Catalyst Recap: John Ortberg & Dallas Willard (Closing Lab – Ortberg only/General Session with both 4/22)

John Ortberg has just recently released his newest book, The Me I Want to Be and it is about the shaping of our souls, which he says is the most important thing ever – and pastors are entrusted with it. Only God knows what our true potential is and he’s more concerned that we meet it than we are. And the reality is, we’re being spiritually formed whether you’re doing anything or not. How are we formed? Grace.

Grace isn’t just for salvation, it is how we live. Ortberg quoted Dallas Willard (and Willard repeated it in their interview): “Saints run on grace more than sinners ever will.” Ortberg’s point at the closing lab session was that the River of God (Jn. 7.38-39) is always running and we just need to step into it.

This seems to be through spiritual disciplines, but Ortberg says that disciples are hand-crafted, not mass-produced. He suggests Monvee as a way to get your individual diagnosis of what you need. When you flourish, you become more the ‘You’ you’re intended to be.

The next day, Dallas Willard was interviewed by Ortberg before he was given the Catalyst West Coast lifetime achievement award. Some highlights…

Q: What ahs the church not been getting right?
A: Problem is the message. Jesus invites us through faith to live in the Kingdom now.

Q: What is Jesus’ gospel?
A: How to get into heaven before you die. We have to learn to live with God in charge now because the Kingdom is in action now as God is gracious towards us.

Random note: “Grace is God acting in your life to accomplish what you can’t accomplish on your own.”

Q: Why do disciplines matter? How do they relate to grace?
A:
· Grace doesn’t make us passive.
· Grace isn’t opposed to effort; it is opposed to earning.
· Do things within your power to enable you to do things you’re unable to do on your own now by direct effort. Disciplines are training vs. trying.
· Make space for God to act.

Q: How do I spiritually grow?
A: Do the next good thing you know to do.

Just War?: Virtue and Warfare

I’ll admit this is a pretty good book (When God Says War is Right by Darrell Cole), but that doesn’t mean I always track where he’s going or how he organizes his book. This chapter seems like it’s in an odd place, but it had good stuff. It’s essentially about the importance of spiritual formation in the lives of warriors. And yes, he argues, the church should be in the business of forming warriors.

The believer’s goal (again relying heavily on Aquinas and Calvin) is loving union with God; beatitude in Aquinas’ terms. Virtue helps the believer achieve that union and act properly in a given setting. The morally virtuous is the one who does so regularly. The four cardinal virtues are prudence (wisdom), justice (rendering each their due), courage (controlling passions that make us act unreasonably or fearfully), and temperance (controlling passions contrary to reason). All of these help a person love well, which is the ultimate point as we are in union with Christ. We ought to love like Him and our character is obedient to Him, functioning as He would function.

Given the development of these virtues, war is a positive good, not just a “necessary evil.” It is an act of love toward those who are being attacked and to your fellow soldiers to fight (there are concentric circles – at least as I understand it – of responsibilities of love). It would be unloving for a believer to avoid engaging a just war when it is called for.

Cole closes with the dismissal of Jesus’ meekness as a model for believers, according to Calvin. Simply put, Jesus’ ministry was priestly reconciliation and sacrifice that is not duplicated by believers. We cannot be a Savior, but we can follow the Father’s command to love our neighbors.

I can feel the tension here between loving your enemies meaning turn the other cheek and loving your neighbor meaning killing enemies who are harming them. Paradigms seem to have much to do with where one ends up on this issue.

Which Bible for 2009?

I try to read through the Bible each year. I just finished the King James Version for 2008. Any suggestions on which version I should tackle for 2008? I’ll be reading my Greek New Testament, but I need another translation for the Old Testament. (Notice that I’ll be reading the NT with English on the facing page. I’m reading it because my Greek is weak, not because it’s strong).

Suggestions?

Too long without Eugene Peterson: contra spiritual elitism

I’m making myself stop. I just started reading Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. He’s been one of my favorites over the last few years, but it’s been too long since I last read him (a year ago or so, I think). I started reading Christ Plays (because my amazing wife gives me Saturdays to relax, recharge, and read) and wanted to pound through the first section of the book because that’s what I do with books, but I made myself stop. Too good. I need to think about it.

