Learning to Be Astonished

Note one of the exercises in this section: "Go in your backyard, or a park, and simply observe. As you look at these living creatures (trees, grass, stones) think of what Chesterton said, that each blade and leaf and pebble is what it is because God made it. The leaf is not green by necessity; God tells it to be, and keeps telling it to be. Practice seeing the world in this way."

Before you dismiss this as "too imaginative" think about this scripture: "All things were created through Christ and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (Colossians 1:16-17)

O Lord, how manifold are your works!

In wisdom you have made them all;

the earth is full of your creatures.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;

may the Lord rejoice in his works. 

(Psalm 104:24,31)

Consider this poem by Mary Oliver:

Messenger

My work is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird -

  equal seekers of sweetness.

Here is quickening yeast; there the blue plums.

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?

Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me

  keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be

  astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
  and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
  to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
  that we live forever.

Perhaps we can practice "learning to be astonished." This is not all that we need to know, but I think she is pointing to how we need to live. Knowing what and Who we know, it seems that we should find ourselves free to practice seeing the world differently, learning to be astonished.

Great grace and Small Gifts

Further Up and Further In

From our discussion of the chapter on John Bunyan, "Exercising the Gift," I thought I might put a couple of quotations and thoughts. First, I just wanted to put a Dallas definitions:

• Manifestations of Divine Power: you will see accomplished by your words and actions what cannot possibly be explained by your efforts and talents.

Also here are some ways which Bunyan discovered and learned his spiritual gift:

• He found out how he had been helpful to others. "Some of the saints had good judgment and holiness of life seemed to feel that God had counted me worthy to understand the blessed Word and that he had given me some measure of ability to express helpfully to others what I saw in it. So they asked me to speak a word of exhortation to them in one of the meetings."
• He tested his gift, exercising it to see if others received spiritual benefit. "I began to see that the Holy Spirit never intended that people who had gifts and abilities should bury them in the earth, he commanded and stirred up such people to exercise of their gift and sent out to work those who were able and ready."
• He was aware of how the Tempter would discourage him.  "In this work, I had different temptations. Sometimes I would suffer from discouragement, fearing that I would not be of anv help to anyone and that I would not even be able to speak to the people. At such times I have had a strange faintness seize me. At other times I have been assaulted by thoughts of blasphemy before the congregation."
• He noticed and rejoiced in his gift. "When I saw that they were beginning to live differently, and that their hearts were eagerly pressing after the knowledge of Christ and rejoicing that God sent me to them, then I began to conclude that God had blessed his work through me. And so I rejoiced. Yes, the tears of those whom God had awakened by my preaching were my solace and my encouragement."

Remember to pray for other peoples's gifts and try to encourage each other by noticing their gifts at work. "Gifts are desirable, but great grace and small gifts are better than great gifts and no grace. . . . Blessed is everyone to whom the Lord gives true grace, for that is a certain forerunner of glory."

Up Next

"The Sacramental Life (also known as The Incarnational Tradition) employs the material world to make real the spiritual world. In living incarnationally (embodying our spirituality) we participate in the physical sacraments of the church and live as God's people on earth, thus eliminating any material/spiritual dichotomy."  (Foster, Smith; Introduction to The Sacramental  Life)

We will be reading and discussing G.K Chesterton, A Magical Universe for our next meeting.  I look forward to this next stream.  We can learn so much about how to live our lives in a sacred manner.

We will be meeting at the Sierps on September 8 and 6:30 pm.

Whatever you do, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father thorugh him.  (Colossians 3:17)

Seeing Things in Their True Light

We must accept anyway he chooses to communicate with us and respect any way it pleases him to unite himself with others. . . .  Let us proceed each one along our path to the same goal, united in purpose and by means of God's order which, in its great variety, in is us all.  (de Caussade)

I hope we can encourage each other in our individual, yet also group, journey with Jesus.  Although quite unique, we share the same Lord who walks with each of us and teaches us.  I am privileged to walk with each of you and all of you.

I am hoping we can discuss some of the Reflection Questions this Friday (18th, 7pm) at the Sierps.  I am thinking we can also spend some time in the scripture reading as well.

"Let us see things in their true light and rise above them to live purely in God himself" this week.

The Spirit-Empowered Life: The Prayer of Examen

As a way of becoming more away of the movements of the Spirit in your life, I recommend the prayer of examen.  Here's a little blog entry I did on it a while ago:

Examen Examined

Weekly Assignment: Sharing the Joy

1. Read: (slowly and thoughtfully) Sadhu Sundar Singh: Sharing the Joy on the weekend.
2. Study: reflection questions talk them over with someone or journal abut them on Monday of Tuesday.
3. Practice: Pick one suggested exercise to try at the end of the week.
4. Pray: Respond to God about the material and lift up other group members.
5. Gather: Next Friday at Sierps at 7-8:30 pm.

