Advice

"We may not need each other's advice nearly as much as we need each other's prayer and prayerful understanding and affirmation." - Jeannette Bakke, Holy Invitations p.143

Quote of the Week

Read this quote a few weeks ago and it is still messing with me.

"When our notion of God is confined to the nightmarish enraged Parent so many pretend to love, it is difficult to imagine God's love as other than barely tolerant pardon for ourselves and apparent favoritism towards others. But when we meet the God and Father of Jesus Christ, God's love emerges as a kaleidoscope of wonderful, merry and different operations. And your sin, while real, proves not to be the most important or interesting thing about you. At least as important as being forgiven by God is having God explain you to yourself."

(Spiritual Direction and the Care of Souls, by Gary Moon & David Benner, p.88)

FWD: Um... Whose Line Is It Anyway?

I believe the church must be about teaching people to how to read. Would those who struggled to get the Scriptures into the hands of the lay people so that they might read for themselves the Word of God be disappointed with the way we have allowed the Bible to be read?

Creating new reading habits involves releasing the know-it-all attitude that comes with familiarity. Ellen Davis captures this idea when she warns of the danger of the “That’s just what I thought” mentality (16).

Creating new reading habits also involves embracing ambiguities. We could learn a lot in this regard from our Jewish siblings who routinely entertain possibilities of multiple meanings (24).

Creating new reading habits involves enabling “wise wonder”. It seems that the more we study Scripture, the more we uncover new and unexplored layers within the text. Our wise wonder must allow freedom for critical traditioning, or rethinking our formerly accepted theological positions (xix).

The primary obstacle we face in accomplishing this is the expectation of certainty. Do our jobs depend upon our sounding more certain than we are about what is true? (15)

The church must also be about the improvisation of the third act. In the canonization process the church graciously forwarded us the manuscripts of the first and second act. Many have gone to great lengths to place those scripts in our hands and they must be read (and read correctly) in order for us to faithfully improvise the third act. In our reading we gain intimate understanding of the Author of this divine drama. We also see tensions, ambiguities, and mystery, and therefore must anticipate those elements within our own portion of the story. As we realize that the story of the bible is about us we gain clarity (not certainty) we need for our improvisation.

Davis, Ellen F., and Richard B. Hays. The Art of Reading Scripture. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. 

The Selfless Way of Christ - Nouwen

In this book Nouwen explores the lure of upward mobility as seen in three temptations.

1. The temptation to be relevant (to make productivity the basis for our ministry)
2. The temptation to be spectacular
3. The temptation to be powerful

He highlights these same temptations in his book In The Name of Jesus but offers slightly different responses.

In The Name of Jesus responds with...

1. Contemplative Prayer
2. Confession & Forgiveness
3. Theological Reflection

The Selfless Way of Christ responds with...

1. The Discipline of the Church (As the incarnation)
2. The Discipline of the Book
3. The Discipline of the Heart (Prayer)

Here are a few quotes that challenged me along with a few of my responses...

"We can only call ourselves witnesses of Jesus when we have head him with our own ears, seen him with our own eyes, and touched him with our own hands." (p.14)

"The Spirit is the breath of Christ in us, the divine power of Christ active in us, the mysterious source of new vitality by which we are made aware that it is not we who live, but Christ who lives in us (cf. Galatians 2:20). Indeed, to live a spiritual life mans to become living Christs." (p.20)

Last week my friend Stu and I were talking about his idea of breath. As we live out the spirit filled life our breath becomes the breath of Christ and suddenly our words have power to strengthen, encourage, and challenge others with supernatural force. This isn't necessarily the result of study (though study isn't bad) or the result of cleverly devised sermons (though sermons are not bad). Instead, it is the result of the spirit of Christ. As we die to ourselves it is Christ who is resurrected, not our old selves. Ronald Rolheiser explores this idea in depth in chapter 7 of The Holy Longing.

"It is not enough to try to imitate Christ as much as possible; it is not enough to remind others of Jesus; it is not enough to be inspired by the words and actions of Jesus Christ. No, the spiritual life presents us with a far more radical demand: to be living Christs here and now, in time and history." (p.20)

This is incarnational Christianity.

