Faith Venture

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 »

Planting Good From Your Heart

August 26, 2011

Not only my own experience, but from the witness of many spiritual seekers before me, I see it is necessary to understand the bad that dwells within you. I can’t find the source of the quote right now, but someone said that awareness is the first step toward confession and redemption. Covering up your guilt is not healthy.

On the other hand, we are not all bad. Well, at least most of us. As you study the Bible and meditate on God, you can also see where God is leading you. That you are forgiven the bad. There is a hope. That God is there. I’ve had subsequent experiences in meditating on God and His Word where I’ve experienced God. It’s a vision to nurture. A reminder when life hits you with setbacks. Or when you are tempted to grow bad fruit rather than good.

As you meditate on your heart, it’s good to visualize the fruits of the spirit growing from it. That gives you a guide for the day. Spread some joy and peace where you go. It’s one of those things that the more you give away, the more returns to you.

Peace.

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If your heart were planted like a seed, what plant would grow

August 25, 2011

At the end of a Yoga class, we spend about five minutes in “final relaxation.” We lie on our backs in “corpse pose” and focus on slow, rhythmic breathing. For many people this is the highlight of the hour. Often I give the class something to meditate on. Sometimes it’s good to meditate on nothing–just focus on breath and clear your mind. Other times I’ll have them visualize lying on a beach or in a meadow or something.

There is one meditation that I like to give. Lie quietly, focus on slow, rhythmic breathing, then meditate on the question, “If your heart were planted, what would grow?”

There is more to this question than might meet the eye. Have you ever looked inside yourself? Do you know you, or do you know the you that you think you are? This may come as a shock to some, but you may not be the perfect person of your dreams.

Once when I was deep in meditation, I had an experience (some would call it a vision) of entering a basement room and seeing all manner of evil. Murder, adultery, specifics that I don’t really remember. What I remember is thinking that deep inside I really am capable of committing sin–maybe even grievous sin.

I remember this vision to this day even though it happened many years ago. It reminds me that I’m not perfect. I am in need of God’s grace (a later experience–probably first you have to realize you are sinning and capable of much more before you can really receive God’s grace).

So, where are you in life? What would grow. Are you living with God, and the fruits your heart would grow are love, peace, grace? Or are you still enmeshed in lust, self-love, materialism, greed, hate? Realizing where you are helps you focus on becoming what God would like you to be.

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You Need Structure In Your Life

August 22, 2011

Henry Cloud was the speaker today on my iPod during the morning workout. He is a prolific author, fantastic speaker and very deep spiritually. His new book, Necessary Endings, discusses signals and times when you need to call an end to something (relationship, job, career, and so on). Although today he talked about recognizing when it doesn’t have to end.

One thing he discussed which really stuck is the need for structure in your life. My daughter is a therapist who works with troubled adolescents. One thing that is constant in her clients is that they grew up in a family without structure. Even if there were a “traditional” mom and dad, their lives were not structured. My wife taught elementary school. The biggest change she saw over the years (aside from lack of parental support) was the lack of structure in her students’ lives.

By this I mean no regular meal times, no regular study times, no regular bed times. We all need to organize our lives so that we don’t have to think about these things and then we are free to concentrate on our work, our relationships, our hobbies, on God.

If you stop by regularly or subscribe, you’ll notice that I am absolutely terrible about posting regularly. This is partly due to the fact that I travel a lot. When I travel, my life has little structure. I may have breakfast meetings, then meetings all day, then dinner with customers, then return to my hotel room late facing an email inbox of 300 messages to sort through.

That sure sounds like an excuse…a poor one. And you’d be correct calling me on that. One reason I’m preparing to teach a course on spiritual disciplines is that I need to remind myself to continually work to develop them.

Where do you need to put some structure in your life so that you then have freedom to get closer to God and to others? Must be time for us all to get to work.

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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.

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God to Us Can You Hear Me Now

August 12, 2011

In the exchange Jesus had with people at the Temple in John 8 where he leads them in a discussion of who their father is, he tells them that if God were their father, then they would hear Him. It is even more interesting when you couple that with John 9 where he basically tells them they can’t see God, either.

