Archive for the ‘Disciplines’ Category

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For Christmas, Jesus, I’d Like Your Presence

December 21, 2015

“Jesus, I want your presence for Christmas.”

That sentence appeared somewhere last week. I love plays on words. They often drive ideas home. Several books of the Bible are full of these word plays–especially Psalms and Proverbs. Sometimes I think Paul sneaked one or two in his writings.

Presence–Presents.

There are people who, as children, received few presents. Then they went to school and saw what some of the other kids got. Cue jealousy, greed leading to a life of self-absorption, narcissism, and/or greed. Even into late adulthood, they still crave presents.

Even as Christians, as self-professed followers of the guy whose birth we celebrate. They can’t help it. This most likely was not a decision. So many things we get blamed for by the Pharisees who still live amongst us are not really decisions. Just reactions reinforced by family or peer group becoming habits of self-thought.

Others of us learned from those “poor” beginnings that all the gifts really had little meaning. Open the present, check out the (most likely cheap) toy, play for a while, then it’s over.

What remains is experience. All the family gathered. Special church worship. People especially cheerful, wishing peace for everyone.

Me, I seek the presence. As a contemplative, I’ve had experiences. They are deep and meaningful. On the other hand, some of the best experiences of presence have come in service. Sometime just a helping hand. Or picking up a dinner check for some stranger spontaneously. Or working with orphans in international ministries. It can be in the same house or half-way around the world.

We celebrated the 4th Sunday of Advent in a church that celebrates diversity. In just about every way. What a welcoming group of people. The presence was felt.

I only wish that we could spread that presence of the one whose birth we celebrate.

Could I be more witness and less preacher? Seek and share the presence of Jesus.

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A Life of Service

December 2, 2015

It was somewhat “accidental” that the government sent him to work with youth in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the US.

You wonder how much of an accident it was. For the government, it was a form of punishment for not being drafted in the VietNam War era. He chose service.

There are people who love to quote passages from the Bible such as all things work for good for those who have faith. Whether God was behind the decision or God worked in the moment, the decision led to a life of service.

After some years of service, he went into business. But the service continued. He began adopting children whom no one else would care for. Severe handicaps and abuse. Some would never be able to leave his care (also his wife’s by the way who shared the entire journey).

He and his partner were good at that business thing. Became quite wealthy. The resources enabled the growing family to build a suitable estate to house them all.

A life of service done in the name of God. A life of service of which he never boasted. He and his wife “just did it.”

I heard the story once. It stuck. It makes me wonder what I’ve done with my life. Christians used to call this feeling “conviction,” in the sense of being convicted of a crime.

Stories such as this from my lifetime force me to recall Acts 2 and 4 where the church grew rapidly because of the way the members of the fellowship lived and cared for people.

Our witness of the power of Jesus gains credibility when done from a life of service to others.

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Praying For Discernment And Changed Hearts

November 24, 2015

The headline was made for clicking–“Rick Warren: Paris Happened Because We’re at War with God.” I clicked. The article really wasn’t like the headline. Watch what you click online.

But it made me think.

There is evil in the world. We read it in the Bible. We can see it if we only keep our eyes open. I don’t blame Islam. Many followers of The Prophet are offended and aghast at the atrocities supposedly done in his name but which are just pure evil.

We also know both from the Bible and from experience that the only good comes from changed hearts. We need changed hearts to guide our reaction to circumstances.

A serious  question is whether people caught up in evil can escape and have a changed heart. Our only response from a distance is to pray for those changed hearts.

As for the article, there is no explanation for the comment. It came during a prayer. That is where we need discernment. There is so much sloppy thinking, uneducated opinion, cynicism, and bait for page views (and advertising money that come with them) on the Web, we really owe it to ourselves to practice discernment.

Praying, discernment, changed hearts (especially our own). Spiritual formation. It never ceases.

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Seven Principles Of Thinking Like Da Vinci

November 11, 2015

Michael J. Gelb’s book, How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, reminds us of how to elevate our consciousness, creativity, and contribution.

I talked about curiosity as the first principle Monday. Let me quickly summarize the entire seven. Then go pick up the book and dive into the details. The bonus last chapter teaches how to draw like da Vinci–maybe not as good, but builds on his ideas.

(Gelb uses the Italian. Go figure.)

  • Curiosita–Am I asking the right questions?
  • Dimostrazione–How can I improve my ability to learn from my mistakes and experiences? How can I develop my independence of thought?
  • Sensazione–What is my plan for sharpening my senses as I age?
  • Sfumato–How can I strengthen my ability to hold creative tension to embrace the major paradoxes of life?
  • Arte/Scienza–Am I balancing Arte and Scienza at home and at work?
  • Corporalita–How can I nurture the balance of body and mind?
  • Connessione–How do all the above elements fit together? How does everything connect to everything else?

It is about body, mind, and spirit. You can, and probably should, incorporate these into your spiritual practices. Something to think about.

