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Course 2 · Lesson 6.2

Drafting your framework

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 2 outline

Module 1: What Solitude Is and Is Not

  1. Solitude, isolation, and withdrawal from responsibility
  2. A deliberate approach to Christian life
  3. Solitude without superiority

Module 2: The Long Tradition

  1. Anthony and the first hermits
  2. The Desert Mothers and the sayings of the elders
  3. From the desert to the monastery: Pachomius, Basil and Benedict
  4. Hermits and anchorites in the later church

Module 3: The Church and the Solitary Christian

  1. The church as the body of Christ
  2. What Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians say requires a church
  3. Fellowship without a congregation

Module 4: Independence and Its Limits

  1. Reading Scripture for yourself
  2. The limits of private interpretation
  3. Testing teachers and online voices

Module 5: Accountability and Humility

  1. Spiritual pride
  2. Self-deception and confirmation bias
  3. Finding real accountability

Module 6: Building Your Framework

  1. Private devotion and communal life
  2. Drafting your framework
  3. Review and revision

All courses

Program / Course 2: The Solitary Christian in Depth / Lesson 6.2

What you will learn

  • Describe what a personal framework for Christian life is, and how it relates to the older idea of a rule of life.
  • Draft the main sections of a framework: purpose, foundations, practices, obligations, relationships, safeguards and limits.
  • Write clear, modest, testable commitments instead of vague hopes.
  • Include in the draft the humility and accountability the course has stressed.

The big idea

A personal framework is a short written statement of how you intend to live as a Christian: what you believe, what you will do, what you owe to others, what safeguards you accept and how you will review it. It is a modern form of the old rule of life. A good framework is brief, specific and honest about its limits. It does not claim authority over anyone else. It should come from the lessons of this course, including the sources you have read and the people who have helped you, and it should be written to be revised.

Key terms

Framework
In this course, a short written plan that sets out purpose, practices, obligations, relationships and safeguards for your Christian life.
Rule of life
The traditional name for a written pattern of prayer, work, rest and relationships. Monasteries have a rule, and lay people have adapted the idea.
Commitment
A specific promise to yourself, and where fitting to others, about what you will do. It is measurable: you can tell whether you kept it.
Safeguard
A habit or relationship that protects you from a danger you know about, such as pride or isolation.
Confession of faith
A statement of what one believes. In a personal framework it can be as short as the Nicene Creed with a note on what you hold as secondary.
Season
A stretch of life with its own demands, such as raising children, illness or a period of study. A framework should name its season.

Background

Throughout this course you have been asked to write in a notebook: a self-examination, a statement of approach, a fellowship map, a test of an interpretation, a pride inventory and a plan for accountability. This lesson draws those threads together into a single page or two. The aim is not a manifesto. It is a document you can read in five minutes, keep honestly and revise.

The oldest models are rules of life. Benedict’s Rule is long, but its aim is plain: to order the day around the praise of God, work, reading, hospitality and obedience. Lay Christians through the centuries have written smaller rules. Ignatius of Loyola proposed a way of ordering one’s life to seek God’s will. Wesley asked early Methodists to follow general rules: do no harm, do good and attend upon the ordinances of God. You are not writing in a vacuum.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Name your purpose and your season

Begin with a sentence or two on why you are doing this and what you want your life to be for. The old answers are good ones: to love God and neighbor (Matthew 22:37-39), to know Christ, to be formed in holiness, to serve. Then name your season: your work, family, health and duties at present. A framework for a single person with free evenings looks different from one for a parent of young children or someone caring for a sick relative. Honesty about the season keeps the plan realistic.

Add a sentence on what you are not trying to do, such as to prove superiority to anyone, to replace the church or to impose a rule on others.

Step 2: State your foundations

Write what you hold as the basis of your faith. Many people simply adopt a creed, such as the Nicene Creed, as the central statement, and name the Bible as their authority for life and belief. Then add a short list of questions that you consider open or that you hold with less confidence, so that you are honest about the difference. Name the tradition, or traditions, that most shape your thinking, and one or two sources from the course that you will keep reading.

Step 3: Set your practices

List the practices you will keep: daily prayer, Scripture reading, a weekly time of longer study, an annual retreat, regular fasting if you choose. Give each a time, a place and a length. Be modest. A rule you can keep in a bad week is better than one you can keep only in a good one. Include a way to rest. Include the church’s forms if you wish to use them: the Lord’s Prayer, the psalms, the church year.

Distinguish practices from aims. “Be more prayerful” is an aim. “Pray Psalm 63 and the Lord’s Prayer at 6:30 each morning for ten minutes” is a practice.

Step 4: Write your obligations and relationships

Name those to whom you owe time, care and honesty: family, employer, neighbors, friends, dependents. State what you will do for them and how you will protect those commitments from being crowded out by your spiritual practice. Name your sources of fellowship and the person or persons to whom you will be accountable, and how often you will meet. Include service: some regular way you give time or money to others.