Those Temple leaders eventually caught on to what Jesus was saying and replied “God is our Father.” But Jesus said to them that they certainly didn’t act like they’ve ever heard God. They were still thinking genealogy. Jesus was talking about a living relationship. How can you say that God is your father when you’ve never heard Him?

Listening for most of us is something to be learned. You have to practice it. Do you listen to your spouse? Your children? Your boss? If you can’t hear what people say within your physical presence, then how can you hear what your spiritual Father says?

You have to stop the busy train you’re on, relax your mind and body, then give God some attention. You have to become observant. God’s voice isn’t always voices in your head. Sometimes people or events speak God to you. I guess the other thing you have to be is open to receiving when God is talking.

When I read Jesus’ words, I also get the idea that hearing means more than listening. It means acting on what you hear. Hearing and doing God’s word is almost always coupled. I guess that’s what always makes me slightly uncomfortable. Am I really doing what God’s telling me?

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Who’s Your Father

August 11, 2011

I’ve been thinking about Jesus and the Father for weeks. I’m reading John’s gospel (again) remembering why it’s my favorite. There’s a theme that most commentators on the text don’t emphasize as a theme–the Father.

Jesus makes a big deal (or at least John really emphasizes the fact) of his Father (not Joseph, but God). He comes from the Father. The Father is in him. He is in the Father. He and the Father are one. What does this mean?

People obviously had trouble figuring it out. He was talking to a group of Jews (probably Pharisees) when he told them that his words were truth and truth would set them free. They said they were Abraham’s children and had never been slaves. Aside from the fact that their knowledge of history was a little bit lacking, they were talking about biological genealogy.

Jesus turned the question into a spiritual issue. If they were really Abraham’s children, they would follow Jesus. Then he tells them that their real father is the evil one (whom we call Satan these days). But his father is God.

Later, as he is giving his last instructions to his inner circle, he says that he is about to go to the Father. Not understanding, Philip asks where the father is and can they go, too. Jesus says, not that kind of father and he’ll discover eventually.

These episodes point out what I’ve been trying to teach for 30 years or so. You really need to read the Bible with spiritual eyes. That’s what Jesus taught. We all have biological fathers. We may also have adopted fathers. This refers to physical family. You don’t have a choice in the matter–especially the biological one.

But Jesus taught and showed that there is a Father whom you can choose. A spiritual Father. And not a remote god who is not approachable except under special circumstances by special people. This Father is revealed in relationship. You live with Him. He lives within you. He’ll guide you if you listen. He’ll listen if you talk. He’ll help you put your spiritual life together. This leads to putting your emotional life together. And your physical life.

And it’s simple. You get to choose. You begin by just deciding you want to live with the Father. Then you practice ways of developing your relationship.

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Thinking about people or a person

August 8, 2011

I spent last week at a very technical conference. Lot of talk about programming for industrial applications. You’ll have to bear with me a little for the analogy to develop. Anyway, I got to thinking about abstraction–that is a way of thinking where you ignore the details and focus on generalities.

The company whose user conference I attended has developed software that allows programmers to handle complex programming tasks with greater success and ease. It’s a process called abstraction. Instead of concentrating on lines and lines (sometimes thousands of lines of densely worded text called code), the code is abstracted into small pictures that can be “wired” together. In this case, abstraction works to great benefit.

Then on the plane ride home watching the TED Talks videos on my iPad, I saw a talk given by a marvelous teacher. Then I thought about much political debate (and many people’s thoughts) over the past decade or longer about teachers. Get the distinction? One teacher or a group known as “teachers.”

Where is our focus? Do we think of people in terms of a group? Or individuals? It’s easy to make villains you hate about a group when you know many individuals in that group whom you admire. In this case, abstraction from the individual to the group is not productive.

