The Holy Art of Being Lost<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I know what you\u2019re probably thinking:\u00a0 how could the U.S. get its first official Marian apparition site and the Holy Rover not be on the scene with the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holyrover\/2010\/12\/17\/the-holy-art-of-being-lost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Holy Art of Being Lost\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I know what you\u2019re probably thinking:\u00a0 how could the U.S. get its first official Marian apparition site and the Holy Rover not be on the scene with the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holyrover\/2010\/12\/17\/the-holy-art-of-being-lost\/\" 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{"id":5486,"date":"2010-12-17T13:22:10","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T19:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holyrover\/?p=5486"},"modified":"2010-12-17T13:22:10","modified_gmt":"2010-12-17T19:22:10","slug":"the-holy-art-of-being-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holyrover\/2010\/12\/17\/the-holy-art-of-being-lost\/","title":{"rendered":"The Holy Art of Being Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ I know what you\u2019re probably thinking:\u00a0 how could the U.S. get its first official Marian apparition site <\/a>and the Holy Rover not be on the scene with the breaking news?\u00a0 Later, my friends, later.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got Champion, Wisconsin, on my list of must-see destinations, but in the meantime, I\u2019m back blogging to tell you about the most lovely book I\u2019ve been reading:\u00a0 Barbara Brown Taylor\u2019s An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith<\/a> $\"\"$ .\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Subtitled \u201cA Geography of Faith,\u201d the book is a look at a dozen familiar and not-so-familiar spiritual practices.\u00a0 Taylor gives insights into traditional ones like the practice of prayer and the practice of pronouncing blessings. But where the book really sings is in chapters such as the practice of saying no<\/em>, the practice of feeling pain<\/em>, and the practice of wearing skin<\/em>.\u00a0 Like the poet Rumi (whom she quotes at crucial points in the book), Taylor is able to imbue ordinary life with brilliant radiance.<\/p>\n

My favorite is her chapter on the practice of getting lost.\u00a0 \u201cGod does some of God\u2019s best work with people who are truly, seriously lost,\u201d she writes, recalling the stories of Abraham and Sarah and the clueless Israelites, who needed forty years in the wilderness in order to learn the holy art of being lost. She says that popular religion focuses so hard on spiritual success that most of us do not know the first thing about the spiritual fruits of failure, and yet if someone asked us to pinpoint the times in our lives that changed us for the better, a lot of those times would be wilderness times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe practice of getting lost has nothing to do with wanting to go there,\u201d she writes.\u00a0 \u201cIt is something that happens, like it or not. You lose your job. Your lover leaves. The baby dies. At this level, the advanced practice of getting lost consists of consenting to be lost, since you have no other choice. The consenting itself becomes your choice, as you explore the possibility that life is for you and not against you, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book made me think of the times in my life I\u2019ve been lost physically (including a number of times in foreign countries where I didn\u2019t speak the language) and spiritually (which seems to happen on a regular basis).\u00a0 Thanks to Barbara Brown Taylor, I\u2019ve come to understand how being lost can be a spiritual discipline, one unasked for, but valuable just the same.<\/p>\n

Writes Taylor:\u00a0 \u201cAnything can become a spiritual practice once you are willing to approach it that way\u2014once you let it bring you to your knees and show you what is real, including who you really are, who other people are, and how near God can be when you have lost your way.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for a fine book for a cold winter\u2019s night\u2013or for a companion when you\u2019re lost in the wilderness\u2013I\u00a0recommend this one.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"