Faith Venture

Why do we practice spiritual disciplines? Sit in meditation? Strain our mind in study? Try to focus on prayer? Go out of our comfort zone to practice bits of service to others?

Is it so that we can tell people at the next social gathering (or on our social media page) how good and dedicated we are?

Would that be our ego talking?

Ego gets in the way. Move it out of the way, and we can…

Sit with calm mind in meditation for many minutes or even hours;

Engage our curiosity to discover new meanings in our study;

Converse with God in a give-and-take conversation, talking and listening, called prayer;

Just help someone without thinking why—even a random act of kindness.

The comedian Flip Wilson had one of his characters often say, “Get behind me, Satan.” Adopt that phrase, “Get behind me Ego. Just let me be me, a seeker and a servant.”

Epictetus would say that just as a person delights in improving his farm, and another his horse, he delighted in attending to his own improvement day by day. (Quote thanks to Ryan Holliday at the Daily Stoic.)

When we arise following a good night’s sleep, where does our focus go?

Perhaps a cup of coffee and a walk or run outside becomes a perfect start. Our self improvement begins with that.

What will we do with the rest of our day? Will it degrade us? Or improve us? Will we be delighted?

He decided we would eat at one of those Brazilian steak houses where they bring new cuts of meat as long as your little token on the table is turned to green.

Turns out he is on a “keto” diet to lose weight. Only eats steak. One a day. Protein and fat. Has lost 30 lbs. Many are on a program where they count points penalizing for eating sugar-laden foods and fat. They lose weight. Many count calories. Obsess over counting. They all lose weight.

This all reminds me of the laws God gave Moses in order to organize the newly freed slaves into a new society. Ten commandments. (Quick, can you name them?) And maybe 612 more laws. Most were designed to keep the Hebrews alive in the desert. They worked at the time—mostly.

But the society institutionalized those laws. And added more. By the time of Jesus, a group called the Pharisees went around trying to get right with God by following every law plus others they made up. And they enjoyed pointing out the difference between themselves and others.

Jesus said that wouldn’t work. He said it’s about the heart. And following him. Not his laws. Him.

When I read Paul’s letter to his friends in Galatia, I glimpse what freedom from the law is. If our heart is right and we follow Jesus, then we don’t have to obsess over the laws. We just do what Jesus expects of us. It’s in our daily walk of life.

It is like weight. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Keep the pantry and refrigerator stocked with good, whole food. Don’t stock overly processed snacks and meats. Try this:

• Reduce portions
• Purchase “real” food at the grocery (no junk in the house)
• Eat slowly

Or as Dr. Michael Pollen put it:

• Eat food
• Not too much
• Mostly plants

In spiritual life:

• Reduce reading to real spiritual texts
• Center daily life on prayer and meditation
• Serve others

It doesn’t have to be complicated.

Best-selling author and screenwriter Steven Pressfield publishes a weekly newsletter called Writing Wednesdays. He often talks about the practice of being a creative. This is similar to the practice of entering a spiritual practice as we delve into a deeper spiritual life.

Recently he quotes a dance teacher, “This class is a practice. When you step inside this studio to dance, leave behind your fear, your competitiveness with others, your anger, your worry, your grudges, your complaints, your dissatisfaction with your lot, your greed for glory, your avarice for attention. You are here to dance as well as you can. Leave your ego and your problems outside.”

Pressfield adds his own advice:

In other words, when our motivation is grounded in our ego, we do not have a practice. Or to flip that statement on its head, the aim of a practice is effacement of the ego.

Whether we enter prayer, meditation, study, or even service, these are foundational words. Leave the ego behind—that part of us that seeks control and “me-first” attitudes.