Archive for the ‘Disciplines’ Category

Newer Entries »

Awareness of Advent

December 7, 2011

I see some people and can tell right away that they are lost. It’s in their eyes and their posture. My heart goes out to them, for they don’t know where they are or where they’re going. In Christian circles, we talk of the lost meaning those who have no spiritual relationship with Jesus. But what I’m talking about is an orientation to living each day. I can imagine even Christians–those who have “accepted Christ into their hearts” as the saying goes–still not sure about where they are going or what they should be doing next.

There was a man I saw yesterday when I took a break from my writing to take a short walk. He was lost. Obviously. He had an address, but it was evidently wrong. He couldn’t find it. He stopped his van, rolled down the window and asked me where a certain street was in the neighborhood. I told him. He said, “I’ve been there, but the house number I have is not there.” So, he was just driving around at random. After we talked for a minute or so, he said, “Maybe I’ll just call them and ask for directions.” Hmm. Awareness is the beginning of finding direction.

It works in life more generally, too. Perhaps we say that we’re with Jesus. Maybe we’re in a church. But we are still drifting. We don’t know what to do next. It’s Advent right now. There are signs of Christmas all around, but they just blur into the background–sort of like music they play in stores.

The first step in getting out of this lostness is to become aware of who we are and what we need. We become aware that preparations are being made to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Then we need directions to get to the source. Well, we’ve been given those directions. If we first become aware–that is, we wake up–then we can pick up a Bible and begin to read. We can devote a few minutes each morning to meditation and prayer. As we begin to practice a discipline, we begin to learn and understand.

But first comes awareness. We have to wake up. Become aware of the possibility of living with God.

Posted in Disciplines, Living | Leave a Comment »

Getting Disciplined

October 2, 2011

So, I’m preparing to teach a class on developing spiritual discipline. Meanwhile, I’ve been so busy that several of my disciplines—including writing this blog—have gone out of the window.

In the past three weeks, I’ve slept in my own bed a total of 5 nights. All this travel destroys my routines. As I’ve thought about this, I have concluded that I need at least one habit or discipline that I can do on the road even when I’m getting to my room about 11 after dinner and needing to shower to leave by 7 for a breakfast meeting.

That realy is what disciplines are all about. Making a conscious choice to do something every day that will move you toward growth. I have another one of those weeks coming up. We’ll see how I do.

Posted in Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

How I Can Find God

September 9, 2011

I am at a technical conference in St. Louis. Last night as we gathered after the keynote address for a late snack and beverage, I found myself in three conversations that are not an unusual experience at these conferences.

The women beside me talked about the manufacturing software business and marketing in that arena. Across the table and to the right from me was a well-known MIT graduate and inventor who was talking particle physics, energy and combating cancer without chemotherapy. The man across the table and to my left was discussing how the failure of organized religion had destroyed his belief in God.

I never find it amazing that dinner conversations broach into spiritual discussions. Almost everyone I meet is seeking for spiritual nourishment–even those who think it will never happen.

Since almost all of us were scientifically trained, I approached him from the standpoint of science. Seems logical to me, even common sense, although some of you may be offended to a greater or lesser degree. That’s OK. I never said you had to agree with me. And I always welcome a reasoned and reasonable comment.

Back to the point. I told him I could prove God exists–actually, I went on, I won’t prove it, he will. But I won’t prove God’s existence with a rational, logical argument–the kind of reasoning you may have been taught in geometry class when you learned to . People much smarter than I have tried that–and failed.

The essence of science is that you observe something. You record the methods which led up to the observation. You write the entire process and publish so that others can do that. Other people follow the method and observe something (or not). Over time, a truth is established.

Over millennia, seekers have discovered ways to find God. By pursuing spiritual disciplines, you will become closer to God and discover Him. The basic disciplines (which really means a habit that you choose to do) include study (Bible and other spiritual writings), meditation, prayer, service, celebration and worship. There are others, but if you develop a daily habit of these things, you will feel closer to God.