Just a couple of quick videos of Dallas talking about:

The Gospel of the Kingdom

Grace and Spiritual Disciplines

Look forward to our gathering on Friday!

Matt

Weekly Assignment and the Curse of Superficiality

This week we'll begin exploring the World-centered Evangelical stream.  We are starting with E. Stanley Jones.  Looking forward to seeing you all.

Here's something I wrote yesterday for my blog.

The Curse of Superficiality



The curse is that we find our desire too weak to carry us beyond the shallows of human existence.  We long for more than what we are given in life, but cannot obtain it, because the superficiality takes us to the wrong places in the wrong ways.

Weekly Assigment: From Devotion to Prayer

Here are some images of devotion I picked up from our meeting on Monday:

• like a whole burnt offering completely consumed in fire for God
• like an eagle on the wind, with the right form and right positioning
• like being dug up and planted in new soil (actually in Psalm 1, the tree is "transplanted" by streams of water)
• the reason we do what we do

Quoting again from the beginning of the section:

For many people today devotional means ethereal, otherworldly, irrelevant.  To still others it implies sentimentality, superficiality, and an unwillingness to face the hard realities of life. . . .  [Devotion] aims at the transformation of the human personality. [It] seeks to touch the heart, to address the will, to mold the mind.  [It] calls for radical character transformation.  [It] instills holy habits.

We leave the first section behind of "preparing for the spiritual life" and go on to the first quality of such a life: being prayer-filled.  Before we leave, though, we must remember that what we learned about discipleship, deep passions for God, and devotion are the foundation we build on.  The disciplines of the spiritual life presuppose another life has indeed invaded our being.  None of the disciplines will yield the fruit we long for without the spiritual life that takes the disciplines and makes them into fruit like love, joy, and peace.

Such a life is not hard to find.  Jesus said it has been provided already by him.  We need to merely accept him and follow him and we will be in the middle of that new life, that life in Christ, that spiritual life.  We do not make it happen, but the "ball is in our court."  Christ has paid for the trip; we just need to go with him by doing as he says and seeking to know him more and more.

The contemplative life or the prayer-filled life is about hearing and obeying Jesus.  We will find it is much more than following commands, however.  His voice also delivers us and teaches us and keeps us company in the cool of the day.  We pray to know Christ as he speaks to us and to love hearing his voice.

We begin with George A. Buttrick, A Simple Regiment of Private Prayer.  We will meet ot talk about it on November 6, 3 pm at the Filer's.

The Most Natuiral of All

I just wanted to let you see my final submission to the Renovare site as guest editor.  Enjoy!

The Most Natural of All

Weekly Assigment: Mud Pies or a New Life

Weekly Assignment: Mud Pies

1. Read: (slowly and thoughtfully) Francis de Sales: One True Devotion on Wednesday or Thursday.
2. Study: reflection questions talk them over with someone or journal abut them on Thursday or Friday.
3. Practice: Pick one suggested exercise to try over the weekend.
4. Pray: Respond to God about the material and lift up other group members.
5. Gather: Next Tuesday at Sierps at 7-8:30 pm.

Please don't let the above assigment burden you.  If you can only Read and Gather, that is fine.  I consider gathering to be our main practice at this point.  It can be a real spiritual exercise to do so with all the other things begging for our attention. May God give us the grace we need to come together for refreshment, encouragment, and learning.

I could not hope to touch all the things I found interesting and helpful and encouraging from our time together.  So much sharing!  I was pleased to see the Spirit active and among us through our words.  I heard people who experienced relieved thankfulness, who praised God for his work in their lives, who confessed their need for God, and who were burdened with the desire to follow Jesus more nearly.

For all these appearances of the Holy Spirit, I am thankful.  Often I find the Spirit so helpful and encouraging, nurturing me as closely as a mother hen.  (I guess we usually think of a dove, but the Psalms sometimes talk about God like a mother hen.)  Yet there are times when the Spirit points out things I'd rather not think about in an effort to get me to fly.  God is easily pleased, but not easily satisfied, I suppose.

I do not think that such times of struggle are meant to make us miserable and down on ourselves.  God is not particularly honored by that.  I think when we notice our brokenness or lack of interest in God and his work, it can be like a promise.  "It will not always be so," God says.  "I have much greater plans for your success and happiness with me."  Or as C.S. Lewis puts it,

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (from The Weight of Glory)

Our desires are not too strong, but too weak.  I think that is much of what Edwards was trying to share in his writing.  With new life in Christ comes new desires.  But most will come more gradually as they are cultivated by our trust in Jesus as Savior and Teacher.  We will be learning about some of the different ways we can work with God in the garden of our lives through various streams of Christian living.

