A Rule of Life: The Unhurried Craft of the Soul
26 July 2026, 5:45pm Evensong - 🧵 The Personal Sanctuary of the Loom - The Revd Canon Emma Racklyeft
Over twenty years ago, my mother-in-law, Val, very patiently taught me to knit. What began as a messy attempt at a nativity scene (with a very holey Mary) became a vital sanctuary.
In a loud, chaotic world, the rhythm of my knitting needles offers a quiet joy, transforming formless yarn into structural order, a beautiful garment with a greater purpose.
Our modern lives often resemble a tangled, vulnerable ball of yarn—overwhelmed by digital noise, speed, and endless demands. But Jesus offers an entirely different pace.
In Matthew 11, Jesus extends a profound invitation: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…’ Notice what Jesus invites us to do. He does not say ‘come to me and I will give you a better time-management spreadsheet or a more efficient app.’ He says, ‘Take my yolk.’
As author John Mark Comer notes, a yoke is a Rabbi’s way of life. Today, we call this spiritual structure a Rule of Life. Derived from the Latin word for trellis, it is not a set of rigid laws, but an intentional pattern of disciplines that supports our souls so we can abide in Jesus.
📍 The Tension and the Gauge
Every knitting project begins with two non-negotiable steps: checking the gauge and setting the tension. If your tension is pulled too tight, the stitches lock up, the yarn splits, and your hands cramp with pain. If your tension is too loose, the garment becomes floppy and loses its structural integrity.
The tragedy of the modern Western church is that most of us are living with our spiritual, emotional, and mental tension pulled far too tight. We are hurried, anxious, and chronically busy. Author John Mark Comer writes that “hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life.” Hurry kills love, joy, and peace. You cannot love someone deeply when you are constantly rushing past them to your next appointment.
When we hurry, we don't just damage our own souls; we damage our communities. When we rush through life with tight, anxious tension, we inherently begin to value people based on efficiency and utility. We automatically offer the best of our time to those who can benefit us, while pushing the vulnerable or the inconvenient to the very margins of our schedules.
When we adopt a Rule of Life, we intentionally set our daily tension to match the unhurried pace of Jesus. Jesus was never in a hurry, which meant He never showed partiality. He had a mere three years of public ministry to save the cosmos, yet He always had space in His pattern to stop for a blind beggar, sit quietly by a well, and treat the poor with worth and value.
We see the power of this unhurried tension vividly illustrated in Acts chapter 12. King Herod Agrippa launches a violent persecution against the early church, executing James and arresting Peter. Herod locks Peter away under maximum security, guarded by sixteen soldiers.
Outside the prison, Herod is in a frantic, power-hungry rush. Inside the prison, on the very night before his public trial and probable execution, Peter is asleep. He isn't pacing his cell or consumed by panic. His internal tension is perfectly matched to the unhurried peace of his Master. He is resting so deeply in the custody of God that when the angel arrives to rescue him, the angel has to strike Peter on the side just to wake him up!
How do we practically adjust our tension to experience that kind of peace? We build specific, regular habits—sacred stitches—into our day:
• The Stitch of Silence and Solitude: Turning off the noise and screens before the world wakes up to sit quietly with God.
• The Stitch of Sabbath: Setting aside one full day a week to completely cease striving, rest, and delight in God’s creation.
When we knit these disciplines into our weekly routine, our internal tension softens. We stop merely reacting to the chaos around us and start responding with love to the Holy Spirit within us.
🧶 Dropped Stitches and Divine Patience
If you have ever tried knitting, you know the dread of discovering a dropped stitch. Ignore it, and the entire piece will eventually unravel. When you drop a stitch, you have two choices: get frustrated and tear the project apart, or pause, grab a crochet hook, and gently work that loop back up to the top.
Our spiritual lives are full of dropped stitches. We oversleep instead of praying, or we lose our temper when trying to love others. Even our communities drop stitches. In Acts 12, while Peter was in prison, the church gathered at Mary’s house to pray earnestly. Yet, when God answered their prayer, their spiritual stitches dropped completely.
When Peter knocked at the gate, a servant girl named Rhoda recognized his voice and ran inside, overjoyed. The believers responded, "You are out of your mind," or rationalised, "It must be his angel." They were praying for a miracle, yet lacked the faith to believe it when it knocked on their door.
This is where the grace of the Master Artisan meets us. God is not a cosmic sweatshop manager demanding flawless production; He is a patient craftsman. He did not abandon the church for faltering in faith, nor did He abandon Peter while he stood outside knocking.
When we fail at our spiritual rhythms, a Rule of Life provides a graceful framework to pick up the dropped stitch without shame. We do not have to start from scratch. Like the believers who finally opened the door and were astonished by God’s goodness, we simply confess, pause, and step back into the rhythm of grace.
🧣 The Finished Garment
True knitting simply cannot be rushed. There is no microwave setting for a beautiful, hand-knitted jumper. It takes hours of quiet, repetitive, faithful movements—knit one, purl one, row after row.
Spiritual formation operates by the exact same law. You do not become like Jesus overnight. It is the cumulative effect of a thousand tiny, hidden choices to choose quiet over noise, prayer over panic, and love over isolation.
When you finally finish a knitting project, you cast off the needles, tuck in the loose ends, and hold up the finished piece. What was once just a single, fragile string is now a beautifully integrated, strong, and warm garment. That is what Jesus wants to do with your life. He wants to take the scattered, tangled, and frantic threads of your time, your energy, and your relationships, and weave them into a life that speaks of order, glory and grace.
This slow, deliberate process of learning to retreat, relax, and find divine order directly mirrors the beautiful vision of our own Portsmouth Diocese: to become a rejuvenating community of Jesus-centred, kingdom-seeking disciples.
A Rule of Life isn't an end in itself; it is the practical pathway by which we keep Christ at the absolute centre of our lives. By intentionally slowing down to His unhurried pace, picking up our dropped stitches, we find the spiritual capacity to seek His Kingdom.
Let us stop rushing through the pattern. Let us embrace the slow, unhurried craft of the soul. Let us take up the yoke of Jesus, design a life built around His presence, and watch Him turn our tangled lives into a masterpiece.
There are several books that explore Rules of Life – but if you want something simple, down to earth and easy to understand then I would thoroughly recommend the book I’ve referred to this evening ‘Practicing the Way’ by John Mark Comer. It offers nine practices, which if explored and embraced, can be totally transformative, making us more like Jesus, and kingdom seeking disciples, for his praise and glory.
Amen.