Archive for the ‘Disciplines’ Category

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What One Thing

April 16, 2015

I first heard Andy Stanley talk about Nehemiah several years ago. He boiled it down to a talk about What One Thing. That talk was just repeated (or given again) in this week’s Your Move podcast/video.

Combining this thought along with Dr. Henry Cloud’s thoughts on “Necessary Endings” significantly changed my life for the better. I’ve removed myself from a couple of dysfunctional relationships and found new focus.

Nehemiah was the man who served the Persian emperor Artaxerxes somewhere around 444 BC. He heard a report from his brother about the terrible condition of the walls around Jerusalem destroyed by the previous empire–that of the Babylonians (the two are still fighting each other, by the way).

He decided to do something about it. So he went to Jerusalem as sort of mayor and project manager and started rebuilding the walls.

This work was going so well that some enemies in the plains below the city got worried. They needed to get rid of Nehemiah and stop the work. So they sent a message to him as a lure into a trap to come down from the city (which is on a mountain) to meet with them.

Nehemiah replied, “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down.”

Great Work

If you use this time of the year for reflection and rededication as I do, this is a great thought to meditate on.

What great work am I or should I be doing this year?

  • Ending a relationship?
  • Beginning a relationship?
  • Strengthening a relationship?
  • Breaking a habit?
  • Starting a new ministry?
  • Becoming more compassionate?

Figure it out. As we set our minds, so shall we become. Let’s set our minds on our great work.

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The Measure of How We Love

March 31, 2015

He had great wealth. However, he also tried to be close to God by following all his commandments. From the very beginning of his life, he said, he had always kept the commandments.

But somehow he just didn’t feel as if he had arrived into God’s grace.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” he asked the teacher.

“Sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow me.”

When the church begins talking about tithing or giving offerings, do our thoughts turn to ourselves? How much should I give? The question usually means, what’s the minimum amount I can give and still be considered good?

And usually we think in terms only of money. We ignore giving our minds to God in order to grow properly or to teach or preach more effectively. Or giving our bodies in service.

Jesus said, follow me. Give up everything in order to follow me. Anything that serves as a barrier to total commitment, get rid of. Just follow. We just love the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. That pretty well covers it.

I read this in the Celtic Prayer Book. “It is not what we give of ourselves or our resources that is the measure of how we love, but what we hold back.”

Our teacher didn’t hold back. If we are striving to be a disciple, that is to emulate the life, of Jesus, then we need to stop and analyze our thoughts, feelings and actions. What are we holding back that interferes with being a follower?

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The Tongue Can Cause Great Hurt

March 30, 2015

No one can tame the tongue, full of restless evil and deadly poison. James

She heard that a certain group of people were plotting against a leader. She felt the greatest sympathy for the leader. Surely the source was correct. All the insinuations fit precisely within her already formed prejudices.

It became so easy to just begin telling people about the great injustice. Tell people about those evil people.

And there was more than one she.

And he heard something about another person. And then he saw something suspicious. Not sure what it was, but in his mind it became something else. Bigger. Worse. He just had to tell colleagues. It’s only natural.

Yet another person figured out within the mind what motivated another person. The analysis slipped out in conversation one day.

In every case and more, the word never stops with the friend you just happened to speak with. It spreads. Eventually to the target of the talk.

It may not have even felt like gossip. It felt righteous. A feeling of relief swetpt over the mind and body with the unburdening of the information.

Except.

Except, it was all wrong. There was no basis in fact. There was no attempt at finding facts. And once spoken, the words become beliefs.

Some people make this stuff up in order to gain some sort of advantage or to gain some sort of emotional release. Most of us? Well, most of us just talk without thinking.

And it hurts. The target will hurt deeply.

I’ve witnessed so much of this in my life. Many times just within the past 12-18 months. 

It scares me. I wonder about every off-hand remark I might have made. Every wrong analysis.

James was so right about the tongue. And it is so hard to control.

I also found Psalm 15 and Micah 6:8 to further convict me.

The Renovare Life With God Bible in the commentary on James tells us that we must learn to discipline our wrong emotions and bring them under God’s  control. 

I hurt for those who have been wrongly hurt by an unthinking tongue. Just hoping I’m more of a calm and peace-seeking influence than a fire-starter.

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Disciplines For The Emotions

March 19, 2015

“She is a drama about to  explode.”

“Yes, and her friend is a walking drama.”