The good news is that although the end of the show is still ahead, the adventure and joy with God begins now.  That is what Jesus meant when he said, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."   It is at your hands today in Christ.  The very power of God to deliver you from all you are worried about is waiting for you, unlocked by your setting aside the "mud pie" that seems so interesting and trusting him take you on that "holiday at sea!"  Leave the mud behind.  Just try it once and see what the Lord will do.

May this week be a time of blessing and growth for you in God's way, God's time.

Coming in Out of the Wind

Last week was a challenge.  First (and hopefully last) kidney stone.  Thank you for your prayers and concern.  Today I am much better. . . and drinking a lot more water.  I hope your week has been better than mine.  Here is another little article I will have on the Renovare site next week.

Coming in Out if the Wind

Guest Editor for Renovare site

Friends,

I just sent some new posts to Renovare as a guest editor. I referred to some of our conversations using some reading I have been doing in Dallas's book The Spirit of the Disciplines. I have also posted the same article to my other blog, Devotional Classics. Feel free to take a look.

Have a great week!

Weekly Assignment: Discipleship vs. Super-Christianity

Assignment:

1. Read, study, and practice Jonathan Edwards, Engagement of the Heart section.
2. Next meeting TBD.  Either Saturday or Monday at Filers?

There were some really helpful thoughts shared at last week's meeting, I think.

1. Discipleship is not "super-Christianity."  A lot of Christian groups, churches, and individuals have this in mind when they hear about or practice discipleship.  A disciple is a Christian who has regular quiet times, goes on mission trips, gives a lot to the poor, etc.
2. Discipleship is the starting place.  It is the entry position.  The basic "mode of travel in the kingdom of heaven," as Dallas puts it.  I am intrigued about this.  If discipleship is not "over-the-top" Christianity, what is it exactly?  I find I sympathize with "the response [to discipleship] is less one of rebellion or rejection than one of puzzlement."
3. At the heart of discipleship is a relationship, not a method.  "In the heart of a disciple there is a desire, and there is a decision or settled intent.  The disciple of Christ desires above all else to be like him."  Being like Jesus is inseparable from being with him.

Funny that I am used to thinking of "becoming like Jesus" in "super-Christian" terms.  I must do something big, important, or heroic to become like Jesus.  Somehow these efforts often have the opposite effect, however. I find I am discouraged at how much I am not like Jesus when I "fail."

Perhaps the derailing of the desire and intent to be like Jesus by the false idea of "super-Christianity" can be avoided by starting with small things done with great love.  Perhaps consistency is more important than "much-ness."  I should try not so hard to get a lot done, but try to do just one thing: the next step that is in front of me.

Spiritual disciplines are chosen activities outside the normal that draw attention to Christ in my life.  They are drawing near to him and learning from him.  I guess I cannot hope to truly become one with Christ without learning from him nor can I hope to do what he does without being near to him.  Such is the nature of discipleship.

Weekly Assignment: Plans

Assignment:

1. Text - Dallas Willard, The Cost of Nondiscipleship
2. Meeting at Seirps at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, Oct. 4

I am sorry I am so late with this entry.  I've been thinking a bit this week about how I should best prepare for our times together.  I find lists helpful when I am making plans and being disciplined.  What I thought of was this:

1. Read.  Slowly.  Let it sit with me.  Perhaps 2-3 times, especially if it is confusing.  Do this on Wednesday or Thursday.
2. Study.  Go through the reflection questions.  Talk about them with someone or write down some thoughts about them.  Do this Thrusday or Friday.
3. Practice.  Look at the practices for the section.  Pick one and do it.  Do it on the weekend.
4. Prepare.  Get my things together for our time.  Pray for our small group and their needs.  Do this on Monday.
5. Gather.  Bring whatever you've done to the group time.  Encourage each other in our lives and in our practices.  Anticipate God to make an appearance and dwell with us.

I think I will be using the same basic practices in our times together.  I am hoping to get some good conversation and discussion as well as time to do a little practice and prayer.

May your hearts be warmed by your times with Jesus even as the weather cools.

Following up from last night....

From Desert to Rivers.

From Rivers to Light.

Enjoy!

The With-God Life: What Is Reality?

We can reflect on much of our worldview with the following questions:

1. What is reality?
2. Who is well-off or blessed?
3. Who is a truly good person?
4. How does one become truly good?

For better or worse, everyone has answers to these questions.  Most of the time the answers are subconscious.  We act on them without thinking.  That is not necessarily bad, but since we are at the mercy of these ideas, they need to be evaluated and reworked from time to time.

Initially, we are going to spend time on the first question.  Another way to understand what we consider to be reality is to ask: "What can you really count on?" or "What is really going on here?" or "What is the story of your life?"  Can we really only count on what we discover in science?  Is what is really going on only power-grabs from various groups?  Is the story of your life, 'Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. . .  and then get to go to heaven'?"