So, yes, I can use science to prove God’s existence. But it’s just one human at a time. To those who would argue it’s just a hallucination, I’d answer “you don’t know, because you’ve not done it.”

A word of warning. It seems to be the human condition that you just cannot feel the warmth of God at all times. Sometimes God just doesn’t seem here. The Willow Creek Community Church foundation conducted a massive survey. One question was have you ever felt stuck in your spiritual life. Almost 2,000 answered yes. A follow up question was how did you get “unstuck.” The answer was (not necessarily in these exact words) to return to the disciplines–study, prayer, meditation and so on.

Posted in Disciplines, Spirituality | Leave a Comment »

Maintaining Equilibrium In Changing Times

September 7, 2011

Saturday’s weather was a humid 97 deg F. While I was refereeing a soccer match, I’d stop and mentally scan my physical condition at the end of a sprint. I was looking for any signs of heat problems or dehydration such as dizziness or mouth drying. Probably lost several pounds of water weight.

Monday was like the first day of fall. After a dry summer, leaves have begun falling early. The temperature was a cool 61 deg F. A 37 degree swing. An entirely different feeling as I walked through the woods along the old canal path.

Weather swings can cause or exacerbate mood swings. There are other causes of mood swings. If you get to swinging too far each way, alarm bells should sound as you mentally take stock of yourself.

I can’t help you if your swings border over into a diagnosable illness such as bipolar disorder. But most, if not all, of us suffer from feeling close to God then apart from God — consolation and desolation as the ancient Christian writers put it.

To combat these feelings, you need a rock. A solid foundation of faith and practice to remind you that, even if God does not feel present, He really is. That is where the solid habits of spiritual discipline help you. Just by getting up in the morning early and studying spiritual writing then meditating and praying on them can start your day solidly. You recognize that God is still there even if you don’t feel His presence–or sometimes even when you feel that you don’t even want His presence.

Other spiritual disciplines help, too. Try service. No, not necessarily a big mission trip. Try just saying something kind to someone. Helping someone with a package. Giving something to someone. Or try worship–getting together with other people to focus on God is a wonderful help.

It’s autumn in Ohio. We’re due for more swings in the weather until winter settles in. Establish a pattern of stability in your life to help keep you in equilibrium.

Posted in Disciplines, Living, Prayer | Leave a Comment »

Achieving Spiritual Balance

August 30, 2011

I’ve been pondering spiritual experience and how sometimes you need to see all the bad things that are inside you that need to be dealt with. And again how sometimes you receive the cleansing blessing from God that tells you there is a way to wholeness and God is there to provide a way out of your mess.

Beginning in ancient times, Christian writers called the first desolation and the second consolation–not feeling God’s presence and feeling God’s presence. Ignatius counseled people to not make decisions when you are in desolation. He is correct. Making decisions when you are depressed will lead to panic decisions that will not be helpful in the long run. But just as important is to watch yourself when you are in consolation. Because that could be a euphoric feeling. Ignatius did not live in today’s environment where we are constantly presented with euphoric images of the type of people we could be if only we bought something. People have made disastrous decisions–financially and with relationships–by getting euphoric about something and doing the wrong thing.

Most important is first to understand your situation. Then prayer and study can lead you to understanding that desolation leads to consolation and consolation can be followed by desolation. Understand yourself then make balanced decisions. Reading the lives of saints, you often learn that they were often in desolation (feeling apart from God), but they practiced spiritual discipline through study, prayer and service to keep themselves balanced and open to God’s work.

This is a practice worthy of emulation.

Posted in Disciplines, Living | Leave a Comment »

Getting in touch with God

August 16, 2011

The Willow Creek Community church in South Barrington, IL recently conducted a large survey of Christians. During a message from a couple of weeks ago (I listen to podcasts of the messages, you can subscribe through iTunes or go here) the teaching pastor made the comment that out of 80,000 people who responded to the survey, many thousands acknowledged becoming spiritually stuck.

