Archive for the ‘Disciplines’ Category

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Taxes and the Pursuit of Spiritual Practice

April 12, 2016

Working on income taxes brings out so many spiritual issues that there could be a book. Or maybe spiritual practices and personal development practices (as if they could be separated).

I’m working on mine. Yes, I know they are due in less than a week. But mine are a little complicated. I have a business with income and expenses and the like. On the personal side, my wife and I are reasonably generous and have many charitable deductions–our major personal deductions.

While pondering all my receipts and expenses, I thought of all the ethical decisions based on each item.

Is this truly charitable? Well, in the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service, is it truly charitable and deductible? This is both an ethics and a legal question. Deserves honest answers.

There are so many ways for a non-rich person to ignore income that was cash only or came in a variety of “off-the-books” ways. Not illegal, but not reported. More ethical decisions.

I use a tax preparation program. Fitting things into the categories has always been an intellectual exercise calling for yet another cup of coffee.

Yes, tax time is definitely moral inventory assessment time.

It’s also personal growth and productivity time.

I’ve written about Getting Things Done, Evernote, and Nozbe (my to-do list capture and productivity tool).

The first practice is to capture everything–idea, receipt, income, contract–in one trusted place. I keep almost no paper. I use Evernote for documents. I photograph or scan all receipts or use the cloud where possible. Send directly to Evernote. I link important things that relate to next actions from Evernote to Nozbe. Nozbe is my daily (hourly) reference for what I should do next. This one is easy–sit down, concentrate, do taxes!

This collecting process is the one thing that helps that few people do. Looking around for scattered notes and odd pieces of paper is time consuming and will definitely lead to your missing important documentation.

Good record keeping circles back to help on the ethics issue. You have the document and know what sort of income or expense. Of course, you still have to make decisions and do the work. Where’s that extra cup of coffee?

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Jesus Turned Everything Upside Down

April 11, 2016

Matthew had an interesting outline for how he wanted to present his friend Jesus to the world. He introduces Jesus and the scene. Then he skips to Jesus baptism and what we call temptation (actually a period of spiritual formation followed by facing temptations which always happen to us after a deep spiritual experience and we’re strong enough to deal with them).

Then he consolidates the core of Jesus’ teaching. Chapters 5-7. I have now decided to reread these annually along with my annual reading of the book of Proverbs.

If you can clear your mind, throw away footnoted, transport yourself back to the scene in your imagination, then read the teaching, perhaps the message will sink in.

Many of us need time to let things sink in and become part of our awareness.

Looking at the “blessed” statements with eyes open to the world of the Romans, you see how Jesus turned it all upside down. Instead of the powerful being blessed, it is the opposite.

Then Jesus proceeds to raise the bar on following the law. It was already hard for people,  especially common, ordinary working people, to follow every bit of the law. Then Jesus says, you have heard it said, but I say… He made it impossible.

Then you think about it. If you think you can follow the law to become right with God, you have set an impossible task. However, if you have the right relationship with God and people, then you will in fact be following the law. It’s all upside down–God’s way and our way.

So it’s sort of weird, our spiritual practices. They should help us maintain a right relationship with God and at the same time help us focus on being right with other people.

We don’t study just to be knowledgeable. That is useless. We study so that we know how to relate to others and how to help point them to a relationship. We also study (people have said in surveys) to achieve and maintain our own right relationship with God.

Same with prayer. Same with worship. Same with fasting.

Spiritual is not just what’s inside you. Spiritual is also how you manifest that which is inside to other people. Are you helpful or a hindrance? Generous or selfish? Thinking of others or all about you?

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Jesus Kept Raising The Bar

April 8, 2016

Imagine you are a first-century Jewish common person. From Galilee, the “hillbilly” of the country. You’re listening to a new guy preach. You’ve heard rabbis and self-proclaimed rabbis speak before.

But this guy is different. His name is Joshua, same as the guy who conquered the Holy Land. (In Greek, which they spoke but didn’t use except for trade, Jesus.)