We touched on a couple of important ideas concerning reality when these questions came up:

1. Is the kingdom of God really here now?  The Kingdom of God is God reigning. It is present wherever what God wants done is done. It is the range of God’s effective will. God’s reign is all around you and is from “everlasting to everlasting” — it is the natural home of the soul. Matthew uses the term the Kingdom of the Heavens to emphasize that the Kingdom of God is not far off and way later but is immediately and directly accessible to us through Jesus Christ. (see my blog for more information)
2. What is the gospel?  Trust Jesus and live in his kingdom with him.(see Dallas Willard article excerpt)

These touch on reality because they are questions about what we can really count on and what we may run into if we are wrong.  We will need to approach them carefully.

We will be careful, but we need not be worried or afraid.  We know that as we move forward, our Teacher, the living Christ, will go with us.  He hears our prayers and takes them seriously.  We need to take them seriously as well.  He will take us through the "dry and weary land" we face and lead us to green pastures and still waters and on paths of what is truly good because that is how he is.  This is what we count on.  "We rejoice for the river is here!"  (The River Is Here Song)  May God help us find what we can really count on!

Next Week:

• Meeting at the Seirps at 6:30pm on Tuesday, 27.
• Please Read C.S. Lewis section in Devotional Classics.

I have been re-reading "The Cloister Walk," by Kathleen Norris (Riverhead Books, New York, 1996) which I first read in the late 1990's.  She is a poet by profession, married,  and a protestant believer.  Yet, she became a Benedictine oblate, not becoming "Catholic" as it were, but rather taking those vows as a means of rekindling the embers of her faith.  I believe it worked.  The book is essentially excerpt/edits from her journal she kept during her time at the Benedictine monastery.  Here is a selection (pg. 93) that struck me while reading the chapter entitled, "The Paradox of the Psalms."

"I became aware of three paradoxes in the psalms: that in them pain is indeed 'missed - in Praise' (ed. from Emily Dickinson), but in a way that takes pain fully into account; that though of all the books of the Bible the psalms speak most directly to the individual, they cannot be removed from a communal context;  and that the psalms are holistic in insisting that the mundane and the holy are inextricably linked.  The Benedictine method of reading psalms, with long silences between them rather than commentary or explanation, takes full advantage of these paradoxes, offering almost alarming room for interpretation and response.  It allows the psalms their full poetic power, their use of imagery and hyperbole ("Awake, my soul,/ awake lyre and harp,/ I will awake the dawn [Ps. 57:8]), repetition and contradiction, as tools of word-play as well as the play of human emotions.  For all their discipline, the Benedictines allowed me to relax and sing again in church; they allowed me, as one older sister, a widow with ten children, described it, to "let the words of the psalms wash over me, and experience the joy of just being with words."  As a poet I like to be with words.  It was a revelation to me that this could be prayer; that this could be enough."

Rod

A Classic - A Place to Draw Strength

Likewise, the word classic has gotten bad press in our day.  If a book is a "classic" we immediately think it must be obscure, hard to read, and most certainly out of touch with modern concerns.  As Mark Twain aptly notes, it is the kind of book that "everyone wants to have read but no one wants to read."  In reality, however, for a writing to be a classic means simply that many people over a sustained period of time have drawn strength from its insights and witness to its value.

When these two words are brought together - devotional classic - they describe a kind of writing that has stood the test of time and that seeks to form the soul before God. (Foster and Smith, Devotional Classics, p.1)

At the end of the week, I long to find something that I can "draw strength from."  I am reminded of what Jesus said to the devil in the midst of temptation: "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."  These writers we are going to read and ponder will teach us how to find strength in God's word in the many ways it comes to us.  Pray that we may learn to live on the words that come to us from the mouth of God!

The listening ear and the satisfied heart
       grow in the same soil.
       That soil is the kingdom of God.
       The place where the ear and heart are married.

(More of this poem on my other blog, if you want to read it: http://messagescraps.blogspot.com/2013/05/ripening-to-gods-word.html)

For Monday, September 19th Meeting

It is important at the outset to reclaim the words devotional and classic.  For many people today devotional means ethereal, otherworldly, irrelevant.  To still others it implies sentimentality, superficiality, and an unwillingness to face the hard realities of life.  In point of fact, however, genuine devotional writings have nothing to do with these modern misconceptions.  Rather, they are writings that aim at the transformation of the human personality.  They seek to touch the heart, to address the will, to mold the mind.  They call for radical character formation.  They instill holy habits.  (Foster and Smith, Devotional Classics, p.1) 

As we approach our time together, try to get a copy of the book if you don't already have one (https://renovare.org/books/devotional-classics).  If you get a chance, read the introduction.  Also be praying as we meet online and offline that we may have a gathering that touches our hearts, addresses our wills, and molds our minds.  We want nothing less than radical character transformation!