"Jesus' call to discipleship is primal, all-encompassing, all-inclusive, demanding a total commitment. One cannot be a little bit for Christ, give him some attention, or make him one of many concerns." (p.21)

"We are quite willng to say that we should not forget the poor, that we should share our gifts with those less fortunate, and that we should give up some of our surplus for the many who have not made it. But are we ready to confess that those whom we should not forget, those who are less fortunate, those who did not make it, are in fact the blessed ones in the Reign of God, the ones who call us to downward mobility as Jesus did?" (p.35-36)

I found this rather convicting in light of my recent work in the area of giving.

"In a variety of ways we are made to believe that we are what we produce. This leads to a preoccupation with products, visible results, tangible goods, and progress." (p.50)

"We do not resist the temptation to be relevant by doing irrelevant things but by clinging to the Word of God who is the source of all relevancy." (p.53)

"'Truth' in our culture has become so largely determined by statistics that it is easy for us to truly believe that the number of people who listen, watch, or attend is a measure of the quality of that which is presented." (p.54)

"The more praise we receive, the more we desire." (p.57)

"The discipline of the Christian disciple is not to master anything, but rather to be mastered by the Spirit. True Christian discipline is the human effort to create the space in which the Spirit of Christ can transform us into his lineage." (p.70)

"Personal prayer is not rewarded by acclaim, does not translate into helpful projects, and only rarely leads to the inner experience of peace and joy." (p.83)

The Way of the Heart - Mind Map

So, I used my new mind mapping software to outline my latest read for class, The Way of the Heart by Henri J. M. Nouwen. I'm really excited about this tool. It really helps me get my arms around the big picture of what I am reading and thinking. Click on the image to see a readable size display. I love it!

A word on the Incarnation

"John of the Cross once said that the language of God is the experience God writes into our lives. That is a good incarnational comment. God does not speak to us through seances, and the most important things that God wants to say to us are not given in extraordinary mystical visions. The God of the incarnation has real flesh on earth and speaks to us in the bread and butter of our lives, through things that have skin - historical circumstance, our families, our neighbors, our churches, and that borderline-psychotic friend who painfully reminds us that we are not God. When we look for God's guidance these voices on earth must complement the voice from heaven."
- The Holy Longing: the search for a Christian spirituality, by Ronald Rolheiser

Out of Solitude - Nouwen

This was the first book I read for my MSFL. As I read I understood why I decided to do this program. I need this. I have to resist the temptation to republish the entire book here in this post. It is well worth the 30 minutes it will take you to read this little book. Below is a short quote from the first few pages of chapter 1.

"More often than not, we not only desire to do meaningful things, but we make the results of our work the criteria of our self-esteem. And then we not only have successes, we become our successes... When we start being too impressed by the results of our work, we slowly come to the erroneous conviction that life is one large scoreboard where someone is listing the points to measure our worth. And before we are fully aware of it, we have sold our soul to the many grade-givers... Then we become what the world makes us."

I could go on quoting and quoting. Just read the book. I want to read it again just thinking about it.

Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer

I started this book back in June on my way to Costa Rica and just finished it on the way home from London. I found many insightful pages and have decided to list some of the excerpts here for future reference.

"True prayer is usually experienced as tears, surrender, and forgiveness." (p.16) - this is something that I first began to realize as I read through the Philokalia. I was surprised at how often tears were mentioned in a book about prayer and how so many of the instructions regarding Jesus Prayer included notations about tears. Ever since I've been introduced to these concepts I've been paying a lot more attention to my own tears and the things that move me emotionally.

"...seeing is the heart of spirituality today." (p.17) - a lot of times we pray for God to be present with us, but I feel that's probably not good theology. God is always present we just don't see Him because we are blinded by what Rohr calls "affluenza".

"It seems that we Christians have been worshiping Jesus' journey instead of doing his journey. The first feels very religious; the second just feels human, and not glorious at all." (p. 20)

"We cannot attain the presence of God because we're already totally in the presence of God. What's absent is awareness." (p.29)

Luke 11:34 - If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light.

"We have to learn to see what is there."

"Prayer is not primarily saying words or thinking thoughts. It is, rather, a stance. It's a way of living in the presence, living in awareness of the Presence, and even of enjoying the Presence." (p. 31)

"All spiritual disciplines have one purpose: to get rid of the illusions so we can be present. These disciplines exist so that we can see what is, see who we are, and see what is happening. On the contrary, our mass cultural trance is like scales over our eyes. We see only with the material eye."