I can’t begin to capture how good Peterson is because it’s mostly in how he says it, but I’ll at least let you think about what I’m pondering to see if it is worth you pondering, too. He’s “clearing the playing field” for Christian spirituality to get rid of distractions. The first he’s dealing with is the myth of spiritual elitism, that spirituality is for a special class. He debunks this brilliantly by contrasting two consecutive stories in John 3 and 4 – Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman. The stories show that Jesus shows no preference and, in fact, it is the “less respectable” one who gets what Jesus is talking about and. Notice the contrast:

A man and a woman.
City and country.
An insider and an outsider.
A professional and a layperson.
A respectable man and a disreputable woman.
An orthodox and a heretic.
One who takes initiative; one who lets it be taken.
One named, the other anonymous.
Human reputation at risk; divine reputation at risk (p. 18).

Ultimately the point of each doesn’t revolve around the person, but Jesus and the work of God. Peterson states, “Jesus is working at the center. Jesus is far more active than any one of us; it is Jesus who provides the energy” (p. 19). In removing the clutter around spiritual formation and the issue of elitism we see:

spirituality is not a body of secret lore,
spirituality has nothing to do with aptitude or temperament,
spirituality is not primarily about you or me; it is not about personal power or enrichment. It is about God (p. 19).

What a great reminder. God doesn’t care where we are or where we come from, but He cares about where we are going and wants to work in our lives. What a great reminder that, ultimately, the pressure’s off. God’s at work. Not because of who I am or what I’ve done, but because He is and He loves me and wants to change me to become like Him.

Nice. Encouraging.

Praying With The Church #6: Jesus & Sacred Tradition

This is the last chapter I’ll cover of McKnight’s book, Praying With The Church. McKnight says Jesus’ prayer life was both traditional and innovative. His prayer life was immersed in the psalms, which is a good idea for any of us in our prayer lives. They help us really grapple with genuine emotion an engagement with God. Mark D. Roberts has a book on praying with the Psalms called No Holds Barred. Psalms help us relate with God on a real level.

The next aspect of Jesus’ prayer life is what McKnight calls the Jesus Creed. Faithful Jews recited the Shema, but Jesus adapted it by adding the love for one’s neighbor.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This was such a formative idea for the discipleship of the early church that McKnight thinks it might have been part of the daily prayer office.

McKnight says the instruction Jesus gives on prayer should be translated “whenever you pray … recite” the Lord’s Prayer. This is to be a feature of God’s people praying together. McKnight states his case bluntly: “The point I wish to make is a simple one. The Our Father prayer is to be recited whenever Christians pray together” (63). Notice the prayer is “our” Father, not “my” Father.

“Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matt. 6:9-13).

Here’s McKnight’s “Christian Prayer Day”

Morning = Jesus Creed, 10 Commandments (optional), Lord's Prayer
Afternoon = Lord's Prayer
Evening = Jesus Creed, 10 Commandments (optional), Lord's Prayer

The rest of McKnight’s book discusses the different prayer books of the different traditions – Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and The Divine Hours. I use the latter and I’ll discuss how it has been helpful in a future post.

Praying With the Church #5: Jesus and Sacred Prayers

I haven’t been doing this much lately, but I’m still enjoying fixed hour prayer – even if my hours aren’t “fixed.” Perhaps “flexed hour prayer” would be the better term for me. Either way, it has been good. This post will give a brief summary of the ancient Jewish prayers that Jesus likely practiced – morning, noon, and night.

There are Catholic prayer books, Anglican/Episcopal, and Orthodox, not to mention The Divine Hours for the rest of us (the one I’m using). The ancient Jewish prayer book is what we call the Psalms. While some are intensely personal prayers, they are fit to be the prayer book of Israel. Another regular aspect of the Jewish liturgical life is the Shema: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength” (Deut. 6.4-5). They also recited the Ten Commandments and something called, among other names, the Amidah:

Blessed art thou, Lord, God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob, great, mighty and fearful God, most high God who createst heaven and earth, our shield and the shield of our fathers, our trust in every generation.
Blessed art thou, Lord, shield of Abraham.