This section is the one that Lesson 1.1 and Lesson 3.3 are about. It is easy to skip and costly to leave out.

Step 5: Add safeguards and limits

List the dangers you know are yours: pride, isolation, withdrawal from duties, confirmation bias, reliance on favorite teachers. Beside each, write a safeguard: a monthly conversation, the Step 4 test from Lesson 4.2, a rule that you will read a serious critic before you act on a new conviction. State your limits: the sort of decision you will not make alone, such as leaving a job or breaking a relationship because of a spiritual conviction, and the person you will consult first. Include a sentence of humility, such as an admission that you may be wrong about much of this and will listen when told so.

End with a date for review and a short prayer. Keep the whole document to one or two pages.

  1. What is the one sentence that says what my life is for?
  2. Is each practice I list specific enough that I could tell if I kept it?
  3. Have I put my obligations before my solitude?
  4. Who is named as the person to whom I answer, and have I asked them?
  5. Which of my known dangers has a matching safeguard?
  6. What decisions have I promised not to make alone?

Examples

A short purpose statement

A husband and father of two writes that, in this season, he wants to love God and his family, to grow in prayer and in knowledge of Scripture, and to serve his neighbors. He adds that he does not claim to be better than anyone else and does not mean to replace the church. (A constructed example.)

A practice written well

A worker writes: each weekday at 6:15, read one chapter of a Gospel and pray the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23 for ten minutes before work; on Saturday mornings, read for an hour from the Fathers; keep Sundays free of study. Each line has a time, a place and a length. (A constructed example.)

A safeguard written well

A reader writes that before acting on any new doctrinal conviction, he will wait one month, write the best arguments against it and send both to a named friend. He also promises not to decide major life changes alone. (A constructed example.)

Different perspectives

Catholic

Catholic spirituality has a long habit of rules of life and personal plans, often shared with a spiritual director. The Church also teaches that a person has duties of his state in life, so a framework for a layperson begins with family, work and parish obligations.

Orthodox

An Orthodox Christian’s prayer rule is normally set or approved by a spiritual father. The tradition advises against making a rule in secret or increasing it without counsel, because zeal can lead to pride or collapse.

Protestant

Protestant traditions have produced many models, including Wesley’s general rules, Puritan covenants and personal resolutions such as those of Jonathan Edwards. Some Protestants prefer to avoid anything resembling a rule because of fear of legalism, and prefer to speak of habits and disciplines.

Scholarly

Studies of habit formation suggest that small, specific, repeated commitments tied to a time and place are more likely to last than large resolutions. This general finding fits the monastic emphasis on a modest daily rhythm.

Why it matters

A framework turns ideas into a plan that can be reviewed. It gives a place to record what you have learned and a way to test whether you are living by it. For a solitary person it is also a protection: by writing down safeguards and limits ahead of time, you give your future self a reminder when judgment is clouded.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: A framework is a statement of my own authority.

Correction: It is a private plan. It makes no claim on anyone else, and it names the people who may correct it.

Misunderstanding: More detail means more seriousness.

Correction: Long rules fail. Brief, specific, keepable commitments last longer.

Misunderstanding: A framework is legalism.

Correction: A rule of life can be held lightly, as a trellis and not a cage. Benedict allowed the abbot to relax the Rule for the weak. The aim is love, and the framework serves it.

Misunderstanding: I need to settle all my beliefs before I write one.

Correction: No one has done so. A framework can say what is settled, what is open and how you will keep studying.

Knowledge check

What are the main sections of the framework in this lesson?

Purpose and season; foundations; practices; obligations and relationships, including accountability; and safeguards and limits, ending with a date for review. Each section should be brief, specific and honest.

Why should obligations to others appear in the framework?

Because spiritual practice that crowds out duty to family, work and neighbors becomes withdrawal from responsibility. Writing obligations in the framework protects them from being displaced by solitude.

What is the difference between an aim and a practice?

An aim states a hope, such as to be more prayerful. A practice states what you will actually do, when, where and for how long, so that you can tell whether you did it.

Why include a limit on decisions you will not make alone?

Because self-deception and strong conviction can push a person toward drastic action. A prior commitment to consult someone first gives a safeguard when judgment is clouded.

Think it through

  1. What is the hardest section of this framework for you to write honestly?
  2. What would you add to the safeguards from your own experience?
  3. Which of your commitments depends on someone else, and have you asked them?
  4. How would you explain this framework to a priest, a pastor and a skeptical friend?

Independent assignment

First draft of your framework

In your own notebook or a document you keep, write a first draft of your framework in one to two pages (about 500 to 800 words). Use the five sections of the lesson: purpose and season, foundations, practices, obligations and relationships, and safeguards and limits. Make every practice specific. Name your accountability person and a review date. Do not worry about polish. Put the draft aside for a week before the next lesson.

Further study