I can’t think of a time when Jesus dealt with groups as an abstraction. He dealt with individuals. John, in his Gospel, makes some abstractions (he often talks of “the Jews”), but John is also full of irony. He makes a comment about the Pharisees (the group) but also has talked about an individual Pharisee (Nicodemus). John likes that kind of contrast.

But I have concern when we try to reduce everyone to groups and fail to see the individual. The pastor yesterday talked about meeting a “weird” guy and then discovering he was a pastor. He went from abstraction to individual. That is much more beneficial in our lives. Instead of getting ourselves all worked up and stressing ourselves over abstracted groups that disagree with us, perhaps we could see individuals who are fellow seekers. Who have different ideas for now as they are puzzling out the same things we are–how to live with God.

Don’t look at “them.” Look at her. Look at him.

Posted in Ethics | 2 Comments »

Know Where Your Heart Is

August 2, 2011

Ignatius Loyola, medieval contemplative and founder of an Order, said your heart lives either in consolation or desolation. Never make decisions when your heart is in desolation.

I don’t think he was talking about bi-polar disorder where you have wild mood swings between “manic” and “depressive” states. There are pharmaceuticals for that. If you have that, see a psychologist. But if we look honestly at ourselves, we’ll notice that sometimes we seem close to God (consolation). Everything, if not great, looks like there will be a positive outcome. I feel at peace. Sometimes God seems far away (desolation). Despair captures the soul. You feel unloved and alone.

Loyola was right. Be aware of your own feelings. If you are in desolation, don’t make a big decision. Don’t decide to quit your job and become a hippie poet. Don’t leave your spouse. Whatever. Tomorrow is another day. You will balance. Of course, if you notice you are in desolation for longer periods, seek help. See a friend, pastor, counselor. Don’t live in despair.

I have been studying John’s gospel for some time. In the middle of it (around chapters 14-16), Jesus is giving his close friends and chosen leaders instructions about the changes their lives will experience after he is gone. He said that they were contented today, but tomorrow they would be scattered and depressed. But then shortly afterwards, they would be overjoyed.

He also said they wouldn’t understand until it happens.

Sure enough. In a few hours Jesus was arrested, taken before various authorities, condemned to death and hung on a cross. And those friends of his scattered. All were in despair. It happened so quickly that they could not remember Jesus’ words or see the big picture.

Then came the resurrection. They were back in consolation–that is in peace with God. Then they made wise decisions. We are the descendents and recipients of the fruits of those decisions.

It’s not so much “don’t despair.” It happens to us all at times. It’s really about recognizing what state our heart is in and then knowing what to do about it.

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Christianity as a Culture

July 29, 2011

Once again someone has gone off into a world of his own and murdered people in the name of his religion. In this case, the religion is Christianity. The murdered people were suspected of nurturing a rival religion–Islam. This was in Norway–a country that usually makes news only in relation to oil or fjords.

Jon Swanson has an interesting analysis in his blog 300 Words a Day. He looks at Christian evangelicalism and Christian fundamentalism. But he took the time to read some of the murderer’s manifesto. The point is that the killer looked at Christianity as a culture. Belief doesn’t matter. It’s about the culture.

It’s easy for us–especially those of us who grew up in small town Midwest USA where everyone was the same–to slip into Christianity as a culture, a practice. Small town people the world over are suspicious of outsiders. We’re suspicious of people who act differently, speak differently, dress differently, believe differently. If we brood on those differences, our hearts can grow hard (compare to the soil parable).

I’m developing a short course to introduce people into the practice of spiritual disciplines. Perhaps the hardest thing will be to get them to realize that this isn’t an intellectual exercise. Also it’s not a forced habit. Spiritual disciplines are practices that you cultivate that will bring you into a closer, deeper relationship with God.

It’s not culture, but it is how you live your life. How cool it would be if we lived like those Christians in Acts who lived so differently that people were attracted to “The Way”–as Christianity was called in those days.

Check out Jon’s thoughts. Ponder the question, “Am I living in a culture, or am I living in a close relationship with God?”

Posted in Christianity, Relationship | Leave a Comment »