Talking about a couple of teenaged girls we know. And I thought, the mother of one is also a walking drama. Emotions worn on the outside. Voice always tinged with anxiety and, er, well, drama.

A friend recently wrote about fear being the source of anger. That is true. Especially fear born of insecurity.

On the other hand, Jesus showed anger. He made a mess of the Temple market. His anger came from a deep sense of what the Temple should be (a place of devout worship of the Father) versus what it had become (a sort of market system for selling animals to be sacrificed to pilgrims needing animals to sacrifice–probably with a comfortable profit margin).

We all have emotions. At least I hope we have not completely buried them. In that case, a trip to a shrink is in order. But the key is–how to we handle those feelings that seem to arise from our gut in a mature and helpful way?

I once had a lot of anger within. Mostly I dealt with it conquered it. The few times it bubbled up to the top over the past 20 years or more I remember with sorrow and repentance.

Remember, we are what we habitually do.

How can we change our habits to help put our emotions in their proper, healthy place?

One suggestion is to develop the habit of practicing gratitude.

I have now put it in my task manager software (I use Nozbe, you could use an outliner, or your calendar) to pop up once a week to sit in the morning and write those things for which I’m grateful.

This places things in perspective. One of my favorite sayings to remind me of perspective is, “In the scheme of life, just how important is this? Not so.” And then I’m reminded of the things in life that are worthy of my attention.

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Finding a Rhythm For Spiritual Practice

March 16, 2015

Every community has a rhythm. A rhythm to rising from sleep, praying, eating, working, studying, eating, relaxing, and sleep.

As an outsider, you notice the rhythm. If you are of a sympathetic nature, you find yourself adapting your natural rhythms to those of the community. If you are more self-centered, you try to impose your rhythm or at least complain about the community’s.

Last week, I was with a small team working and growing at the Tijuana Christian Mission. The orphanage at Soler in Tijuana has its rhythm to which I just sort slipped into.

This is the home of the older children–junior and senior high–served by the mission. They rise before 5 am. Martha, the founder of the orphanage who is in her 70s, is up with them. She leads a Bible study at 5:40 for about a half hour. They eat and are in vans on the way to various schools by 7.

I slipped gently into their routine, since my normal rhythm is to rise around 5:30, study, mediatate and pray. Then have a small breakfast. 

My adjustments were small. Breakfast was prepared for me by Karla and Alma. It was much larger than I’m accustomed to. It was not extravagent. Healthy and prepared by loving hands. And there was no place for a motning run. But work replaced that.

I recently heard Nancy Ortberg talk about the rhythm of spiritual practice. As someone trained as a percussionist, I immediately adopted that metaphor. 

Have you found a rhythm to your practice? Is it a hard-driving on-beat like The Beatles? Moving like a Mozart sonata? Or discordant like a work by John Cage?

In this case, I prefer Mozart.

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You’re Late

March 5, 2015

Let’s take a look at some personal disciplines that will help you become successful however you define it. And personal disciplines spill over into spiritual disciplines.

Here is a story from a business book I once read. It seems a young man had a promising professional/managerial job. But he seemed to be going nowhere. He wasn’t really motivated. The bosses seemed to forget about him when thinking about people with promotion potential.

Problem was, he was always late. He was late to work. Late to meetings. Late with reports. He was always frazzled, disorganized, fuzzy thinking.

Then one day he faced up to his problem and decided to change. He set the alarm to get up 15 minutes earlier. He got to work early and organized his day. He arrived early at meetings and was prepared for the discussion.

His demeanor grew calmer. He became more organized and confident.

It worked so well that he started getting up an hour earlier so that he could read things that filled his mind spiritually and intellectually.

He began to be the executive that no one would have ever imagined just a few short years before.

It all began when he decided to not be late all the time.

Changing just one bad habit can change your life.

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Being the Church Not Necessarily Being At Church

February 24, 2015

For those of my readers who belong to a church, do you know the people who seem to always be in the building whenever the doors are open?

Some people have been so dedicated, or something, to their church that they feel they must be involved in everything. Committee meetings, choir practice, kitchen duty, fold bulletins.

There is a value to some of that. But, at some point you have to pause and ask why you feel the need to be away from the family that much. Or, maybe like me, you just feel a need to serve. That makes it difficult for me to say the “N” word–NO. I’m learning. I’ve been pushing things off on others in one form or another for years. I call it developing leaders.

When we were called to be the church, we were not called to be at the church at all times. The spiritual discipline of service should not be skewed into service within the four walls of your building. In fact, it’s hard to be the church when you are at the church building.