His talks turned the power relationships upside down. He brought forward the poor and disenfranchised. He poked at the rich and powerful–Romans and especially Pharisees.

Then he reinterpreted the Law and raised the bar. He raised it so high that even those self-righteous Pharisees couldn’t make it.

John preached righteousness and repentance. But this Jesus dude–he took it to a whole different level.

There was no way anyone could make it except by God’s grace.

I guess that was the point.

No wonder those first-century listeners followed him. He also backed it up by healing those who came to him.

So how does all that impact our spiritual formation and disciplines today? Does it still seem so impossible? Or, have we heard the story so many times that we lose the wonder and mystery?

I’m going back and reading just Jesus’ words. Not the stories or interludes. What did he say?

Then I try to put on new eyes and see the text new. What would I think if I were sitting on that hillside on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee? Seeing this guy for the first time? Not knowing what would happen in just three years.

Could he topple governments? Put those snooty people who think they are so great in their place?

Certainly he was feeding the spiritual hunger that had grown so much at this time.

Messiah (in Greek, Christ; in English, anointed one of God)? What did that really mean?

He certainly gave us something to think about as we walked home afterwards.

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The Body Is The Temple of the Spirit

April 6, 2016

While I am on a physical development trend right now, let me bring up an article I found in The New York Times. It seems a study shows that few people actually do the four pillars of a heart healthy lifestyle.

Let me preface this meditation with a few words from Paul, the Apostle:

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20  New International Version (NIV)

The article in The New York Times stated:

Most Americans know that a heart-healthy lifestyle includes eating a healthful diet, not smoking, being physically active and keeping weight and body fat down. But a new study found that fewer than 3 percent of American adults could claim all four healthy elements.

Only 2.7 percent of the Americans in the study were nonsmokers who ate a reasonably good diet, including eating plenty of vegetables and whole grains and avoiding saturated fat; got at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week; and had a healthy percentage of body fat, defined as up to 20 percent for men and 30 percent for women.

Actually, there is no guarantee that you will live longer if you follow all the advice. But you will live better.

Do you ever find yourself without energy in the afternoon or evening (or both)? Do you have trouble focusing for long periods? Are your relationships falling off the track?

How do you think you can be a witness and servant of Jesus if you don’t have the physical stamina?

How can you maintain the disciplines of study and prayer and meditation with the lack of energy caused by an unhealthy lifestyle?

Eat primarily vegetables with some added lean meat and whole grains. Reduce fats and processed foods (especially white flour and sugar–we get way too much of those in our diet). Add some daily exercise–running, walking briskly, some sort of weight training, Yoga or Tai Chi.Watching what goes into your body includes eliminating smoking (anything) and reducing alcohol to just a couple per day.

Turn your body into a true Temple for the Holy Spirit. Build it day by day.

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Stop Dropping The Ball And Get Things Done

April 5, 2016

Are people beginning to drop hints about your forgetting to do something? Too often? Do you think of things you’d like to do? And then think of them again a week later? Are you stressed out trying to remember things?

Lately I have run across many people exhibiting those traits.

I recommend the methodology of David Allen laid out clearly in his book Getting Things Done.

Someone remarked recently about how productive they think I am. Well, to be honest, I could be better–I’m looking into my daily habits. But, I adopted the GTD method about 10 years ago. After trying a number of digital apps as an aid, I settled on Nozbe.

Want to be more productive? Buy the book. Read it. Do it. If Nozbe helps, get it. There is a free version or you can upgrade for a few more features.

Method

The reason I talk about this in a spiritual development blog is that if your mind is not clear and you are worried about many things (Martha), then you will not be able to settle into your study, prayer, and meditation time.

Collect

Collect all the things you need to process, remember, do. Emails, requests, “honey-do”, reports, shopping lists, and so on.

Put them in one trusted place. Either in pen and paper in a file folder or in one digital spot.

Process these things:

Can  I do them in 2 minutes or less–then do it.

Is there a date requirement–put in a dated tickler folder to pull out on the date you’ll do it.