"If we are to believe Jesus, nothing is more dangerous than people who presume they already see. God can most easily be lost by being thought found." (p. 31)

There's a section in the book called "Cultivating the Beginners Mind". Rohr likens the concept to the frequent illustration chosen by Jesus, that of the little child. He goes so far as to say that what blocks spiritual teaching is the assumption that we already know or that we don't need to know. As a teacher myself, I can't tell you how true that is in the classroom. Oh, that more of my students came in with a beginners mind. When I first read this I thought to myself, I'll bet God wishes the same for me at times. I was about to lead a mission trip with 13 of my students and so I tried to adopt the beginners mind. It was a humbling experience.

"Spirituality is about seeing. We need to learn to say with the blind man, 'I want to see.'" (p.33)

After speaking of the Zen concept of koan, Rohr says this... "If the great mystery is indeed the Great Mystery, it will lead us into paradox, into darkness, and into journeys that never cease. That is what prayer is about." (p.36)

"In terms of soul work, we dare not get rid of the pain before we have learned what it has to teach us... We must learn to stay with the pain of life, without answers, without conclusions, and some days without meaning. That is the path, the perilous dark path of true prayer... We avoid God who works in the darkness - where we are not in control! Maybe that is the secret: relinquishing control." (p.43-47)

We must learn the way of descent, the way of tears, and how to learn to let go.

I was surprised how often Rohr used the words "letting go". And it made me rethink how significant those two words have been to me over the past year, since YS.

"The contemplative secret is to learn to live in the now... Know that things are okay as they are. This moment is as perfect as it can be. The saints called this 'the sacrament of the present moment'." (p. 61)

"Be not afraid" is the most common single line in the Bible. (p.69)

"We will not recognize God later if we do not recognize him now." (p. 90)

"St. Francis said, 'I have done what was mine to do; now you must do what is yours to do.' We must find out what part of the mystery is ours to reflect. There is a unique truth that our lives alone can reflect. Our first job is to see correctly who we are, and then to act on it. That will probably take more courage than to be Mother Teresa... The most courageous thing we will ever do is to bear humbly they mystery of our own reality. That is everybody's greatest cross." (p. 97)

"When religion becomes an organizational system, it will reward fear because it offers control to those in management." (p.108)

"Prayer and suffering are probably the two primary paths of transformation." (p.115)

"People who know God well, always meet a lover not a dictator." (p.131)

"Two-thirds of Jesus' teaching is on forgiveness." (p.133)

"Church only "works" with people who have some real life with God; otherwise it's all smoke and mirrors." (p.150)

Be The Change

Be The Change was written by Zach Hunter, a fifteen year old who decided to be an abolitionist at the age of twelve. This book is a great tool for anyone working with students as it is a great introduction for students to the reality of slavery in our day. The end of each chapter has discussion questions to get readers thinking about how they can take action and change their world.

Every spring I use the Justice Mission curriculum to teach a five week unit on international injustice to our seniors. Zach's book got me thinking more about introducing these issues to students even earlier. I'm considering buying copies of this book for all of our Freshmen and walking through it with them in class.

Here's a quick quote from the book:
"I think it's really cool that God chooses to use us to alleviate suffering. God hears the cries of the oppressed. If we open our hearts, we can be the answer to their cries for relief and hope, so their enduring will not be in vain." (p.97)

I'm inspired and encouraged by this bold young man who is courageous enough to actually take Jesus seriously and respond to the cries of the oppressed. Stuff like this makes me think that investing in students really is worth all the troubble.

Celebration of Discipline: The Path To Spiritual Growth

I know this book was originally published in 1978 but I had never read it so I thought I'd pick it up. I had the opportunity to hear Richard Foster speak at SAU just a few months ago. Shortly after that I signed up for the Master of Spiritual Formation and Leadership program (MSFL) at SAU which Foster helped create. In some ways I was reading this book as a warm up to the program. I figured that it would be one of those books that everyone else had already read and I didn't want to have to catch up.

My only regret is that it took me so long to finally pick this volume up. Two sections in the very first pages ("The Slavery of Ingrained Habits" and "The Spiritual Disciplines Open the Door") had immediate and profound impact on me. It was affirming to regularly hear him mention spiritual classics which I have either already read or which I own and plan on reading.

