Faith Venture

Arnold Schwarzenegger has exhorted people into a fitness life for his entire adult life. In a recent newsletter, he wrote this:

The basics are simple: Eat protein Eat vegetables and fruits Eat healthy carbs Train with the movements that have always worked Walk Drink enough water Sleep If you can’t check all of those boxes — and be honest with yourself, count this weekend where you ate wings and fries and drank beers and missed your workouts and never saw a vegetable — why are you worried about what supplement to take, or the perfect workout, or the “optimal” diet? You aren’t trying now. You’re stalling. You think one of these things might be a magic pill.

John Wesley taught his own set of spiritual basics:

• Prayer
• Study the Scriptures
• Participate in the Lord’s Supper

My advice—do both sets of basics for a balanced and healthy life.

Humans have long discovered a set of practices that help change lives for the better and orient the heart toward God. Over time a set of them were known as Spiritual Practices, Spiritual Disciplines, or even Means of Grace.

Richard J. Foster published a seminal book approachable by all called “Celebration of Discipline.” Somewhat later, Dallas Willard published “The Spirit of the Disciplines.” Foster was a Quaker pastor. Willard was a professor of philosophy. For a time, Willard was a member of Foster’s congregation. (I would have loved to have been there at the time.) You can tell the difference in orientation by reading the two books.

The disciplines (others say practices) do not bind one as in a straitjacket. They are meant to be incorporated in the routines of life that lead to the sort of freedom that Jesus taught or that Paul tried to explain especially in his letter to the Galatians.

Foster narrowed his topic to a “Top Twelve” disciplines or practices. My writing at this blog and my other teaching has a root in these. Probably too much on meditation and study along with service (my strengths, I guess). Submission and confession probably reside at the bottom of my list. (Note to self: something to work on.)

I offer this list of disciplines that Foster describes in some depth in the book. They are worthy of reflection regarding where we are on this journey. And as a reminder of where we should shore up our personal practices.

Inward Disciplines

• Meditation
• Prayer
• Fasting
• Study

Outward Disciplines

• Simplicity
• Solitude
• Submission
• Service

Corporate Disciplines

• Confession
• Worship
• Guidance
• Celebration

Jesus taught us about how to love one another, how to be kind.

Was this just idle theory that we can ignore (as many people including Christians seem to do)?

Enter research with actual humans.

Research suggests that acts of kindness can help reduce stress and anxiety. Before you write this off as too good to be true, the scientists reviewed more than 200 studies on nearly 200,000 people. They found that kindness works directly on your brain to help boost well-being, improve connection, and create psychological and physiological changes that can help you overcome and outsmart stress.

Who knew what Jesus was actually up to? Behaving with kindness toward others leads to a healthier life for the giver.

When we study scriptures or other spiritual writing, we participate in an important spiritual practice.

Sometimes we cannot find meaning in what Jesus, or James, or Peter, or Paul are telling us.

We sit. We think. We might even sweat (especially if we are working on a Master’s degree).

Close the book. Step away from the desk. Leave the library.

Walk outside. Sit by a pond. Drop down and perform five pushups or hold plank pose for a minute. Climb some stairs.

Insight will come.

As humans, we like to believe that we are ruled by reason, but the truth is that our imagination and senses affect us much more than we realize.

Descartes corrupted Western thought with his maxim, “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore, I am). His thinking removed the spirit from Western thought. People became captivated that we are all rational beings.

Wrong.

Neurologist and neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, wrote about his research in Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain.

Emotions play a crucial role in our outlook, decisions, relationships. How often have you made a major purchase impulsively only later justifying it with reason? Let me guess—too often.

We first recognize and deal with our emotions and then think. Do not fool yourself.