I bet that happens to lots of us. There are times, especially after experiencing a “God moment” when God seems to be distant. Prayer life seems sterile or non-existent. Worship is a drag. You can’t seem to connect. Obviously I’ve been through some of those times. Sometimes even experiencing what John of the Cross called The Dark Night of the Soul.

Willow Creek didn’t stop with that question, though. They asked how they become unstuck. Many thousands answered that question. The overwhelming answer was Re-engage Spiritual Practices. In other words, it is intentional. A matter of attitude. You want to connect to God. Wonder why you’re not. Maybe your habits slipped. So you intentionally return to consciously forming the habits of study, prayer, worship and the like. And one or more of these practices helped you re-connect to God.

If you live close to Sidney, Ohio, I’m teaching an introduction to practicing Spiritual Disciplines this fall. This will actually be one of my disciplines because the Fall is one of my busiest times between the work I do with soccer programs and my business. But teaching is an important calling. I’ll just touch on a few of the basic disciplines including study, prayer, meditation, worship, celebration, fasting and a few more.

If you are interested, send me a message.

Posted in Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

Work out your faith

July 13, 2011

At a church team meeting this week, I related about the post I made regarding spiritual disciplines as “work.” And how someone was upset with the idea of working. Now, I took the comment to be from someone like some people I know who think work (as in expending energy doing something) as a bad thing. “Boomers” as a generation bought into the idea 30 years ago that work was something you did to make as much money as possible so that by 50 you could stop working.

Of course the pastor took the word in its theological context of “works”–as in “you are saved by grace, not works.” (Ah, you gotta love those theologians.)

Jesus argued that the Jewish religion he grew up in had tried the “salvation by works” thing and it didn’t work (oops, bad pun, try “succeed”). People were not closer to God simply by obeying the rules. In fact, many who played by the rules were far from God.

Jesus taught there was another way–it was easy, but it was also hard. He said all you had to do was believe. To us, that sounds easy, because we take that word believe to mean that we say agree with the proposition that “Jesus saves us from our sins” and that’s it. And in America, that’s easy. Not so easy in China, even today. Or many other places around the world. But still easier.

Faith to Jesus was more than saying a few words or even an emotional feeling. Jesus said, if you believe in my words you will love one another. Love (agape) once again is an action verb, not a feeling. Or, Jesus said, you will go and make disciples. Paul said, we must work out our faith in fear and trembling, and in another place, you will be equipped for all good work.

Obviously, we must not just sit around discussing what the Bible says. We must “be doers of the Word, not hearers only.”

I’m still studying John and just came across one of my favorite metaphors–“I am the vine and you are the branches.” Spiritual disciplines are sort of like consciously chosen habits. The habit (or discipline) of prayer can be pictured as being a branch and finding all our nutrients coming from the main vine. The habit (or discipline) of service can be pictured as the branch growing a bunch of grapes (bearing fruit).

Now, the question is, are you better at one discipline than another? Should you be consciously cultivating another habit to get you into that flow of life from Jesus into a new disciple? I’m better at prayer and study. Weaker at service. That means I need to cultivate a service.

It’s not complicated. Just requires you to get up and get going.

Posted in Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

Becoming a Disciple

June 29, 2011

Somewhere in the Pastor’s sermon last Sunday, he said, “We are called to be disciples.” He must laugh to himself when he sees me grab my Moleskin notebook and fountain pen and begin writing feverishly. But, I started making notes.

But then I wondered what is a disciple? Have I been a disciple? Or better, am I now a disciple?

A Web search pulls up tons of worthless information. But the word itself comes from Greek and Latin words that mean “hearer.” By tradition, a disciple was someone who followed a teacher (literally) and learned from the teacher. The teacher was to be emulated in every detail.

Note that to be a disciple and to be an apostle are two different roles. We call The Twelve disciples, but they were also The Apostles (evangelists). The New Testament refers to many disciples.

Paul uses the terminology of athletes when he talks about spiritual growth and discipleship. He means that athletes don’t just  perform in the games. They must adopt a lifestyle of constant training and learning in order to succeed.