I found the entire chapter on Prayer to be particularly helpful as this has been an area where I have struggled over the past few years. His interpretation of 1 Cor. 3:9 was especially helpful to me. "The apostle Paul gladly announces that we are 'co-laborers with God'; that is, we are working with God to determine the outcome of events."

I also believe everyone would benefit from the reading of the chapter on confession, a discipline often overlooked in my tradition.

Unusual Prayer Tip

I was reading again in Spiritual Classics this morning and found this unusual prayer tip in an excerpt from The Cloud of Unknowing.

"...the best thing you can do when you start to pray, however long or short your time of prayer is to be, is to tell yourself, and mean it, that you are going to die at the end of your prayer. I am not joking when I tell you this: just think how impossible it is to tell yourself - or for anyone living to tell himself or herself - that you are certain of living longer than the time your prayer takes.
When you think of this, you will see that it is quite safe to tell yourself that you are going to die, and I davise you to do so. If you do, you will find that the combination of your general sense of your own unworthiness combined with this special feeling of how short a time you have left to make a firm purpose of amendment, will concentrate your mind wonderfully on a proper fear of the Lord."

I've been pondering this advice all day. It has to be the most unusual prayer advice I've ever read, and yet it is unusually refreshing. What does make us think that we will live beyond the next prayer. I wonder how my prayer would change if I was talking with God as though I were about to be standing with him? I wonder how that would effect what seems to matter to me now in my prayers?

Thomas Merton on Contemplation

Again from Spiritual Classics ...

"If you desire intimate union with God you must be wiling to pay the price for it. The price is small enough. In fact, it is not even a price at all: it only seems to be so with us. We find it difficult to give up our desire for things that can never satisfy us in order to purchase the One Good in Whom is all our joy - and in Whom, moreover, we get back everything else that we have renounced besides!
The fact remains that contemplation will not be given to those who wilfully remain at a distance from God, who confine their interior life to a few routine exercises of piety and a few external acts of worship and service performed as a matter of duty. Such people are careful to avoid sin. They respect God as a Master. But their heart does not belong to Him. They are not really interested in Him, except in order to insure themselves against losing heaven and going to hell. In actual practice, their minds and hearts are taken up with their own ambitions and troubles and comforts and pleasures and all their worldly interests and anxieties and fears. God is only invited to enter this charmed circle to smooth out difficulties and to dispense rewards."

Let us pay the price.

Andre Louf on Prayer

I've been slowly working my way through the book Spiritual Classics which is a compilation of selections from 53 different authors and I have been finding some great nuggets of spiritual wisdom. Here is a taste of Andre Louf...

"We stand now on the threshold of prayer. Our heart has been awakened. It sees Jesus, it hears His voice, it rejoices in His Word. That Word has been turned over and over in our heart. It has purified us, cleansed us, and we have grown familiar with it. Perhaps we are even beginning to resemble this Word. Now too, it can take root in our heart and bear fruit. Now it may even become the Word of God in our flesh.
So long as we ourselves were still intent on the Word of God in our heart, we had come no further than the prelude. There comes a moment when we yield up God's Word to the Spirit within us. Then it is that our heart gives birth to prayer. And then at last the Word of God has become truly ours. We ahve then discovered and realized our most profound, our true identity. And then the Name of Jesus has become our name also. and together with Jesus we may with one voice call God: Abba, Father!
...Now the Word has achieved its 'glorious course' (2 Thess. 3:1): it has gone out from God and been sown in the good soil of the heart. having now been chewed over and assimilated, it is generated in the heart, to the praise of god. It has taken root in us and is now bearing its fruit: we in our turn utter the Word and send it back to God. We have become Word; we are prayer."

God, may your word become flesh in us. May the name of Jesus become our name. May we become prayer.