Grant us, our Father, the knowledge (that comes) from thee, and understanding and
discernment (that come) from thy Torah.
Blessed art thou, Lord, who grantest knowledge.

Bring thy peace over Israel, thy people, and over thy city and over thine inheritance; and bless all of us together.
Blessed art thou, Lord, who makest peace. (McKnight 48).

These three elements were what Israel prayed at their hours of prayer. McKnight says it would look like this:
Psalms all the time and throughout the day.
Morning = Shema, (10 Commandments), and Amidah
Afternoon = Amidah
Evening = Shema, (10 Commandments), and Amidah

Most people who might stumble upon this blog are likely of a similar stripe as myself, hesitant to use the words of others to pray – the fear of vain repetition. But I find my prayers take on their own vain repetition as I either get lazy in articulating my prayers or I am in a request rut. I love what McKnight says about Scripture and prayer that might help those of us who are more hesitant to toy with this kind of prayer:

“…let’s probe this concern about repetition in another way. This question may actually be masking another issue, one that is part of the hesitation to use prayers written by others. Our tendency is to go to the Bible for something new, to read it in the expectation of a fresh discovery of something we did not know or had not heard or had completely forgotten. As a professor who teaches the Bible, I know the
experience.

“But the discovery of something new is not the sole, or even the main, purpose for reading the Bible. The longer you look at the idea that we read the Bible to find new meanings, the sillier it becomes. We read and return to the Bible not (just) to find something new but to hear something old, not to discover something fresh but to be reminded of something ancient.

“What we find in the sacred rhythm and sacred prayer tradition of Israel is the wise recitation of those passages in the Bible most central to spirituality, passages we need to be reminded of daily because of their importance for how we are to conduct ourselves before God and with others” (50-51).

Does this resonate with anyone else?

Praying With the Church #4: Jesus and Sacred Rhythms

I’ve been dabbling with fixed hour prayer for about a week now and I’m really enjoying it and finding it helpful. I’ll get to that in a few posts (if I’m still sticking with it), but looking at Jesus’ prayer life is a helpful guide that might help us stick with fixed hour prayer. Jesus was a faithful Jew and would have prayed regularly – at least three times per day.

Being from less of a liturgical background, I was surprised at the clarity of fixed hour prayer in the OT (Ps. 55.17; Dan. 6.10) and it is historically how Jews pray. Jesus doesn’t criticize public prayer in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 6), but praying to be seen.

OK. I’ll talk about my experience a little bit because it fits so well with the rhythm of prayer. I don’t want to belabor it, and I’m not proud of it, but I’m not a great pray-er. It is work for me. I don’t gravitate to it naturally. But I am doing it more. Why? I think it is because three times a day I “touch base” with God in prayer. I’m lingering with God more at fixed hours, which makes me want to linger with Him at other times as well.

What is your day built around? Punching the clock at work? Meals? How about prayer?

Sabbatical #26: Confessional Prayer (Path of Celtic Prayer #7)

It is likely something comes to mind when you hear “confession.” Miller says there are three ways to define it – confessing a creed, confessing personal sin, and confessions in the sense of a spiritual autobiography, like Augustine’s, for instance. At its most foundational level, confession is agreeing with God. This is where power for prayer is unleashed because it is evidence of a trusting step toward union with God.

We tend to be too much like our first parents who passed the buck when God came calling after their sin (see Genesis 3) rather than agreeing with God that we’ve done wrong. We’re quick to justify or slow to name our sin and own it. But when we do, we take down the barriers between us and God, it puts us in step with Him. And the goal of our prayer, and the source of our power in prayer is union with Christ.

Listen to Miller:

Here is where the eternal God in Christ drops his huge hand over the threshold of our sinfulness to hold hands with us. This is precisely what the incarnation was about. We want to be one with Christ, and this oneness is born in our willingness to live in agreement concerning our sin and his forgiveness (p. 142).

