I gave an example of a couple of guys who seemed to be saying "I got nothin'" in describing their spiritual lives. One who likened it to a plate of crap!
There are plenty of examples of professing Christians whose descriptions of their spiritual lives are unimpressive. But every now and then you hear of someone who can relate a new depth of presence. Here is one I heard last week.
K is in my adult life group. This year, he has gotten turned on to the idea of kingdom living. We had been talking about the contemplative spiritual disciplines. He is a very social guy and pretty much always busy. He stated that he had little, if any, experience with silence and solitude and that he thought it would be difficult for him. We ended up going to 4 hour "retreat" at an Episcopal church a few weeks ago. A woman pastor gave a workshop on contemplative prayer, based on the desert mothers (3-4th century Jesus followers). He and I were the only two males there, along with about 15 women, most of whom were about 70 years old! The format of the workshop was lecture for 45 minutes, practice contemplative prayer for about 45 minutes. It was pretty basic, from my perspective, but nice. She taught us two types of contemplative prayer: the prayer of rest, and a positive form of prayer of examen. K had never spent that much time in this form of prayer and it had a remarkable effect on him.
K spent the next few weeks feeling a strong need to get quiet with God again, but stuggled with how to carve out some time from of his routine. We challenged him that all that was lacking was his consent. He was not in church the next Sunday. He later reported that he had stayed home and spent the morning in contemplative prayer. He was blown away by his sense of God's presence during his silence, not in the fireworks sort of way, but in that deep calm, peaceful, joyful way. He stated that this state of being lasted for hours after his time. He was able to "be" with his family in a way that was different. He was able to be fully attentive to life as it was unfolding around him.
I have dubbed it the "McCartney Effect." He was able to "drop in" from his head to his heart, shove back the "wild animals" (as C.S. Lewis calls our tendency to be distracted; Jesus called them weeds that choke out our spiritual life), and sense the divine resources that were available to him. He had entered the kingdom of heaven, the one that Jesus said was at hand. What is there? The fruit of the Spirit. A place of rest, completeness, and joy.
Now that's better than a plate of crap! Yes, he exited the kingdom at some point, and probably after a few hours. But not bad! Now his next assignment will be to do it again and carry that sense of union with God for a few minutes longer, and so on. That's kingdom living!
I may be wrong, but I am not sure you can get there without some form of contemplative activity. It is the model that Jesus left us. Jesus often went to the mount "as was his custom." I think this is the great secret in the church, unfortunately.
6 comments:
you are probably right...i dont think i could ever get there without some form of silence/contemplativness...
heres my question...does it not seem to you that we keep going in circles with our conversation? i mean think about it...we started out with how do we love people...then that led us to living in the Kingdom of Heaven...then that led to how you live in the Kingdom of Heaven...which ultimatly leads to some form of talking about being contemplative and that you need to love others...which then starts the conversation all over...this may be off subject...and it is 12:01 am...so i may just be having some weird questions pop into my head...i just wanted to see what you thought...and if maybe you had anything....new...? for lack of a better word...
Yes, we have been repeating ourselves. Can you really love others (as in enemies and the unlovable) outside of kingdom living? Doesn't that come down to the fact that kingdom living is not possible without tapping into the divine resources? Doesn't that all come down to how you do that? Full circle.
Talking about it again may just be old. The only that might be new is actually experiencing kingdom living. Now that would never get old! That could be talked about again and again and still be new and fresh.
Doesn't the Christian life come down to that? Theological discussions only get you so far. Eventually it is like driving a car round and round the culdesac.
What to shift gears (to use the driving metaphor) and exit the culdesac? It would require actually require leaving the culdesac (head oriented discussions) and trying something different. What do you think?
what would be that different something?
True to my form, what would this look like for you?
it would look like i was doing something...thats what it would look like...im not sure what i would be doing..i have a few ideas...but most of them are ideas that i will have to accomplish when i am old enough to go to college...i know there are things i can do right now though...like building the bunk beds...i guess i just havnt done a great job at looking for those opportunites...i try though...
You are doing a good thing with the bunk beds.
It is good to think about what you want to do in the future. Just keep reminding yourself that all we really have is the present. You don't have to wait. God is present and active now.
Discipleship is supposed to be that something different. It is supposed to be about learning to BE like Jesus (as in being). It is moving past the thinking about change to the process of change.
Using a running metaphor, it would be actually going for a run, rather than talking or thinking about it.
To a certain degree, it is about risk taking. Going out of your comfort zone.
My suggestion would be to go on a meditative walk, or spend 20 minutes dropping in tonight. With either of these, you would have something new to talk about.
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