The Deity Formerly Known As God

Just finished this book over the weekend. It is a very quick read. I think Jarrett nailed a lot of the common misconceptions that we carry around concerning who we believe God to be. I caught myself nodding on several occasions as Jarrett unpacked the destructive images that we have created for God. I cringed when I read the story about his father bringing home gifts and how that began painting the picture for him when he was only 4. That hit hard because I could picture my own 4 year old going through those same emotions.
I'd say the biggest way this book has impacted me personally is that it was a powerful reminder of the role I play in my own kids spiritual formation. It's not like I didn't realize that, it's just that it became more real as I considered the fact that my kids are nearing the age where they will remember things about the way we interact. It seems like we get a lot of leeway as parents during those first couple of years. I mean, I don't think my 1 year old daughter is beginning to shape her view of God based on how she and I relate. But it won't be long before everything I do has an impact on her theology. I know it's already taking place in my boys. God help me to reflect an accurate image of you to my children, and to the world.

Presence Centered Youth Ministry: Guiding Students Into Spiritual Formation

This was my latest read and I had a really cool opportunity to process this book via e-mail with the author. I met Mike King in passing a few years back at a YS convention and have just gotten to know him a little bit over the past few weeks of our interaction.
This was an important read for me because presence-centered ministry has become our #1 priority in student journey at Westwinds. On top of that, books like The Godbearing Life by Kenda Dean and Ron Foster and Contemplative Youth Ministry by Mark Yaconelli have already been shaping my thoughts and my approach to youth ministry and even more importantly my own spirituality.
One of the greatest parts of this book is that Mike not only talks about a different mindset for youth ministry but he also provides a guide to meaningful practices that help us continue down the road of personal spiritual formation.
Mike has posted on his blog a copy of my reflections on the book, so I won't post all of them here. Check it out if you want to read how I processed each chapter.

We - by Yevgeny Zamyatin (translted by Natasha Randall)

Just finished reading this novel over the weekend. It was our latest staff read at Westwinds. I have to admit that I wasn't excited about reading it at first. I'm not usually a novel reader and I already have a long list of books I want to read this year, so I put it off until the night before our staff meeting where we had to have read the first 30 pages. I was hooked after the first two chapters.

It was like a mix between the Matrix, AI, Enemy of the State, and I-Robot. The funny thing is, this book was originally written in 1920. In fact, it's considered the earliest forerunner of the science fiction genre. In the Foreword, Randall says that George Orwell, author of 1984, read it, and Orwell thought that Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, had probably read it.

Personally, I believe it is quite possible that the Wachowski brothers read this novel before writing the Matrix. Most parallel was the description of "the benefactor" in We, and "the Architect" in the Matrix. I also saw similarities between Neo in the Matrix and D-503, the main character in We. Even some frequent words in We, like "cypher" and "epoch" served as character names in the matrix. Two scenes felt almost identical to scenes in the Matrix. One where D-503 encounters a "soft" reflection, like Neo discovering the soft mirror. And the second when D-503 falls out of the city and sees life as it really is outside.

The ending is quite different, however, and unexpected. Overall, I loved it.

The Ladder... thoughts from the Philokalia

I've been reading Texts on Commandments and Dogmas by St. Gregory of Sinai, as found in the Philokalia. Gregory describes the Ladders of monkhood with five rungs leading to perfection. I realize that it's unlikely anyone reading this is on the path to "monkhood", however, I have a sense that these steps are necessary for all as we pursue a deeper and more intimate relationship with God. If these are steps that cannot be skipped then I fear a great deal of individuals spend much time attempting to climb this ladder backwards. Here are the rungs listed from highest to lowest. (ie. we must begin with renunciation)

1. [the highest rung] Love. Of God and others.

2. Humility. This step toward humility is made possible only through the steps of renunciation, submission, and obedience. As a result the humility step is a natural movement for the one progressing upward.

3. Obedience - through subduing five passions.

• disobedience
• argumentativeness
• self-gratification
• self-justification
• high opinion of self

4. Submission. Submission to God and also to authorities we are under. Practicing submission allows us to more easily step toward obedience and humility.

5. [the lowest rung] Renunciation (of the world) - this step frees man from material things. Now... I 'm not the kind of guy that thinks we shouldn't own anything. I own plenty of stuff, probably too much. For me, renunciation means freedom from the bondage of covetousness; it means letting go of want; it's recognizing that this world has nothing for me.

Looking over the past several years of my journey I can see ways in which I have attempted to reach for the higher rungs without the active discipline of the lower rungs. On all occasions this was fruitless and frustrating. I found this simple diagram to be very helpful in understanding the journey toward loving God and others more completely. I share it in hopes that it will be of benefit to others.

