About Me

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I long to see Christ formed in me and in those around me. Spiritual formation is my passion. My training was under Dallas Willard at the Renovare Spiritual Formation Institute. One of my regular prayers is this: "This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak, and in the mouth of each who speaks unto me."

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Discipleship Inside-Out

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.  Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.  The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.  Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:45-47)
First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.  (Matthew 23:26)
Spiritual formation and spiritual disciplines are words being thrown around with greater frequency these days.   It is easy to share what I feel about these subjects before I adequately define what I am talking about.  Most of these shared thoughts and feelings would come from the people I’ve run into (in person or through some media) who use these words, for good or ill.

One popular (at least on internet searches) notion is that these terms signal “New Age” views and practices brought up under a different name.  They are seen as efforts to add to the gospel and draw people into confusion or legalism.  Paul identifies such dangers in Galatians 1:6-9.  The fear is that spiritual formation adds to the “gospel of grace” so freely given by Paul.  Not only that, but the additions are seen as unbiblical or even pagan in nature.

No doubt such spiritual formation can be found.  If a person looks for a “spiritual director or guide,” there are many varieties to be found.  Even if one adds the word “Christian” to their search, some of the notions of spirituality have little to do with Christ.  Searching in this area is full of potential danger.

However, just because a term is misused, it does not make it unusable or the user wrong.  As with so many other abused terms and ideas, spiritual formation has been the baby thrown out with the bathwater by some groups and individuals.  I feel compelled to rescue this term.  Others have done a better job than I have, such as Eugene Peterson and Dallas Willard.  Such rescues occur frequently in the Church, such as the rescue of “grace” by Bonheoffer in The Cost of Discipleship.  He did not throw out grace, but gave some clarifiers to explain it: “costly” grace and “cheap” grace.

I would like to frame spiritual formation in terms of discipleship.  Spiritual formation is discipleship inside-out.  First, I like the use of inside-out because it reverses something that many people are familiar with, making it seem strange.  Like pants or a shirt worn inside-out, spiritual formation looks at the seams and pockets of discipleship from an angle where they can be worked on.  Rather than the usual mode of discipleship (“God is good. You stink.  Do better.”), spiritual formation starts with the unseemly (pun intended) aspects of my life rather than merely prescribing good behavior.

Unseemly parts of my life are ugly sins, bad habits, and careless words.  They also are day-to-day work, family life, and mundane tasks.  Spiritual formation begins here because these are the things closest to my heart, closest to my insides.  This is where the work begins.  Rather than sewing “letters” on jackets, brandishing special “designer” labels, or showing off my best qualities with the right cuts and shapes, spiritual formation focuses on cleaning stains, ripping out bad seams, and sewing up torn places in my life.

Secondly, inside-out points to the priority of the spirit (or heart) in the life of a person.  Spiritual formation is not about performing certain actions, but having new attitudes.  Spiritual formation is not about what to do, but about how I do it.  Spiritual formation is not about getting what I want, nor is it about doing good, but about wanting to do good.  Human change always comes from the inside out, and spiritual formation takes this seriously.

Putting “Christian” on the front of spiritual formation may help a little bit, but often the view of Christians is all too low both inside and outside of the Church.  It gives some meaning, but not a lot.  I prefer “Christ-centered.”  Spiritual formation (really spiritual re-formation) cannot occur without Christ at the center.  Spiritual formation without Christ at the center  makes as much sense as performing open-heart surgery on yourself, or trying to determine what is real from what is fantasy for a paranoid schizophrenic (like in A Beautiful Mind.)  No, this activity must be instigated, supervised, and completed with Christ or it will end in catastrophe.  Christ-centered spiritual formation is discipleship to Christ inside-out.

What is truly beautiful about spiritual formation is that the tools are right at hand.  Christ is available to everyone through his Spirit.  He comes to everyone who longs for such change.  Such a longing and a seeking for his influence is what Jesus meant with his invitation, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  Learning what this means takes a lifetime. . . and longer.  However, it takes only a moment to begin.  And it goes from moment to moment.

