHOR’S NOTE ON THE 20TH

ANNIVERSARY EDITION

In the introduction to the first edition of this book I wrote this: My first awakening to the spiritual life and the life of prayer occurred when I was twenty years old. At the time, it had been about twenty years since that initial calling. Now, with this edition, another twenty years have past, and when people ask the great American question, What do you do for a living? my answer is still, over four decades later, that I am a student of the spiritual life.

I am grateful to The Upper Room for this opportunity to reflect upon what has happened in the world since the book was first released and how this has affected the practice of prayer. The surprising longevity and success of this book speaks to me of a world that hungers for the practice of prayer and the practice of contemplation.

In the decades that have passed since I originally wrote these words, the growing interest in the spiritual life that many of us began noticing years ago has only become stronger. The church has fully embraced its spiritual tradition, and one cannot pick up a professional journal in medicine, psychology, or education without encountering a discussion of mindfulness or the mind-body-spirit connection. The cutting edge of this merger between contemplative study and practice is the growing field of psychedelic research and psychedelic-assisted therapies. The language employed in these pursuits is distinctly spiritual and speaks to a desire for a deeper encounter with the whole of reality.

This craving for spiritual practice has not occurred in a vacuum but rather is a reflection of an increased need for healing, love, and compassion in a world that grows more chaotic and uncertain. As has been true many times in the past, spiritual awakening is driven by the dissolution of the social structures that give humans the illusion of control over their environment.

The Bible tells us over and over again that we are creatures and not the Creator, yet our confusion on this matter is persistent. The life of prayer exists to aid us in orienting ourselves toward God and toward Wisdom. When we can no longer sustain the foolish notion that we are the masters of the universe, we instinctively reach out for these ancient practices.

One cannot reflect upon the past twenty years without an awareness that we are living through circumstances far beyond our control. In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic, the social unrest following the murder of George Floyd, the climate crisis with its many concomitant crises, and the worldwide rise of authoritarianism in various forms have all combined to disorient, exhaust, and distress us. However, this chaotic context also provides rich soil for the growth of the spiritual life. It is here, in the midst