Faith Venture

Albert Einstein famously once said to make every explanation as simple as possible, but not simpler. Goes along with combining the Discipline of Simplicity with the Discipline of Study. People just love to make simple things complex. I see it where I work all the time. I’m on a committee that sets referee development policies for soccer referees in Ohio. Same thing. There are people who just want to make everything rule-bound and complex.

I was listening to a small group leader last weekend introduce Paul’s letter to the Romans and said it was Paul at his convoluted best. Hard to figure out what he’s saying. Wait a minute! Is this the same letter that, in its simplicity, deeply influenced Augustine, Luther, Wesley, Barth and others? It completely changed the face of Christianity–at least twice.

Humans seem to love rules. It divides people into those who follow the rules and those who don’t. That way comparisons as to whom is good or not can be made.

The last part of the first chapter is exquisite preaching. As you can tell from what follows, it sets the stage. Paul didn’t mean for us to parse through the list of wrong doing, pounce on one (say homosexuality), and then say “There it is. I was right. Paul hates those people I hate. I’m good; they are bad.”

No, Paul wanted us to read through that list and say to ourselves, “Oh my God. I have behaviors and attitudes and feelings that build up a wall between God and me. I am full of sin. What can I do to become right with God?”

We know from the context of the entire letter, that is what he expected and wanted. We know because he answers that last question. Hint: nothing. It’s God’s grace 😉 Or, as he goes on to say, leave the judging to God.

Regarding my practical life, I am a disciple of David Allen’s way called Getting Things Done named after the title of his first book. He describes how to reduce the stress of holding too many things in your head and not knowing what to do next.

In his second book, “Ready for Anything,” he quotes a writer, J. Krishnamurti, who said, “Discipline does not mean suppression and control, nor is it adjustment to a pattern or ideology. It means the mind sees ‘what is’ and learns from ‘what is’.”

I thought this fit very well with the discussion of our small group around the discipline of study. Just last Sunday in another small group I witnessed how people can read an entire chapter of a book and lock on to one idea that reinforced a prejudice they brought to the study. Rather than seeing ‘what is’ and learning from it, many of the people bent the words to fit what they already “knew.”

When you study, approach the text with a receptive mind. But also a questioning one. What did the writer mean? What is the context–historical, social, philosophical? What were the writers contemporaries saying? How does this fit with other things that writer has published?

Dr. Henry Cloud, in his latest book “Necessary Endings,” describes the wise person as one who sees reality and adjusts to fit it and the fool as one who bends reality to fit what he already believes. I think in study we need to practice that discipline of seeing what is and learning from it. Always approach spiritual writings ready to be surprised and having your view of reality shaken. That’s what the Spirit does to us.

We were discussing the spiritual discipline of simplicity this week in a small group. You might think of simplicity as just throwing out a bunch of stuff over-crowding your living space. And that could be one manifestation. But simplicity begins with the mind and the spirit.

While meditating on this, I came across this thought from Lee Segall, “It is possible to own too much. A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure.”

Too much stuff clutters  your mind and you’re never quite sure where you are. Perhaps it pops out in your life as the need to talk too much–to justify your meaning. Jesus told us to simplify your speech in order to become more trustworthy. He said to let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no. Don’t overcomplicate your life and your speech.

An uncluttered workspace allows you to focus on what is the task at hand. An uncluttered living space soothes the mind. An uncluttered mind allows you to relax and think about what’s important. An uncluttered soul is full of peace and joy and is a blessing to others.

I’m starting another study of Romans. I haven’t spent time in the letter for many years. It is a guide to spiritual formation.

Socrates famously said, “Know thyself.” Paul begins his letter to the Romans (after the greetings and his bio) with a list of all the bad things that humans are capable of–and in fact do. I think every writing I’ve read by people who have seriously taken the spiritual formation journey have experienced somewhere early on the fact that they are capable of much sin.

The same happened to me years ago. And the images still live. I was deep in meditation and suddenly before me was every type of sin (well, almost all I suppose). And I was convicted of sins I’d done, sins I’d thought, sins that I was capable of committing. It wasn’t until then that God became the most real to me.

Paul must have written Romans out of a similar experience. First he became aware of the immensity of sin and how it separates one from God. Then he began the journey to God which led to the Damascus Road experience with Jesus.

As long as we deny that we do things that are selfish, indulgent, hurtful, we will never clear the path to recognizing God. When I finally got around to reading the Desert Fathers–those weird guys who escaped to the deserts of Egypt and Syria in the first couple of hundred years after Jesus–I expected tips on spiritual insight. What I found was a guide to how to overcome layer after layer of sin that separated them from God.

By the way, I sort of dislike the word “sin.” It is perhaps overused and can become “church speak” that might lose its power over people. I have not come up with a better word that will drive home the fact that there are things you do, thoughts you dwell on that separate you from being free to live in the Spirit.

In my other “life” of process control in manufacturing, there is a phrase you can’t control it if you don’t measure it. Well, in spiritual life, if you don’t recognize the things that separate you from God, then you will not have true communion with God. You’ll be like Adam, who knew God, but he didn’t live with Him.

Jesus gave some advice about keeping your integrity and living simply. He said to not swear oaths with many words, but to, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.”

Just now I am studying deeply the Disciplines of Simplicity and Solitude (or Silence) from Richard Foster’s book, “The Celebration of Discipline.” These Disciplines seem to go together quite nicely. You go into solitude and silence to discover what God wants you to say and do, and them you act simply without fanfare and self-centeredness.

As I contemplate upon these, I grabbed some time from my travels this week to check the headlines. We’re in an intense political season, and this week is a big one what with President Obama giving his State of the Union address and the Republicans lining up to blast it (even before they heard it). In checking Tuesday’s headlines, I saw some congresspeople spouting off many words that were actually contradicted by other news headlines about the economy on the same front page of the newspaper.

And I thought, how can all these people get up and say what they say with a straight face? No wonder the American people by and large long for a leader who speaks simply, with force and depth. One who isn’t merely trying to score debate points or make himself or herself (although there are a noticeable lack of females in this election cycle) look better than they are.

I sincerely hope I don’t come across that way. Or that you do. Live simply. Say what needs to be said–no more. Speak from the fruits of your solitude as you seek God’s guidance.

I’m just glad I chose a different career path than that of politician.