His Spirit has also provided the testimony and teaching from lives dedicated to spiritual formation of people from ages past.  These words and stories are the teaching tools of his Spirit, opening our lives to his instruction, healing, and power.  The Bible, read honestly and openly, searches our hearts and minds and lays us open for a new life with God.  That is the result of Christ- centered spiritual formation: Life with God.   That life is being constantly renewed, constantly deepened, and constantly nurtured.  That life is worth every sacrifice.

Monday, January 2, 2012

A Love that Brings New Life


You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride;  you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.  (Song of Songs 4:9)
God demands little, but expects much.  One glance toward him is enough to bring him running to my side.  Sometimes I flatter myself in thinking it is my “beauty” that brings him, but it is really much more his love.  Yet, I also find that when I think of stealing his heart with one glance, there must be beauty in my soul that I am little aware of.

God’s humility amazes me.  He comes with so little invitation.  That is mercy.  His mercy is his willingness to come even though I may only offer “one jewel” from my necklace.  He is ever-ready to respond because of his great love.  Like a star-crossed lover he awaits and anticipates any move I might make toward him.

But he is not like one filled with infatuation, who is completely blind to my unfaithfulness.  He knows about all of my sins.  Yet he loves me.  He knows a truth about me that runs deeper than my sin.  He sees a beauty in me that outshines my filthy deeds.  His heart is stolen by his vision of what he has made me to be and the passion to bring that person alive with my cooperation by trust.  I am raised to life by his love.

Lord, I cannot see in myself what you find so irresistible.  When I look at myself, I often feel ashamed.  By your mercy, let me see what you see.  By your grace, let me become that person.  By your love I am reborn.  Amen.

How might I practice receiving this love that brings life?  In the Song of Songs, the Beloved seeks the Lover and accepts his love.   With Dawn, I rehearse the words and actions of her love in my mind and it draws out the best of me.  So I want to remember God’s words and actions of love in my life and allow it to draw out the person that he sees I can be with him and in him.  The Bible becomes to me his words of love and his actions to draw near to me so I might draw near to him.  Such love comes to the Bible with prayerful emptiness and reads it with humble expectation.  (The Fire of the Word, Chris Webb, Chapter 6)

Sunday, January 1, 2012

The God Who Calls Me "Beautiful"

How beautiful you are, my darling!  Oh how beautiful!  (Song of Songs 1:15)
How easy to approach God as an object of study.  How easy to try to fit him into calculations made about a happy life.  How easy to make theories about him.  Perhaps all of these impersonal approaches come from my conception of God as a distant being, far-removed from me and my life.  He may be near in proximity, but not near in concern or love.

Perhaps I do not yearn enough for God because I do not see that he is yearning for me.  In the Song of Songs, the lover can be likened to God and the beloved an individual soul.  It is disturbing to see God humbling himself to the status of a “wooer.”  He sings over me songs of passion.  He yearns for me more than a lover for a beloved.

It’s not surprising that such an interpretation of the Song seems somehow “below” God.  I have read in a book that one man cannot sing worship songs about how “beautiful” God is because he feels that such love is somehow “beneath” God.  No doubt the usual state of love between lovers is beneath God as it is beneath people, but the fault lies not with romantic love, but with the misuse of it.

I think the reluctance to attribute such a “low” love to God comes from more than just its misuse.  I think that the yearning, longing God is not one that I typically imagine.  I want God to be aloof because I want to be aloof.  I want God to remain “above” such behavior because I want to be above it.  God accepts worship; he does not give it.  These feelings keep me from succumbing to the God who calls me “beautiful.”

Lord, I want your love to be a fragrance that rises from the deepest parts of me.  My understanding and acceptance of your love is what deepens and drives my worship and love for you.  Save me from remaining aloof to your yearning love.  Amen.

This misunderstanding of God as “too good” for this lowly romantic love influences how I worship, but also how I read the Bible.  As I worship God, as I read his word, I want to know him more than study him.  “Theorists  explain the offerings, but lovers become one.”  (The Fire of the Word, Chris Webb, 68)