Miller gives a three part “pilgrimage” in confession. It starts with longing for God and then moves to agreeing that our sin is sin, agreeing with God in this fact. The final aspect of it is not some worm theology, but finding ourselves in abandoning ourselves to God and serving Him. This will bring us into a “dangerously close” relationship with God.

Miller offers several forms in this book, but notes that confession is the “hardest to formalize” (p. 155). Even so, he offers a template that might be helpful. Start by praying this prayer, and then use the following template as a tool (pp. 156-158).

I come to you Father, acknowledging my longing after you.
I come to you Son of the Father, acknowledging that my sin has met the cross.
I come to you Spirit, asking you to fill me so that I may keep my place of ministry in bringing the world to a full confession of its own.

To you, merciful Father, I pray, against you have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
To you, merciful Son of the Father, I pray, wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
To you, merciful Spirit, I pray, create in me a pure heart.

Now believing in your cleansing and trusting in your mercy, I offer you this confession:

I, [YOUR NAME HERE], freely acknowledge my sin.

I take no credit for my redemption, yet I know it stands in place forever, as eternal as grace itself. Give ear to my desperate longing for you, O Father.

For this is how I feel my neediness, and express my longing:

I agree with you that I have sinned. I express what my sins have cost you and how in the past they have barred me from the fullest relationship I might have had with you.

I am seeking that perfect expression of your will for me in the world. Help me rediscover what every moment holds for me so that I can serve you in the exact manner you will equip me to serve. Here is the substance of my search:

Here is the story of how I first met you, how I first felt a longing for your love.

Here I rehearse my first feeling of brokenness for our years of separation and the joy of my homecoming.

As a final expression of my confession, I write out here in prayer my calling in the world. As far as I know here is what you have called me to do and when my service is to begin.

Father to you I give thanks for my purpose.
Son to you I give thanks for your cross and my redemption.
Spirit to you I give thanks for empowering my ministry in the world.

Amen, Father Almighty.
Amen, Son who saves.
Amen, Spirit who empowers.

Sabbatical #25: “Lorica” Prayer (Path of Celtic Prayer #6)

“Lorica” prayer is “breastplate” prayer, prayer for protection. This isn’t self-preservation for its own sake. Rather, it is that one may fulfill what God has called a person to do in this life and have the strength to do it.

This can be challenging for us on two fronts. First, many of us may have a tendency to miss the heart of the prayer and make it about us and our longevity rather than our commitment to fulfilling God’s mission with our lives. Our lives are not our own – they belong to God.

The other challenge is that we, at least I, often think I go to the doctor to get healthy. The modern mind thinks health is largely in our own hands – unlike the Celts who lived on the edge of life and death more often than not. Now don’t get me wrong. I love those who have discovered God’s ways through science and medicine for the benefit of us all. But let us not forget that God has our hairs numbered. He’s in control. He holds our lives in His hands. Let’s pray to Him for protection.

An example prayer is this “Breastplate of Laidcenn”…

O God, defend me everywhere
With your impregnable power and protection.
Deliver all my mortal limbs,
Guarding each with your protective shield,
So the foul demons shall not hurl their darts
Into my side, as is their wont.

Deliver my skull, hair-covered head, and eyes,
Mouth, tongue, teeth, and nostrils,
Neck, breast, side, and limbs,
Joints, fat, and two hands.

Be a helmet of safety to my head,
To my crown covered with hair,
To my forehead, eyes, and triform brain,
To snout, lip, face, and temple.

To my chin, beard, eyebrows, ears,
Chaps, cheeks, septum, nostrils,
Pupils, irises, eyelids, and the like,
To gums, breath, jaws, gullet.

Protect my spine and ribs and their joints,
Back, ridge, and sinews with their bones;
Protect my skin and blood with kidneys,
The area of the buttocks, nates with thighs.
Protect my hams, calves, femurs,
Houghs and knees with knee-joints;
Protect my ankes and shins and heels,
Shanks, feet with their soles.

