Faith Venture

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 »

Shocked by Jesus Emotion

June 28, 2011

John includes a curious story. Like most stories about Jesus, it’s familiar. In fact, it is so familiar that we often just read through it without letting the emotions of the story sink in.

Jesus had left Jerusalem and the region of Judea where the authorities were trying to kill him and was about half-way north toward Galilee. He received a message from two of his best friends that their brother was very sick. They wanted him to come down to Bethany and heal him.

Jesus doesn’t go right away. He says it’s only a trick and that this will show the greater power of God. Then he hears that Lazarus has died. That doesn’t even seem to faze him.

But when he arrives and sees the anguish of his friends Martha and Mary and of their friends, he is deeply touched. It’s almost as though he never considered how they would feel waiting on him. When he felt their pain, he cried.

How often do we know what we’re doing, yet fail to communicate with others? How often do they misunderstand us and jump to the wrong conclusion? I bet many of the problems of people in the world, even huge political problems, can trace their roots to a cause such as this.

Jesus felt their pain and cried with them. Whatever your picture of Jesus, add to it that he was an emotional human being. Shocked? Don’t be. He at times exhibited anger, outrage, impatience, maybe even fear (or at least trepidation).

The key is that he always mastered his emotions. He didn’t dwell on them. After he shared a moment of grief with his friends, then he took command of both himself and the situation and told Lazarus to walk out of the tomb. That shocked everyone. They imagined all manner of morbid stuff. But just as Jesus said before he left for Bethany, Lazarus was just “asleep” and showed no signs of having been dead and buried. When Jesus makes you well, you’re well all the way.

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Benefits of Meditation

June 27, 2011

I got into a brief conversation on mediation based on this post from a week ago or so. Beyond the initial response, this discussion caused me to think a little more deeply about the situation.

Many people, even Christians, are suspicious of what has been called spiritual enlightenment. They are more rooted into everyday life and prefer the physical realm. Not a criticism–it’s just the way people are wired. Often Christians are worried about creeping “New Age” mysticism infiltrating churches. This worry is not without justification. I’m amazed at the number of New Age books in bookstores these days–and at the number of middle-aged women buying them.

But–there are two aspects of meditation that will change your life if you practice it.

There is first of all a physical side. Apart from the histories of Christian, Buddhist or Hindu meditation, there is mounting scientific evidence that the mere physical acts associated with meditation have beneficial effects upon your health. When I teach Yoga, I don’t teach Hindu theology. But I teach mind-body awareness. That’s the first step toward feeling better. Long-term practice of meditation (simply sitting quietly in silence for a period of time even as brief as 10 minutes twice a day) will help slow your pulse, reduce high blood pressure, lower stress, make you calmer.

Think of the deeply spiritual people you have met. Don’t they live a combination of calmness and energy? This sounds contradictory, but it isn’t. They actually go together.

Further than the physical benefits are the spiritual ones. Rather than sitting quietly and concentrating on your breath or a sound, you can read a passage from the Bible as the source of contemplation. As you sit quietly, allow God to talk to you through that scripture. You will be amazed at the insights you will receive. Your knowledge and spiritual growth and maturity will ever expand.

Skeptical? Even professional soccer referees are taught the value of pausing a moment and taking one or two deep breaths before confronting an angry coach or player. Your actions will be something you won’t be embarrassed watching on TV replay. Same with you.

Posted in Prayer, Spirituality | Leave a Comment »

Who Is This Guy Jesus

June 21, 2011

OK, I can’t answer that question in 300 words or less. Pope Benedict (when he was Cardinal Ratzinger) wrote “Jesus of Nazareth” and, while it’s an excellent work of scholarship and writing, doesn’t completely answer the question.

But in John (especially chapters 7-9) Jesus keeps saying things and the people can’t figure him out. He mysterious. Is he the Messiah? But he can’t be, he’s from Galilee. He talks about talking with (not to) the Father (God). Is he demon possessed? In other places, he’s the most compassionate human being ever known. In another, he makes a whip from cords lying about and drives flea-market merchants out of the Temple. Who the heck is he?

To this day, millions of people think he’s a prophet. The blind man he healed (see John 9) calls him such. Moses who was a great prophet who talked with God (and scared the people who didn’t think you should talk with God) said that after him would come a prophet greater than he.

There are many today who follow prophets. In Israel even in the hottest day, I saw Orthodox Jews wearing fur hats. Others wearing various types of fedoras tilted at different angles. Why, we asked? Because the teacher they follow dressed like that (maybe in Poland), and they want to imitate their teacher.

We don’t know what Jesus looked like. He never sat for a portrait (that’s an amusing thought–Jesus sitting still while some guy painted his picture). Our pictures of how he looked and how he dressed comes mostly from Renaissance European painters. If we want to imitate him, we’ll have to choose a different way.

One thing I’m sure of. That small community of followers for whom Jesus was real would never have grown to such power and size were it not for the resurrection. If he were just a teacher who died, there would never have been the power of the Spirit that changed the world forever. People didn’t figure him out (even his closest friends) until after the resurrection. That’s what makes Jesus different.

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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 »

Judge With Right Judgment

June 16, 2011

Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. “The Jews” (as John calls them) were aghast. These people had the 10 Commandments. Then they had all the laws of Leviticus. And other laws. And laws developed over centuries to explain the laws. (sounds a little like our society, but that’s a different story).

God said, set aside a day of the week to honor me and keep it holy. What does that mean? Well, it took hundreds of laws and interpretations to explain that one simple sentence.