A New Kind Of Youth Ministry

I borrowed this book from ben a few weeks ago and finally finished the other day. It took me a few days to process the things that stood out the most to me. I think the number one issue that chris raised was the idea that in educating teens we must be inviting them into a process, not a turning them into a product. This includes being realistic about what we are expecting. Here's how he says it...

"A youth ministry focused on product [as opposed to process] seeks to equip teenagers with all the answers for a life in the way of Jesus. How ridiculous is it for our churches and leaders to think that any person in their adolescent years can be made a fully devoted follower of Jesus? Equally ridiculous is the effort to think that any of us, regardless of age, can be made into fully devoted followers of Jesus. What would it be like if churches - or more specifically youth ministries - sought to invite students into a developing process of following Jesus? I contend that we would have more people who are continually seeking to live, love, and lead like Jesus." - p.125 (brackets mine)

A second idea that really stood out to me was his chapter on reculturing mission. Here are a few quotes from that section.

• Missional living is not about what one does on the occasional trip to a far-off place. It is a way of living at home, at school, and in our everyday lives – wherever God places us…
• Missional living means followers of Jesus are to live as active ‘missionaries’ among all with whom we may interact throughout the journey of life…
• Missional living means living incarnationally…
• Missional living is about a Spirit-filled engagement with the life unfolding around us, joining God in what he is already doing rather than what he might use us to do…
• The key to missional living is to love more profoundly and more deeply, it is not having a mission, but being God’s mission.”

Missional living begins by…

1. Consistently being Jesus in the mundane, easy, and ordinary context of their lives, not just in those infrequent and extraordinary moments of life. (p.97)

2. Recognizing that we are not spectators of God’s creation we are participants and that means we have responsibilities. (p. 95)

3. Knowing that a specific practical skill-set is not required. We are all created to be agents of restoration. (p.96)

Extracted and adapted from “A New Kind of Youth Ministry” – Chris Folmsbee

Rules of the Red Rubber Ball

I read this book last night. It's a quick read but there is a great message in the book. If you've followed some of my other book postings lately you know that I've been reading a lot about career choice and calling or "vocation" (I've been focusing on this material because I am teaching a class right now to a group of seniors on choosing careers). And you'll know that I struggle being a dream releaser and being realistic. This book leans heavily on the side of dream releasing but does so in an appropriate way. Kevin Carroll does a great job of encouraging readers to find their red rubber ball, or the thing that they are truly passionate about. This is done by simply looking at your own joys. What you do for fun. What you love to do. He seemed to say that usually we'll excel in jobs that are related in some way to that thing we love. If it's sports, we may not make the NBA but, as in his case, we may become an athletic trainer for an NBA team. We'll enjoy jobs that in some way embrace the things that are important to us. As I write that it sure sounds like a no brainer. I wonder why so many people out there hate their jobs? I've been really liking my lately.

Notes on The Godbearing Life: Offering a "thin" God

I'm reading this book right now called, The Godbearing Life and when I first picked it up I didn't realize that it was released nine years ago. The funny thing is that I am finding truths within this book that I wish I had embraced nine years ago. Such is my life... constantly finding things and wishing I had found them earlier. I could moan about that frustration, but I think it would be better to respond by simply becoming more active about searching out the books and ideas that are influencing the church.

Anyway... here's a quote that hit me pretty hard:

"Our own faith is often desperately undernourished, and we question the integrity of sharing scrawny faith with teenagers who know the difference between Chicken McNuggets and a full-course meal and who are starved for the latter. We know how quickly teenabers rip through thin faith. Teenagers can find thin gods anywhere, and if the God of Jesus Christ isn't more awesome and substantial than the seething rush of the mosh pit, the ecstasy of LSD [or the drug of choice], the mystery of sexual intercourse, the security of cash, the affirmation of the A or the adulation of the cheering crowd in the gym - then why bother with Christianity at all? Thin gods are available by the dozen, and teenagers see right through them. If we are honest, so do we."
(p.16-17, brackets mine)

I have to stop and think about the God I am offering to others (or even the kind of God that I am currently following). Am I inviting them into something that can be described with the words rush, ecstasy, mystery, security, and affirmation? Am I living those words myself?