Protect my toes growing together,
With the tips of the toes and twice five nails;
Protect my breast, collarbone and small breast,
Nipples, stomach, and navel.

Protect the whole of me with my five senses,
Together with the ten created orifices,
So that from soles of feet to crown of head
I shall not sicken in any organ inside or out. (pp. 125-126)

Did they forget anything? I'm not even sure of what all those are. Bottom line: God is our protector. Pray for your protection and of those who God puts on your heart.

Sabbatical #24: Nature Prayer (Path of Celtic Prayer #5)

I read this chapter a few days ago, but just yesterday I went with Suzanne and our girls on a drive to Mt. Rainier to play in the snow. It was a brief time in the snow, but a great drive to look at beautiful forests, snow patches, rivers, waterfalls, and craggy ledges all about. It was beautiful.

We control our environments so much that we can easily forget, apart from the natural tragedies on CNN, the wonder and power of God’s created world. The Celts lived in nature and had a hearty appreciation for it. So much so that they could be considered by some to cross the line into nature worship. According to Miller, though, their goal was to celebrate the great God behind nature, not nature.

Nature gives us a picture of God’s character and should evoke wonder and praise in us. Note this choice quote from Miller challenges the modern “inside” world that most of us inhabit…

A supersized God makes us aware of our smallness and our humble place in the universe. But in order to see him, we must give up our addiction to electronic media. Once we have seen the God of Yosemite and the Everglades, we will be better able to celebrate his awesome reality and our hearts will overflow with praise. Cognizant of God’s majesty, we will subsequently and spontaneously confess our need. (pp. 104-105)

It’s easy for me to say, up here in Washington where Mt. Rainier reminds of God’s greatness whenever the sky is clear (come to think of it, maybe not that easy!), but take some time – even in looking at the details of creation in your garden – to be reminded of God’s greatness through His creation. Go to the beach. Or the mountains.

And think on some awe-inspiring texts as well. Start with Job 38-39.

Sabbatical #22: Wandering Prayer (Path of Celtic Prayer #4)

I should be better at wandering prayer. I’ve been walking around Lake Wilderness out here in Maple Valley, WA. Believe me, I’m not fast so wandering may be the most apt description of what I do.

The Celts had guys that were called perigrini, wanderers. They would start walking or riding in their boat, trusting Jesus as their guide. They had no destination. Their joy was being on the journey with Jesus, led by Jesus. This helps to keep us constantly in prayer. This is a lifestyle we’re called to embrace.

Whatever our apparent earthly destinations, our life itself is a
pilgrimage. Once we understand we will never “arrive,” we can remain in a
continual state of prayer. This doesn’t mean we are always talking to
God. The fullest definition of long, wandering prayer is journeying in the
presence of the triune God. And even when our hearts are not wrapped (or
rapt) in conversation with the Almighty, we are yet in his presence (p. 79).

Miller talks much about life as a journey. I agree, but this has been helpful for me in a practical day-to-day sense, too. This “journeying” prayer reminds me to shut the radio off in the car. To pray while I walk. There’s some who do a good job of this, like my wife. Not me, though. This is a good, helpful reminder.

Sabbatical #20: Praying Scripture (Path of Celtic Prayer #3)

One key element of Celtic prayer was praying God’s Word back to God. Their goal was not to ask God for stuff so much as union with Christ. Scripture was seen as “literature born on the high ledges between this world and the next” (54). What better way to strengthen our union with God than by communicating to Him in His language?

What are the strengths of praying Scripture? First, it helps us listen to God’s Word – it moves from the eyes to our ears (via our own mouths). Next, it reminds us that prayer isn’t about us only, but about union with the Triune God. Finally, it can unite the church as we pray together God’s Word corporately.

Miller goes on to talk about the spiritual power in Scripture in several ways. In the struggle with sin, go to Rom. 7.25-8.1. When going through difficult times, read/pray Psalm 23. When grieving, read/pray 1 Cor. 15.51-58. For those who are facing their final days, reading/praying 2 Tim. 4 can be of great comfort.