Jesus, a self-proclaimed rabbi who should have known better, broke one of them. You can’t work, and healing is work, so judge him guilty. And already there were people in power who wanted to kill Jesus.

Jesus answers them (see John 7). He seemed to be always pointing out to people that they aren’t doing what they tell others to do. He says, you condemn me for healing on the Sabbath, “Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Moses gave you circumcision, and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.”

Jesus also said, you judge by outward appearance. Instead, judge with right judgement.

When I was growing up, Christians were called a bunch of hypocrites. Play actors who wore masks that showed an outward appearance of perfection, yet unclean on the inside. While I’ve been “spiritual” for as long as I can remember, I struggled well into my 20s whether to call myself “Christian.” I didn’t want to be one of “them.”

We are all unclean inside. There is no greater or lesser. If it’s a little, it’s a lot. To set up lots of rules and pretend to follow them so that we can accuse others of not following them is to be the sort of person that Jesus condemned. Jesus had tremendous empathy and love for broken people. He had little patience for those who sat back in their comfortable persona pretending to be clean and condemning others for not being like them.

I seek to understand people. But I hate myself when I get one of those judgment thoughts. I know Jesus hates that, too.

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For Whom Are You Working

June 14, 2011

John, the evangelist, quoted Jesus, “Those who speak on their own, seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him.”

I read this over the weekend and asked myself how that applies to me. In my professional life, I am pretty well-known in my industry. Whenever I write something or whenever I’m thinking about our magazine or company, I often stop to ponder if I’m just reporting and analyzing fairly, or if I’m doing something to seek more reputation.

While I was pondering this thought from Jesus and before I had time to write, a cool thing happened. The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat for the championship of the National Basketball Association.

I don’t follow the NBA anymore. Too many selfish prima donnas there. And the top self-promoter as the world’s greatest basketball player is LeBron James. To orchestrate an hour-long TV special about his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers (where he failed to bring a championship, often faltering in the fourth quarter in clutch situations), he proclaimed he would bring a championship to Miami. Well he faltered again in the clutch.

Someday Miami may win a championship. Maybe not. I don’t care. But to see the triumph of a team that plays like a team over a self-proclaimed great player was rewarding.

Jesus said that if you seek glory for the one who sent you, there is nothing false in you.

No matter what you are doing, stop occasionally and ask, “For whom do I work?” Certainly in America we’ve generated a mindset of getting ahead on our own merits. “What’s in it for me” is the mantra. Jesus implies that there is something false there. But if your mantra is “What’s in it for God and others” then you are approaching truth.

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Discipline and Going With the Flow

June 8, 2011

I just noticed that I had posts that are almost juxtaposed thoughts. How do you embody “going with the flow” and “discipline.” It’s kind of like–I’m traveling again, this time to Budapest, Hungary. I have full days with little time to think and to exercise.

So, Monday and today I took the time to run around St. Magrit’s Island (located in the middle of the Danube). But that takes away from writing time and thinking time.

One key is balance. You can’t fit everything into one day. But exercise is a must for me. I have a desire to be as fit as possible. Meditation and study are also musts. But I hate to be obsessive about everything and get myself all worked up trying to fit everything into the hours I’m awake.

What is important is to review and notice when you have neglected one thing for another. Then you need to bring back the balance. I need to do both of those practices, but they need to be balanced without making me frustrated.

I live in the USA, and sometimes I know that we take things for granted. Yesterday I had the honor and pleasure of meeting with Janos Horvath at the Hungarian Parliament. He is an MP–the oldest MP ever in Hungary. In 1944 he was the youngest person ever elected to the Hungarian Parliament.

He was in the anti-Hitler youth, captured, tortured and scheduled for execution in the war. Just the day before his scheduled trial and execution, the Soviets began shelling Budapest. Eventually he was able to escape. When the Nazis were driven out and the Hungarian people were able to establish a democracy, he was elected to Parliament.

Then the Soviets came in and established a Communist government. Once more he escaped. This time to the US where he earned a Ph.D. in economics at Columbia, met Ronald Reagan, ran for US Congress in Indiana. After the demise of the communist regime in Hungary, he returned in 1998 and once more was elected to Parliament.

This is quite a story. He is now 90 years old and sharper than most of my contemporaries. Think of the changes that happened during his life. Think of your blessings. If you think you have had a tough time, think of this man who faced terror and death, yet is a kind and gentle soul still working for the good of his people.

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Are You In Control Or Is God

June 6, 2011

There is an old saying:

“The Master allows things to happen. He shapes events as they come. He steps out of the way and lets the Way speak for itself.”

Do you think you are in control of life’s situations? Do you try to control your subordinates? Spouse? Kids? Organization? Do you set goals and knock yourself out trying to achieve them even though events have changed the environment?

You may think you are in control…but you aren’t. You couldn’t control 9/11. But the event changed the way you live. You can’t control gasoline prices. But you can choose how to live with them. You can’t control your kids, but you can influence them and make proper values part of their lives. You can’t control others in your organization by “micro-managing.” But you can unleash the creativity and passions of them and see how far they (and the organization) can go.

Control is an illusion. But if you follow your values, you will know how to make the best of the flow and become the person and witness that God intended.

By the way, I said “values” because I worry that the phrase “putting God in control” has become so trite that it is almost meaningless in the way we actually live. I’m thinking, what does God want me to be and to do? What sort of person should I be. If I am in touch with God daily and if I am living the with-God life, then I will know how to live through the inevitable changes life throws at me and be the appropriate witness of God.

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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.

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