Being the church calls outside. To meet with those along the way. Heal, teach, help, listen. Do as Jesus did as he walked the land. He is master; we are disciple. We are called to practice as the master practiced.

Our congregation offers many ways for people to be the church locally, regionally, internationally. But even that should not be a limit. Wherever we go, there  we are the church.

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To Go or To Be

February 24, 2015

“All I want out of church is to go every Sunday and hear a good sermon.”

The man approached me rather assertively. He wasn’t happy with the missions and service–the request for people to do ministry that I lead–since it was a burden for him.

There are two types of people in church, I guess. Those who want to “be fed.” And those who want to feed.

We know that Jesus had the custom of going to the synagogue. But I can’t find one instruction where Jesus told us that the purpose of spiritual life was going and sitting.

Rather his stories were about prayer, having a heart set on God, and relations with other people.

I guess it’s an old story, but it just came home to me again. 

Do we just go to church? Or, are we the church?

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A Call To Men To Be Clear

February 23, 2015

Adam should have spoken up. He didn’t. We’re all screwed.

That is the problem statement of “Men of Courage” by Larry Crabb and others. Men are too often silent when they should speak up.

I had the privilege of working as part of a small team of local men who had an idea for a men’s conference. Call to Convergence was held this past weekend. We had no clue how many men would show, but we picked 75 as a good target number. 70 registered. It was a good weekend.

Our principle speaker used that book as the starting point of his talks. Men are called to speak up, to share. Maybe not sharing every emotion like women seem to be wired to do. But, as one person said after the Friday night talks, it’s all about transparency. Not hiding.

The solution part of the book calls men to mentoring. We are called to intentionally find someone who could use a mentor and take action. Invite someone for breakfast or lunch. Ask. Listen. Guide. Help them on their journey.

By the way, we live in a small county. Population of about 56,000. To have 70 people come out in the snow was a great blessing. We all felt that the event wasn’t about us, but about God. And God blessed the gathering.

Men asked about what to do during the year until we have the second one. Always a great sign when people ask for action steps.

Reading the Bible

By the way, you might want to re-read the story of Adam, Eve, the serpent, and the metaphorical tree.

When we read the Bible (or anything, really), often we let past memory guide us and fill in the blanks, so to speak. Did you realize that Adam was present during the whole episode? Not my memory either. When I read it later after learning about the story, my memory took over and I didn’t read the passage clearly.

The passage clearly implies that Adam was right there. It doesn’t say that Eve went to him sometime later. It says she turned to him and offered him the fruit. Adam heard the whole conversation. Surely he knew better. But he didn’t speak up.

Two lessons:
Speak up when you see someone going off the path.
When you read the Bible, clear your mind and read what it really says.

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Praying Your Way Out

February 19, 2015

There is one God, the Father,

From whom are all things, and we to him;

And one Lord, Jesus the Messiah,

Through whom are all things, and we through him.

–1 Cor 8:6 (The sh’ma rewritten by Paul)

One of the guys at last night’s Bible study asked about the situation when you aren’t as “on fire” in the spirit as you had been for a while.

There was a survey of 17,000 followers of Jesus where they asked that question. Did you ever feel away from the spirit, and, if so, what did you do to get back? More than 3,000 said yes. Reading the Bible daily and praying were the path back into the spirit.

We call those spiritual disciplines or spiritual practices. They are a means through which you can rekindle the fire of the spirit. They also should become so habitual that they form your character.

Paul, good Jewish boy and eventually Pharisee, no doubt prayed the Sh’ma every day. “Hear O Israel, The Lord, the Lord our God is one. And you shall love The Lord….”

Paul, after his meeting with the risen Jesus, “rethought” his Jewish teaching in light of the coming of the Messiah. Recorded in 1 Corinthians is a new prayer with which to begin each day. A new Sh’ma.

There was a man who lived in 19th Century Russia. He lost everything he had including wife and kids. All that was left was his Bible and a teaching from a priest quoting Paul, “You should pray without ceasing.” The priest taught him the “Jesus Prayer,”

Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

You can say that prayer with breath. Inhale Jesus Christ, son of God; Exhale have mercy on me, a sinner.

This peasant’s story is recorded in The Way of a Pilgrim. He tried to live praying without ceasing. And people kept coming into his life at just the right moment with just the right assistance.

The Jesus Prayer is powerful. I am now trying to memorize the “new sh’ma” and incorporate it into my life. It helps maintain focus when all around is chaos.

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