I actually tried this the other day. I’m working through Luke (this passage is 1.26-38). Here’s what it looked like for me. Maybe it will be of help to you. Maybe not.

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

Lord, may I receive Your Word – through Scripture, prayer, whatever – with the same gravity as Mary. May I not take you lightly, but cultivate an awe for You and the fact that You would communicate with me.

30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

Thank You for Jesus and the wonderful Savior He is. Thank you that there will never be anyone like Him, nor has there ever been. Help me enjoy His greatness and become increasingly conformed to His image.

34 And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" 35 And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy- the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God."

Lord, I praise your infinite greatness. Help me live in the reality that nothing is impossible with you and to live and pray like I believe it.

38 And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

God, help me become the kind of person who, regardless of what You ask, will say "let it be to me according to your word.”

This was a profitable experience that has helped bring my Bible reading to life, even if just for a couple days at this point.

Sabbatical #17: Trinity Prayer (Path of Celtic Prayer #2)

While we tend to go to different members of the Godhead depending on the content of prayer (praise the Father for creation, ask Jesus for help on daily stuff, and ignore the Spirit), the Celts regularly prayed to the Trinity, particularly in the morning and in the evening (“If I die before I wake; I pray the Lord my soul to take” is Celtic because they thought evil spirits could steal souls in the middle of the night). Here’s an example of a “typical morning prayer,” according to Miller:

I awake in the name of the Father who made me.
I arise in the name of the Son who died to save me.
I rise to greet the dawn in the name of the Spirit who fills me with life.

The evening prayer was similar:

I lay me down in the love of my Father.
I surrender my body to rest in the love of my Savior.
I trust my life in sleep to the Spirit who fills me with life.

Miller suggests writing your own morning and evening prayers with more personal and expanded “endings” to the prayer prompts (48-49). Here’s what he gives, if you’re interested.

Morning
Holy God,
I am rising today in the name of the Father who…

I am rising today in the name of the Son who…

I am rising today in the name of the Spirit who…

Evening
God of all that is and was and shall be, for this day and its fullness I give you thanks;
Thank you father for the Earth and its endless beauty. Thank you especially for…

Thank you, Son, for your example of obedience to your Father which taught me faithfulness this day as I endeavored to…

Thank you, Spirit, for your infilling of my life, I especially thank you for your presence today as you walked with me through…

Father, give me sleep tonight, so that my praise in the morning may…

Son, wake me in obedience tomorrow so that I may…

Spirit, offer me your presence tomorrow so that I may…

Amen

I haven't had a chance to work on it, but it seems like a fruitful exercise to even do once, let alone make it part of one's devotional practice.

Sabbatical #16: The God of the Celts with us today (Path of Celtic Prayer #1)

I’ve been working on remembering God’s presence with me at all times, and cultivating that sense of companionship that He wants to have with me. I’ve started reading The Path of Celtic Prayer by Calvin Miller. I’ve just hit the intro, but I liked this reminder that God is all around us from Miller.

“Celtic spirituality is filled with nature runes (poems or incantations) extolling the virtues of the triune God as he fills the natural world. The Celts sometimes struggled not to confuse God and nature; God is always greater than and separate from his creation. Nonetheless, we have much to learn from the way in which they allowed nature to inform their spirituality…” (20-21).

I hope it is good food for thought for you…

Sabbatical #15: Addicted to Noise

Sabbatical #13 deals with doing things that give God room to speak while you’re waiting to hear from you. I’m addicted to noise, particularly in the car – even more so here in Washington and the Mariners are playing. But there has been a joy in turning the radio off to limit the stimuli and perhaps hear from God. Even though I haven’t heard anything from God, necessarily, even leaving space for Him reminds me that He’s there. It’s nice. Try it, particularly if you’re one who always needs the radio or TV on like me. It really is a pleasant reminder.