There are many people today who think that all you have to do is say you believe in Christ and that’s the end. There is no need for learning and practicing disciplines, because that’s work. They think there is no work. You just say you believe, then you say you agree with other sayings, and that’s all you need.

Jesus and Paul were much smarter about human beings than that. They both emphasized a lifestyle where you need to train and practice being with God. It’s easy for a human to slip away and begin living the “easy” lifestyle that leads away from God. (“The path is wide…”)

To be a disciple means to be constantly learning and training to live a life that’s pleasing to God. Then you’ll be ready for the main event–resurrection.

Posted in Christianity, Disciplines, Living | 1 Comment »

Follow Jesus Then What Comes Next

June 20, 2011

Our pastor delivered a passionate and well-structured message Sunday designed to tweak your conscience and motivate you to change a behavior. His message since he started at our church was to encourage an “intimate, passionate, life-changing experience” with Jesus.

I married a Baptist and for several years attended Baptist churches. I was even chairman of the Deacons in one church for several years. Weren’t they all supposed to be old, slightly annoying people? I was young and more-than-slightly annoying, I suppose.

It was the Baptist experience that started a line of thought that has bothered me kind of like an itch in the nose ever since. Every Baptist message is designed to “convert” people. To make them come to a decision. I watched the first people in my life make that dramatic decision. But then I noticed that the church had no means of guiding them into what’s next.

The Bible also bugs me. It says “Jesus went away to pray.” It doesn’t say what he did when he prayed (except for a few public prayers–but those are different from your personal private prayers). Paul talks of converting people, and he talks of staying to teach them. But he never says what he taught them to do. He says to exercise your spirit just as an athlete exercises his body (the terminology is that of athletic training). He never really says how.

I once tried to correct this problem I thought I saw. I taught a class on prayer. My intention was to teach people how to pray. My class’s intention was for me to teach them a bunch of passages in the Bible about prayer.

I stumbled upon the Spiritual Disciplines one at a time. First was meditation. And meditation really does change your life. But you have to practice it. Daily.

Then I found Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline and Dallas Willard’s The Spirit of the Disciplines. These are the guidebooks for which I was searching. (OK, if I was any good, I’d have written them. Thankfully smarter guys than I did.)

It’s really very simple–and very hard. Prayer, meditation, study, celebration, service, fasting (and many more). We should have been guiding all these converts to practice these. Daily. Athletes (to return to Paul) do not just exercise on game day. They live a life designed to make them succeed on game day. Working out, lifting weights, running, diet, mental preparation. We need to do the same.

It’s not theology. It’s work.

Posted in Disciplines, Faith, Living | 2 Comments »

What Does It Mean to be Disciplined

June 3, 2011

Going through my independence-seeking years of late adolescence, I thought of discipline as a verb. The sense was someone was forcing you to do something–you were being disciplined. Discipline became a metaphorical straight-jacket where you were constrained. Your freedom was curtailed. You were at the mercy of someone else.

My favorite writer on living a life of simplicity, Leo Babauta, thinks of discipline as a set of habits (he recently published an ebook on habits, so it’s on his mind). I think there is a relationship between discipline and habits, but they are not the same thing.

What life has taught me is that you will accomplish very little without discipline. Practicing spiritual disciplines (before I knew they had been named) and then studying Richard Foster (Celebration of Discipline) and Dallas Willard (The Spirit of the Disciplines) has led to experience and knowledge of the power of discipline.

But I don’t consider “self-discipline” the same thing as “will power” either. You can’t really force yourself into discipline.

Discipline rightly understood is the self-directed choice of certain habits that lead you toward a goal–and for most of us, the goal is that of a fulfilled life.

I’m thinking about this, because I’m developing a course on spiritual discipline. But not as an educational, mental, theoretical exercise. Rather more it would be a leading of people into understanding and practicing a life of spiritual discipline.

You could begin practicing right now. In fact, you may already be doing it. Maybe you just need to be aware so that you do it consciously. Some spiritual disciplines include prayer, meditation, study, service, worship.

Posted in Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

Newer Entries »