Is there a context? Gather all your things to get while out running errands. List all the calls you need to make while you have phone time. List all the things to do while you’re working at your computer. Etc.

Most important–translate everything into next actions. If your action is “birthday party”, you’re not quite right. Your next actions really are something like write invitations, mail invitations, buy cake….Get the picture?

Everything goes on a list.

Every night, look at the list and determine the three most important tasks to tackle tomorrow.

Every week, review the previous week and the upcoming week and determine what you need to get done.

Every month, take some time and review at a higher level. Is what I’m working on helping me accomplish what I want to and become the kind of person I want to be?

Every year take a couple of days into a self-retreat. Think about the bigger picture of who you are and what you want to do and organize your lists or set project.

Stopping dropping the ball. Become known as a dependable person on top of things and your life.

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Showing Beats Telling Every Time

April 4, 2016

I picked up the morning paper and immediately saw articles about problems caused in people because of drugs. Overdoses among those released from prison are proportionately high. Locking people in prison for using drugs had essentially no effect.

There are many other stories about what drugs and addictions do to people daily in every news source.

There are other things that people do that destroy their lives–physically, emotionally, relationally. We know about them. We see them. We read ancient texts that describe them. It’s not a new phenomena.

Yet, what have followers of Jesus really done about it?

Do we point fingers and preach (telling) about how bad those things are?

Do we support locking people away in prisons or other institutions? Anything to get them off the streets and away from our sight?

Helping people after they’ve gone far down the wrong road is exceedingly difficult. There are people who do that. They should be celebrated as heroes. (How about that media? Celebrating people who help rather than loud-mouthed politicians? Maybe that would solve a few things?)

What about before they get so far down that road?

I wrote Friday about repentance. Turning away from the road you’re on and going down a different one. About how Matthew says Jesus began his ministry the same way–preaching repentance.

However, Jesus did it differently than John. Reading at the end of Matthew’s report, Jesus leaves his followers (us) the “Great Commission”. I love the way Jon Swanson approaches his writing. I wish I could be like him. But I guess I’m more like me. Today, Jon paraphrased that passage:

“Make more followers of me the same way I made followers of me. Spend time with people, showing them how you live. When you do, make sure that you are choosing to spend some of that time with every class of people. The kind you fit with, and the kind you don’t.”

What if we (including me…and you) did more of this when we can reach people before they get too far down that road?

I’ve always liked the heart of American liberalism more than that of American conservatives. The emphasis on helping people. However, they picked up some ideas in the early 20th century from Europe about using the power of government to help. Governments really can’t solve all problems.

Who can help? Who can solve the problems?

Well, Jesus of course. But not miraculously by some lightning strike from the sky, but through his followers. Who show people how to live and save them one person at a time. And one at a time until we reach every single living person. Isn’t that what we were commissioned to do when we signed up?

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Change Your Direction

April 1, 2016

According to Matthew, Jesus appeared publicly in his new role first to be baptized and then to seek solitude in the wilderness where he was tempted (OK, that wasn’t public). Then, Matthew says (4:17), “From that time Jesus began to proclaim ‘Repent for the Kingdom of God has come near.’ ”

To American, and probably British ears, the word “repent” may conjure images that are really far from the actual meaning of the word. I picture the hate-filled preacher with the black suit and hat and black beard in the movie version of “Paint Your Wagon”. You may have a similar image come to mind of an accuser pointing a finger and shouting “repent or go to hell.” And you get the idea that they’d rather see you roast.

I’m sorry the word has been so misused.

It really just means to change direction. Jesus was inviting people into a new way of doing life. Just like his cousin John (the Baptist).

Think about Jesus’ entire ministry. He made pointed comments to those who thought they were right with God but who were deluding themselves. John (the Evangelist) loves to point those out.

Jesus really used the word as an invitation. There was no accusation. No condemning to Hell.

He was saying, follow me and walk into a new life. Now. And forever. And we still can.

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Study From The Source

March 31, 2016

The podcast host was interviewing a professor at a smaller Christian university.

“The kids today are entering university with very little knowledge of the Bible. They don’t get information by reading, and they don’t read the Bible.”