Sabbatical #13: Waiting for God in the Great Northwest

I’m up with my family in the greatest part of the Great Northwest, Washington State, not far out of Seattle. It has been good to loaf around and spend some time with my brother, mom, grandmother, and dad and stepmom. Today I’m the errand boy, which is nice. It isn’t often that I contribute to the family these days – apart from bringing Eliana & Vivian up, which Suzanne is doing in a few days. It’s nice. I don’t have internet at my mom’s, where I’m staying, so my posting won’t be as consistent, but I’m having a great time working on my relationship with God.

I finished Hearing God by Dallas Willard yesterday and it had some practical words on hearing God. He suggested a prayer James Dobson says he offers daily: “God, speak to me today through the books I read, magazines, conversations, and circumstances.” It was something like that. Willard suggests a prayer like that and then, when you’re waiting to hear from God, to wait to hear while you’re doing something light – like running errands or going through your mail. Situations where you can keep one ear on God and one on the work you’re doing. This keeps from being overly-introspective and “trying too hard” and going to work with such vigor that we’re too focused on our task to hear – at least until our ears have been well trained.

I don’t have a pressing question, but I’m going to try this today as I go on my family errands. Let me know if/how it works for you.

Sabbatical #12: Hearing God through Scripture

I’ve wanted to “listen” to God better in my life. It’s kind of the focus of my sabbatical, I guess you could say. I’m reading Dallas Willard’s Hearing God. It is really challenging – in terms of following Willard (he’s a smart cookie) and actually doing it. He always does a great job of inspiring us to live a God-immersed life. He is a man calling for discipleship, excellent living in the here-and-now, not just in heaven.

God’s Word isn’t limited to Scripture, according to Willard, because God is a communicating Person, but it is the surest way to genuine transformation because it shows us how to live and how to get there.

When we engage the Word, we should not focus on quantity, but quality. I totally focus on quantity. I need to work on slowing down in Scripture and submitting myself to it. These are Willard’s tips on reading for transformation:

1. Information – this text means something and God communicates through it.
2. Longing for it to be so – you actually want this change to change your life.
3. Affirmation that it must be so – trusting what God says is true even if it doesn’t line up with our experiences.
4. Invocation to God to make it so.
5. Appropriation by God’s grace that it is so – this cannot be faked. “The ability for it will be given as you watch for God to move in your life.” (Willard 164).

I know it is just a sketch, and probably incomplete, but it might be helpful. I know the book will be helpful, if you're interested.

Sabbatical #7: The Challenge of Silence

My first experience with silence at Starbucks was nice. I’ve done it a couple times since in my hotel room where it was quieter – no disco or Latin music. You’d think it would go better, but it was much more difficult to sit and be un-agenda-ed with God. The silence magnified the challenge of waiting for God on His timing. It was an awkward silence.

I think real silence is preferable, but it will take some growing on my part for this to no longer be “awkward.” When I think about it, I really don’t cultivate silence. I like music on, or TV on, or some kind of noise. I’m addicted to noise.

I’m reading Hearing God by Dallas Willard. I’ve read it before, a few years ago, but I still haven’t lived out the sub-title: “Developing a Conversational Relationship with God.” I think, at least at the learning stages, I need to get used to hearing His voice in quiet before I learn to discern it in the jumble of life.

Suzanne and I have been watching Ultimate Fighter over the last couple weeks. (OK, I watch most of it and she pops in from time to time, but leaves for most of the fights). I started watching because I saw an old high school wrestling teammate was one of the coaches (Jens Pulver). Suzanne asked how they could hear the directions from their coaches while they were fighting and all the hollering that was going on. I don’t know how it works for the guys in the octagon, but when I was wrestling, I could pretty well tune things out and only hear the voices of my coaches. I trained my ear to hear them.

I think that’s what I’m trying to do in terms of God’s voice. My goal isn’t to be a monastic that spends hours of silence each day. Rather, I want to be acquainted with His voice like that of a companion through the struggles, and joys, of everyday life.

I won’t summarize Willard’s book – I usually fade about 2/3 of the way through in such enterprises (see the Reformission posts on Driscoll’s “Radical Reformission”). But where I am now in the book makes a good point that if God is speaking specifically to us we should be looking for it. Just because He’s speaking doesn’t mean we’re in a posture to hear. We need to be aware. We need to cultivate an ear that hears.

