By Pastor David Robinson, Lead Pastor, Cannon Beach Community Church
If you are kind of person who does not make New Year’s resolutions, welcome to most of humanity. 80% of people who do make them break them by February. Try something different in 2020. Why not surprise yourself this January by slowly reading a six hundred year old classic of Christian spirituality? You can do this by picking up the newly published translation/paraphrase of The Cloud of Unknowing, in a daily devotional titled, Cloud Devotion: Through the Year with The Cloud of Unknowing, released on January 7, 2020 by Paraclete Press. This is my seventh book in publication. Cloud Devotion, a book of 366 short, daily devotional readings with daily reflection questions, draws upon an anonymous spiritual classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, written in the 14th century. Over the past five years, I’ve worked on translating and paraphrasing the original Middle English text of The Cloud of Unknowing, phrase-by-phrase, sentence-by-sentence, into language familiar to readers in the 21st century, while remaining true to the linguistic voice of this classic Middle English book.
Cloud Devotion is for people who are seeking an ancient pattern of spirituality that transcends popular self-help books or mainstream devotional books. Every phrase and every chapter of The Cloud of Unknowing is included in Cloud Devotion. The chapters in Cloud Devotion are short and personal, inviting readers to leave behind empty ways of spiritual living and press forward into ancient but new ways of prayer, encouraging you to love God and love others more fully. I invite you to walk closer with God as you read this book. My hope is that you will hear Christ’s personal invitation to come closer to God within the Cloud of Unknowing. As the writer of the Book of Hebrews proclaims, “We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). Along with the great cloud of witnesses across the centuries who have encountered God through The Cloud of Unknowing, may you also enter more fully into the brightness and glory of God’s presence.
As a full-time Lead Pastor of a Covenant Church, I take time weekly, on Mondays to study, pray, and write. I mark Mondays on my weekly calendar with the letter “S”, reminding me to practice the spiritual discipline of study as a pastor at least one day a week. Monday is not a Sabbath day, but a working day, where I engage in the work of prayer, study and writing. It takes me three to five years of Mondays to write a book. Over the past twenty years, I’ve written seven books that have been published by traditional publishers. The books I write are all non-fiction, based upon classic works of Christian spirituality from the Middle Ages. Five of the books I’ve written are based upon principles and practices from The Rule of St. Benedict (early 6th century), including The Sacred Art of Marriage: 52 Creative Ways to Grow Your Married Life (Cascade, 2016); Ancient Paths: Discover Christian Formation the Benedictine Way (Paraclete, 2010); The Busy Family’s Guide to Spirituality: Practical Lessons for Modern Living from the Monastic Tradition (Crossroad, 2009); The Christian Family Toolbox: 52 Benedictine Activities for the Home (Crossroad, 2001); and The Family Cloister: Benedictine Wisdom for the Home (Crossroad, 2000, winner of national book award for “Best Family Life Book” from The National Catholic Press Association in 2001). I’ve written one book based upon Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Rule (from the late 6th century), a book titled Soul Mentoring: Discover the Ancient Art of Caring for Others (Cascade, 2015). My most recent publication coming out in January 2020, Cloud Devotion,is based upon a classic of spirituality from the 14th century, The Cloud of Unknowing, written by an anonymous author.
When I write, I like to think of the spiritual life as water flowing in a mountain stream. Every summer over the past two decades, I’ve gone hiking with my wife for a week or more in the mountains. In the summer of 2018, we hiked for a week and a half, 100 miles around Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe. Over a ten-day period, while hiking along alpine mountain trails, we came upon beautiful mountain streams, full of cold, clear water flowing down from the heights along water paths. We also came upon dry stream beds where water once flowed but had dried up. My attention went up the mountain to the source of water. Without a connection to clouds, glaciers, mountain springs, or snowfield melt, a mountain stream dries up. A spiritual life in Christ that is healthy and full experiences an unceasing flow of pure, refreshing water that brings life and renewal in and out of seasons. When our spiritual life is unhealthy or empty, our life becomes like a dry stream bed devoid of water where very little grows. Dryness in the spiritual life is one of the most common challenges I’ve heard from people in my 36 years in active pastoral ministry. Cloud Devotion seeks to address this challenge by leading you step by step, day by day, through a full year of days, into the heights of Christ’s life-giving presence, to the source of living water where life may once again be filled and renewed. Cloud Devotion is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or through my author website, http://waterpaths.org/. Happy New Year and may Christ renew your life through daily devotional practices that bring refreshment to your thirsty soul.
