Faith Venture

I am working on a study guide to lead people into the practice of Spiritual Disciplines. I constructed a parallel list of practices from several writers. I wondered what was similar. What was different.

I stared at the list while sitting in the lounge of the ship taking us from Australia to New Zealand. A piano/violin duet performed quietly in the background. Comfortable seating. Art displayed. Small groups of people talking. And I pondered.

The thought came to me clearly. They all began with a list of ancient practices. They dived right in with prayer, study, communal worship, fasting. These indeed are individual practices.

They all assumed that the seeker has already made the decision. That the seeker knew how to develop some habits and unlearn others.

To write to a beginner, intellectual knowledge goes nowhere.

Let us look at nutrition.

Body weight is directly proportional to calories ingested. If you eat more calories than you burn, your weight will go up. If you resistance train, then the added weight might be muscle. Otherwise it will be white adipose tissue—fat.

Before anything, we must look in a mirror and realize we have too much weight. Perhaps we realize the health ramifications of too much weight—diabetes, high blood pressure, joint pain, loss of mobility.

Then we decide that something must be done. We change our attitude toward food. We realize we must eat fewer calories, but we also must supply proper nutrients to the body. We also still need to enjoy eating. No diet that we cannot sustain over time will work. 

We change what we eat, how we eat. We realize we can eat good food and eat well, yet cut portion size, late night snacking, pitching things from our pantries such as potato chips (and the like) and pastries.

I’ve dropped 20 pounds over a couple of years that way. With dedication to resistance training adding muscle (which weighs more than fat).

Let’s talk about spiritual life. Somewhere we’ve looked into the mirror of life and realized that we are not walking with God. We would like to experience living with-God. We would like to experience at least some of those fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We know people like that. We’d like to be one of them.

We decide to change. Maybe one thing at a time. Maybe setting aside five minutes every morning to read from the Bible or from a devotional. Maybe we learn to pray with just our breath to begin with in those five minutes.

Then we learn about how to study, how to meditate, how to pray. We find a group where we can worship and pray together—like finding a gym for fitness, it’s a gym for spiritual fitness.

Habits start one little trigger at a time. I see my cup of coffee and my chair. I take the freshly brewed coffee to my chair to savor both for a few minutes of intentional reading or prayer daily. It becomes a habit. We expand. We roll out of bed 30 minutes earlier so that we can spend a little more time in the chair. One day we look in the mirror and marvel at the change.

The pursuit of spiritual discipline begins with the small step of decision and intention. Maybe it starts with nutrition and fitness so that when we roll out of bed heading to the coffee maker and chair we feel fit and alive. It’s hard to concentrate when the body screams at you.

Maybe this will become the introduction to my little study guide—or a longer book. Who knows?

The Revised Common Lectionary readings for last Sunday contained reading from the second chapter of the letter from James (the half-brother of Jesus). This letter is part of the wisdom literature of the Bible. James applies the words of Jesus to the everyday circumstances of living a life of following Jesus.

There is obviously something here for me to infuse into my daily life. I heard a sermon and then read a meditation on the the instructions of this chapter.

Consider that the word has gone throughout the city neighborhood that there are regular meetings at your house where people sing and share stories and listen to teachers. Some of the “cool kids” from the neighborhood show up and are welcomed. Some of the geeks and poor show up. They are shown seats in the back. Some bring a cornucopia of snacks to eat during the meeting. Others have nothing.

James told his followers (and us) that behavior was flat-out wrong. 

Practice looking into your heart and then practice recognizing others from the inside out rather than the outside in.

I use the word “practice” intentionally. Life isn’t a one-shot deal. It’s practice where we do it over and over until we get it right. And then keep improving.

So, to end where I began—what areas of life do I need more intentional practice?

Often people with little money experience a happier life than people with great wealth.

Sometimes people with great (or moderate) wealth find many ways toward generosity benefitting manifold charitable organizations helping many.

Sometimes people with great (or even moderate) wealth use that wealth to wield power over people, ministries, organizations, even governments.

The common denominator—heart condition. Have you checked in with your spiritual cardiologist recently? Where is your heart regarding wealth or lack of it?

I write about practice. I practice Yoga. I practice my guitar (OK, not enough). I have spiritual practices. I encourage you often to intentionally develop practices.

Then I came to this thought from the writer Steven Pressfield, “In other words, when our motivation is grounded in our ego, we do not have a practice.”

Yes, motivation. Do I make that list in order to impress people? Or to make myself feel better? Or, do I want to improve my physical health, develop a skill, and experience God?

Checking where our ego resides becomes an important part of the day. The ego can provide strength. It can also assume power over us negating our practices.

By the way, Pressfield’s The War of Art is a classic for creatives.

Arnold Schwarzenegger forged a career from body builder to actor to “governator” of California. Preaching fitness for everyone has been a consistent concern throughout his life.

Writing this week in his daily newsletter Pump Club, he discusses how so many of us plan to do things but then never get around to actually doing.

In more than 50 years of my fitness crusade, I cannot count how many times I’ve heard people say they are planning on starting to train or planning on starting a diet. It is always a plan to start on Monday, or the first of the month, or next year. It is never a plan to start now. I see it in the comments of the Pump Club app, in the replies to our daily emails here, and I even hear it from people in the gym. Always planning. Everybody who plans has good intentions, but let’s be honest about what it really is. Planning means you’re not taking action. You’re choosing to avoid getting started. Doing takes effort. Choosing to work on yourself is hard. You know it will be uncomfortable. Changing the status quo is never easy. So you plan. You research. You spin your wheels until you say you wish you could be healthy. And then you start all over, planning and wishing. You wait and wait.

This sounds so familiar. The change you wish may be to lose weight. Or maybe start getting physically fit. Or maybe spiritually fit—I will start studying the Bible Monday or I will have a prayer and meditation session every early morning some day.

Back to Arnold:

I spoke to the annual convention of thoracic surgeons last month. When I sat down to talk to some of my cardiologist friends for coffee after my fireside chat, it was clear most people wait until the choice is made for them — or until it’s too late to make any choices at all.

Will it take a crisis of soul to divert us from the easy path to a life of intentional spiritual practices? Don’t wait for next Monday. Begin today. Right now.