How do you cultivate an ear for God’s voice?

Can you hear Him amid the din of life?

Perhaps more primary, do you want to?

Sabbatical #6: Sabbatical Plans Changing?

My plans during this sabbatical were to get away and spend extended time with God. My relationship seems pretty dry and mechanical at this point. I’m certainly not in a place I want to lead from. So I was looking forward to slowing down and spending that time with God to re-connect and rebuild some of those areas where I feel I’m deficient.

But as I have been going to sessions and dealing with my propensity to be alone and lack of deep relationships, I’m troubled. And I wonder if I don’t need to re-shape my plans to spend more time with people. Since there’s plenty of family time, some of that will be natural. But it is probably something I need to build better into my life, particularly a “spiritual friendship” and/or “spiritual mentorship.” I don’t even know exactly what they look like, but I feel like I’m missing them and I need them badly.

But this isn’t an either/or thing. I spent some solitude time at Starbucks today. The goal was to be silent before God. Despite the fact that I was doing it in the midst of the disco and then Latin mix of music, it was a good time. I usually come to God with an agenda. Not this time. I just waited. I never do that. It was nice. I imagined God was in the chair across from me and I just waited. I felt like there was some things He was telling me. And then I felt the liberty to pray (not out loud, I’m in Starbucks!). It was the prayer of relationship, of conversation more than a laundry-list prayer of my needs. It felt like a relationship more than it has in a long time. Here’s the process of “Silent Prayer” suggested by my workshop leader, Mindy Caliguire.

* Set aside time to sit in silent prayer.
* Think of a prayer word that describes your relationship with God at that particular time.
* Enter this time of silent prayer by acknowledging your desire to be attentive to God.
* Sit quietly, resting in the reality of God’s presence.
* When distracting thoughts come, gently let them go. Use your prayer word to bring your attention back to God.
* At the end of your time, thank God for His presence and ease back into the activities of your day.

Practice 20 minutes twice per day.

Because discussion went so long, the details weren’t totally explained, but it was helpful to set aside 20 minutes of un-agenda-ed time. I hope this is helpful for you. It was for me, though it will be of little use if it doesn’t become a practice.

Sabbatical #5: "What do you want?"

I’ll probably only bleed out one or two posts per day to allow for more reflection for myself and you, if you’re reflecting alongside me. Last night’s message was from Dave Johnson of The Church of the Open Door in Minneapolis, MN. He spoke of his desperation, as his church was growing uncontrollably, that he didn’t have a life and that all the problems they had ignored because of their tremendous growth had come to roost. They hadn’t built the character to uphold the anointing God was giving them.

His biblical example was Samson. He was blessed time and again, but he had no character. Johnson thinks it was because he didn’t want it. Maybe didn’t think he needed it to be blessed. The foil to Samson is the Israelites as they prepare to go into Jericho. They were to be circumcised again. Not the best battle plan. But God wanted to “cut them deep,” I guess to remind them whose battle it really is.

The common theme was that this “cutting deep” would slow the Israelites down, and it slowed Dave and Open Door down. They couldn’t, and didn’t, continue at their frantic pace of growth. In fact, they were going to have to go backwards for a time to create the church that took “spiritual formation” seriously. But that was fine in his eyes because it was building character to go along with God’s anointing.

This was so good because I feel at times, in the busyness of ministry and life, that I’m “anorexic inside” (his words), in terms of Christ being formed in me. I find myself driven by my circumstances. I don’t want that. That’s why I chose this conference as part of my sabbatical. I don’t want to go through the motions as a pastor – or even as a Christian for that matter.

His closing question was this: “What do you want?”

I don’t know. I know I want to want to have Christ fully formed in me. But if an omniscient observer of my life were to judge me by my actions, I wonder what they might see that I want. Comfort? Appreciation? Approval? Who knows? I know now my prayer is that I would grow to become the person who genuinely wants to let God invade every part of my life. I need to wrestle with this a little more so I’m going to quit blogging and start journaling.

Before I go, “What do you want?”