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Curiosity Is The Foundation of Learning

November 9, 2015

How could you draw that smile (on the Mona Lisa)? How do you draw? What do you know how to draw? How do they paint the Eiffel Tower? Do they tie ropes to the guys? Why can’t they make a light bulb that lasts longer? Why can’t they make a better battery? How did they know about waves in the air when they invented them to make a radio?

That wasn’t even the entire conversation with my 8-yr-old grandson. I just asked him about his trip to Paris.

I told him that the world is filled with problems to solve. That’s why we need engineers and scientists.

I’m worried that school will kill some of that curiosity, but that’s another story.

The thing is–he’s always been curious. At 18 months taking a walk down the street could take a long time as we stopped explore all manner of things.

The conference I attended a few weeks ago featured a keynote speaker called Michael Gelb. He wrote a book, “How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci.” It is a fascinating book about a fascinating guy.

The first of seven characteristics–Curiosity.

What is that doing in a spiritual discipline blog?

Think of all the curiosity in the New Testament.

All of the original 12 close disciples were curious about Jesus. Who is that guy? Paul at first was opposed, then he too wondered, “Who is that guy?”

Paul also had to answer the question, Now what do we do after we believe? (Hint: Love the Lord and love your neighbor.)

I’m incessantly curious–what is God trying to say to me? What does the Bible say? What should I be doing? Why do people act that way? How can I help? What can I do to serve?

Curiosity can be a powerful spiritual discipline. It keeps us from becoming complacent.

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Working Hard As Spiritual Discipline

November 5, 2015

When did you discover the value of working hard? Or, did you ever?

For me, it hit me somewhere around age 19. I just coasted through elementary and high school and “earned” from excellent to good grades. Then there was the university. Competition was tough. Classes were tough (and I wasn’t prepared either academically or in maturity for the jump).

Then, duh, I learned to go to class and do the work.

That is a life-long trait. I can relax, but I know the value and benefits of working hard.

Recently I have been listening to Rick Warren. He’s pastor of Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA. He’s been discussing living a blessed life (from the Sermon on the Mount, you know, Blessed are the …). Today he was talking about how God expects us to be people of integrity. And one example of integrity is to work hard. If someone is paying you for a day’s labor, then give that person your undivided attention and focus on the work.

Work becomes a Spiritual Discipline if done with the right attitude and focus.

Hard work also becomes a witness. I heard a story from a business man in a developing country. His example, his hiring practices, and his treatment of employees with the highest ethics served as a witness bringing many people into discipleship with Jesus.

Warren said, “Wouldn’t it be great if you could say I hire Christians because they always work hard and have the highest ethics.”

Bringing our spiritual life into all facets of our life is the most important thing we can do.

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Free To Be With God

October 29, 2015

“The purpose of the spiritual disciplines is to make you free.”

Both Dallas Willard and Richard J. Foster warn about the proper use of the practice of spiritual discipline. The point is not to be able to say that I fasted so many days, or read the Bible every day, or prayed diligently. To have that attitude is to return to that old human attitude of works being the way to get right with God rather than trusting in God’s grace.

This morning in my meditation, my thoughts turned to freedom. It’s a topic I’ve pondered and written on for my entire adult life. I was greatly influenced by a book by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin I came across at age 20 or so. He looked at philosophers of freedom and divided the concept into two–freedom for and freedom from.

Without chasing the squirrels of various philosophical traditions, I’ll just ponder Paul.

He said that God’s grace and our response in faith does both!

Grace frees us from the tyranny of our emotions, our self-imposed boundaries, our jealousies, fears, worries, greed.

The discipline of meditation that I’ve practiced for more than 40 years has calmed my emotions, freed me from worry (something passed down from my mother and who knows how many generations), helped me deal with the winds of emotion which can enslave.

That is just one example. The discipline of reading the Bible or great thinkers about the topic such as Augustine or Henry Nouwen or many others has added depth to my understanding and guidance for my direction.

Paul does not stop there. Grace frees us for service. Why are we here? To serve others in love. That is Jesus’ command. That is what Paul repeats. Many times.

These are words that I never wanted to hear as an adolescent. I can still remember being 17 or 20. No bounds. Discipline is a bad word foisted upon us by conservative old people. Service to others is slavery.

Trouble is, many people today have yet to outgrow those adolescent urges.

Adolescents hate paradox. I’ve always been fascinated by paradox. Here’s an important one–discipline leads to freedom. Who would have understood that at 17–or sometimes 57.

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Have We Become Voyeurs

October 28, 2015

One of my Spiritual Disciplines is fasting–fasting from TV news, that is.

No, I’m not a flaming conservative who thinks all the media has a liberal bias. Nor do I think about whether there is a conservative bias. TV news has a distinct sensationalism bias.

It’s all about how each network can get the largest number of people to watch for a long enough period of time to serve up plenty of advertisements. Don’t kid yourselves. You get sucked in to your news source of choice because they have figured out ways to get you to watch. This is simply a business model.

We fall for it.

