Being 1

Let's start with trying to understand more about the "being" part of spiritual fitness. This will probably take several posts as it is tough to talk about.

Knowing has to do with head knowledge (e.g., bible knowledge, doctrine), being has to do with the heart. The heart (also called spirit or will) is a difficult concept, kind of mysterious. It is the deepest part of ourself. If you can visualize a series of circles within a circle. The outer circle is our self or soul. The innermost circle is our heart. It is "deeper" than our thoughts and feelings, through it interacts with them, as well as our body.

What do we know about the heart? The bible, history, and our own experience tells us that it can be both good and bad (think Hitler and Mother Teresa). You can think of the heart as the well spring of action (a metaphor!). Grant used to talk about ministering from the "overflow." I think he meant that we need to learn to minister from the core of our being, from our heart. For the most part, we do and say (good or bad) what is in our hearts. If we are to be transformed, I think it has to start in the heart. The bible talks about the heart a lot. As you read through your bible, look for and note passages that talk about the heart.

Interesting thing about the heart. It is wicked, and yet, it is the place where God can reside if we let him. We have to first consent to this. We tend to mark this consent with baptism. But baptism also implies that we immerse ourselves in Him and let him permeate our life. That is the process where we learn to "obey all I have commanded" and to live like Jesus would live if he were living our life. This means that we will need to put some effort into learning.

This is all fine and good, but having this discussion, we are still in our heads. The heart must be experienced. What are some things we could do to learn to live from the heart more? There are some hints in the bible, but it tends to be short on process, probably for a good reason. Here is where we will need to rely on some practices that the church over time has engaged in, and what other spiritual "giants" have used. We can be mentored by them by reading their writings (not necessarily popular contemporary Christian writers, unfortunately). What might some of these practices be?