“So what do you do?”

“We have a mandatory class on the Old Testament and New Testament.”

That comment encapsulates why I don’t think that a BA or even BS degree these days is worth much more than a high school diploma from years ago.

I went to the university having read many philosophers (I know, you’re shocked). We had a mandatory one-year long class “Philosophy and Religion.” Yes, it was a Christian school.

That year we read about philosophers, religion, Christianity, the Old Testament, the New Testament. Even at 19 years old I inherently knew that the class was just superficial — get your A and get out.

Even in graduate school we read more about thinkers than reading the thinkers themselves.

We’d have  been better served with a reading list. Read these works by Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Kant, Hegel; then read this list of books of the Bible. Come to class prepared to discuss the key points the writers were arguing.

Our students are coming to university Biblically illiterate? Have them start reading–the Bible. I know that’s revolutionary thinking.

Instead of a survey course that gives overviews of the books of the Bible, read the Bible.

Then after they’ve read the Bible for a basic foundation, then they can be introduced to interpreters. I prefer reading the early church Fathers up to and including Augustine. I am not enamored of the later theologies–Reformed in its various guises, what we call “fundamentlism” or some flavors of the evangelical world, the interesting stories people make up riffing from Daniel and Revelation. But at some point they need to read those thinkers.

Instill one of the most important disciplines early in life of these students–reading from the Bible every day.

By the way–what were the churches these kids attended before going to a Christian university doing, anyway? Maybe it would be a good service for some of you to lead youth in actually reading the Bible!

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Are There People Who Are Not Christians In Your Church?

March 30, 2016

I didn’t mean to miss posting yesterday. We had guests and then we were relaxing and I forgot all about writing. Yes, that’s hard to believe. And, I left at 5:30 am for a meeting on the other side of the state. In Ohio, that’s a 3-hour drive.

Looking at our Easter service and thinking about the early  church growing by attraction, I started to meditate on people in the church. Especially when I see posts on Facebook from people who claim Christianity, but their posts belie that stance. Meaning that there is precious little in what they say that sounds as if it were rooted in the New Testament.

So, I got to wondering, how many people were attracted to come to the church who are not followers of Jesus?

Then I thought, there are two types of these people.

On the one hand would be seekers. They know that they are not followers, but they are attracted enough to find out more. They feel a need and feel there’s something that other people have. So, they come.

On the other hand, there are members or regular attenders. They may even say that they are a member. On a questionnaire, they may even check Christian.

But one wonders. Are they really? As the old saying goes, if you were tried at court for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Well?

So, I wondered. How many people around me are that second type? And why have I not attracted any of the first type?

And, how do my actions stack up?

I’ve been reading in an early “catechism” ascribed to the apostles themselves called the Didache (dee-da-kay). Many chapters are advice on how to live. Makes me wonder–if someone were watching my life unfold, would they know that I’m a follower of Jesus?

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Easter Comes, Then What’s Next

March 28, 2016

The day of the crucifixion came and afterwards Jesus’ friends and followers hid out in a locked house for fear the authorities might come after them.

On the third day, some ventured out to perform funeral rituals. Problem–no body. Then Jesus began appearing to various ones.

They were still confused. Some scattered. A bunch returned home to the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. They really had no clue what came next. It took a while to digest the experiences.

Then the Spirit came. They were on fire. There was no stopping them. They didn’t build “churches,” they shared a new way to live. And the new faithful indeed did live differently from their neighbors. Differently in a way that attracted others.

The theme in my reading over the past couple of days has been centered on what’s an after-Easter life.

That is why we practice what are known as spiritual disciplines–regular Bible reading, meditation, prayer, service, prayer, worship. The days after can slip into the old routine. Starting new habits is hard.  We must be intentional in our new life.

For most of us, that “Easter moment” happened many years ago. But as the Righteous Brothers sang so movingly, we’ve “lost that loving feeling.”

What better time than after the Easter celebrations to develop new habits with intention. Not just slipping into a mindless routine. Choose our routines.

Live out Easter daily.

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