The TV in front of me the other day while I was running on the treadmill showed off some so-called “expert” speculating about the motives or mental health of someone who injured and killed a number of people with her out-of-control car.

What good was that speculation? There was no fact discussed. Merely opinion. And not even informed opinion. Just the fantasy of speculation about someone they don’t know and really don’t care about. And a million people watched it. I even read the closed caption for about a minute to see what was up.

This is what you get when someone thinks that showing news 24-hours-per-day is a good thing. They quickly discovered that filling all that time with valuable information was either too costly or too boring. They have to hook you and reel you in. Not enough viewers means not enough advertising which means not enough revenue.

But people watch. And not just in North America. It’s a human trait.

Why do we get so wrapped up in idle gossip and speculation about others when there is so much of ourselves that we need to pay attention to? Maybe that’s too hard.

Practice the Spiritual Discipline of fasting from TV news. You might just discover your blood pressure dropping, your emotions more centered, your friends and family more understanding, and your attention fixed upon others whom you can love and serve. I call that a good thing.

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Training for the Race

October 22, 2015

Paul loved sports metaphors. He talked about training for the race. Running the race.

Our house in my youth was a sports house, and football was the main one. I rememeber growing up with the Cleveland Browns on TV (I’m from Ohio, there was no Bengals). Dad was a big Notre Dame fan. Into adulthood, I watched the Browns every Sunday of the season. I “lived and died” with the Browns, as the saying goes. (They were good back then.)

Twenty-five years ago I started refereeing men’s soccer matches on Sunday afternoons in the fall. I didn’t watch as much football (and the Browns stopped building good teams–which continues unto today). I find watching soccer from Europe more entertaining in the few times I have that I can watch TV.

I’m thinking about the sport, though. What sort of team sport is it where the important stats are how many players are not injured during the game. NFL football has become over the past 20 years or so a “war of attrition.” The team that manages to avoid the most injuries has the best chance of winning the championship.

Yet during this time of changing the rules and equipment of the sport to promote the “Big Hit” which the NFL has done, the sport became the most popular team sport in America. Young men spend their entire lives training for a profession that is designed to cripple them. After a career of about six years, they retire before age 30 crippled for life.

Boxing is another sport where equipment allows the Big Hit but it has been supplanted by mixed martial arts where guys (and increasingly girls) beat the crap out of each other for the entertainment of millions.

When I started this stream of thoughts, I had no idea where it would lead. It began with an observation.

We could go two ways. One would be the usual condemnation of people who even thought supposedly civilized are not that far removed from the Roman crowds who cheered on fighters who fought to the death in the arena.

Then I thought about the goal we are training for. Because we should be in training right now. Paul didn’t think we ever stopped training and running. Paul Simon wrote a song using boxing as a metaphor for a wasted life. What is the metaphor of our life?

Are we training for the wrong life? For a wasted life? Or a full life?

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Sportsmanship

October 8, 2015

I woke up this morning and did a quick check of email. Since I quit working for organizations, I no longer dread checking emails and finding long chains of inane “conversations.”

But whatever I was going to write about vanished from my head after reading two reports from a soccer referee about examples of very poor sportsmanship in high school matches by a coach who is also a referee.

I’ve searched the Bible. There is very little about games and sports. Paul uses training for sports as a metaphor for trainig for the spiritual life. 

So, I’ll consider our actions in that light.

Whenever I read these reports or witness them in person as a referee, I have multiple flashbacks of utter chagrin about the many times I’ve acted about as childishly. My first two years as a soccer coach were highlighted (in my mind) by the times I yelled at the referees. Then I took a class and leaerned the Laws of the Game. Oops.

It may go with being introverted or touched by Aspergers or having a mom who had issues–but I tend to remember times when I acted poorly.

I wonder if others ever do that.

There was a report from a referee who was followed to his car in the parking lot by parents after a game last night passing along their judgement of his limited capabilities. There was a coach who yelled and screamed the entire game and then instructed his players to feign injury to try to delay the game (I suppose he must have been up a goal and wanted to find a way to not let the other team attack).

One of the pleasures I’ve had from my involvement with soccer for the past 30+ years is the development of young people. We’ll get kids at 13, 14 or 15. We teach them the Laws. We teach and assist them in learning how to apply them in a game. The kids must learn responsibility (boy if I’ve had one conversation I’ve had a hundred about showing up for your games and on time). They have to learn decision making. They develop confidence. 

I’ll teach an introductory course and then maybe not see the kid for 2-3 years. They grow up. Their confidence is obvious. We taught them life skills.

What are these parents and coaches teaching? How to blame others? How to cheat? How to take shortcuts? How to behave like children? I’ve seen 12-year-olds act more maturely than their coaches and parents at times. 

We forget. We’re each training for success in our spiritual lives. Sports is a metaphor. Some of us grow. Some of us don’t. Some of us look back at our lives and shudder–much like Augustine in his Confessions. But I would hope and pray that we all mature in faith and spiritual development.

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