Desciplines of the Spiritual Life pt. I · we claim to know God, not only should we mature in our...

Transcript - SF508 Foundations of Spiritual Formation II: The Disciplines of Life

© 2019 Our Daily Bread University. All rights reserved.

1 of 17

LESSON 07 of 08SF508

Desciplines of the Spiritual Life pt. I

Foundations of Spiritual Formation II:The Disciplines of Life

With this lecture and the next I’ll be addressing the topic “Spiritual Formation and the Disciplines of the Spiritual Life.” In these two concluding lectures to this series I want to pick up on some of the themes that have been running throughout the lectures. I want to try to pull them together now as we seek to articulate from a theological perspective what spiritual formation looks like. But now the focus is going to be more intentionally around what it means to define the structure or the means by which we encourage and foster spiritual maturity.

And I begin, number 1, by stressing the importance of a program of spiritual formation by stressing the importance of intentionality. Spiritual maturity, growth in spiritual maturity does not [just] happen. It is always and consistently the fruit of three distinct factors. One, as I’ve suggested already in these lectures, is a full and complete conversion. The second is a clear goal or a clear notion or commitment to sanctification. What is the nature and character of spiritual maturity? What is it that we’re trying to work towards? And the third, as essential as the other two, is an intentional plan or program or approach to spiritual maturation. The intentional formation of an individual Christian is that process of discipline, encouragement, admonition, direction, and teaching that enables a person to mature in their Christian faith. We need to think about ourselves as individuals who grow in faith and find out what is the means or what is the structures that foster and encourage that growth, and ask also what are those things that influence, that are catalysts to spiritual growth and vitality?

The Scriptures take as a given this need. It comes through under many themes and under many perspectives. I’m intrigued, for example, in the language of Ephesians 4:11, that when the apostle Paul speaks of those who are given to the church as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors/teachers, that he stresses that they are given to the church to equip God’s people for works of service, and the ultimate intent of that mutual program or mutual

Gordon T. Smith, Ph.D.

President of reSource Leadership International in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

Transcript - SF508 Foundations of Spiritual Formation II: The Disciplines of Life © 2019 Our Daily Bread University. All rights reserved.


2 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

teaching and encouragement and service to one another is that individually and corporately we would grow up into Him who is the head. That is, Christ Jesus our Lord. And it’s this text that I want to serve as the backdrop to our reflections in this lecture. To say this again, that spiritual maturity will not just happen. It will be the fruit of both discipline and a program of spiritual formation.

What kind of people, as we ask the question, what kind of people make a difference? When the apostle Paul writes to Timothy in Titus, for example, clearly he is concerned that there be a very particular kind of people that represents the quality, the character, the focus of the congregations that both Timothy and Titus are going to lead. And one of the themes that comes through again and again is the theme of character. Character is an abiding theme in these letters, and it comes through as a basic message in both his letters to Timothy as well as to Titus.

He does not present character as a substitute for anything else for education or for hard work. He affirms skill and learning and diligence, but what you sense is that without character education, hard work, intelligence, and abilities, almost everything else is wasted. One of the most difficult challenges in congregational leadership for a pastor or for an elder or for a teacher is addressing the whole question of character and character development in our own lives and in the lives of our people, particularly the lay leadership of the churches in which we worship and serve. And one of the things that strikes you as you read Paul in these letters is that character makes a difference. It is something that is the fruit of an intentional program of spiritual formation. It’s important for Titus and for Timothy. It’s important that it be taught in the church and it’s important as a standard or criteria by which leadership is chosen for congregational life.

If I take the example of Titus in the book, that is, in the letter that is written to him by Timothy, particularly in the opening chapter—well actually, in the whole book—as he stresses the matter of the particular situation or the particular context into which Paul writes, Paul actually uses what on first reading at least probably on every reading may sound like very harsh and cruel language when he describes the major character flaws of the Cretan people; something that would seem from what he says to be almost part of their makeup. He quotes one of their own as saying that the Cretan people lacked character. I find this significant, because so often I hear it suggested that if there’s a weakness in character or



3 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

in leadership within a culture that it needs to be accommodated within the context of the local church. But Paul displays no such tolerance. His specific words as he writes to the particular milieu in which Titus is to speak and to act, his specific words are a call to character and character development. It would seem that the destructive teaching that the apostle Paul viewed as characterizing that setting was that it violated the principles of character, purity, and good conscience. That is, out of their corrupt consciences, we read in 1:15, they were encouraging disobedience. And as is often the case, the apostle’s concern in all of this was that the Christian community was reflecting the values and morays of the culture rather than fulfilling a prophetic role as salt and light in the society in which they lived.

There was probably a claim that good works, that righteousness, that love that is another way of saying spiritual maturation, character were not an essential part of Christian identity as is suspected, because the whole theme of behavior and good works runs throughout this epistle and for Paul this was intolerable. If we claim to know God, not only should we mature in our faith, growing up into Him who is the head (Ephesians 4:11ff.), but it should be evident in our behavior, in our actions. Throughout his letters, Paul is insistent that our actions need to be consistent with our confession, and thus this theme of character, behavior consistent with our confession, runs through this letter; and it is a message I think that has profound relevance for us today.

We are easily prone to note the widespread reality that the moral fabric of our society is eroding. But this kind of message comes because of that reason but also because clearly there’s no place for any kind of a sentimental spirituality or a sentimental piety. So many talk about spirituality and speak as though what matters is a pleasant personality, a warm heart, or spiritual talk. This text reminds us that there is moral substance to true spirituality [and] that the goal is character—good, mature character development. So the apostle Paul first calls Titus to be attentive to his own character and integrity. He exhorts him to be a model, an example of good works. An example in his integrity of speech and in the gravity of his conduct, and this is an example that so much of leadership is leadership by example. It has been my experience that when there’s opposition, it does not take long before the focus of that opposition is not the issues that surround the pastoral leadership or even the disagreement that is there. There tends to be little debate about the issues that are on the table, whether it is an approach to worship or a style to leadership or the decisions



4 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

of leadership to which people might be opposed. It may begin there but it will not be long before people who oppose change or oppose leadership will begin to challenge and question and seek to undermine the character and reputation of leadership.

I was deeply impressed by this during my last pastorate. During my second year of ministry there, I experienced severe opposition. Actually I look back on those months as the most difficult of my life and ministry to date. At the beginning, those who were in opposition were specific about their differences of opinion with the elders and with me about the themes of my preaching, the decisions of the elders regarding the future of the church, and so on. But what amazed me was how quickly these issues became secondary. It was not long before there were quiet whispers and subtle innuendos as they began to arise, and I saw vividly what was at stake. Not the real issues but my character, the quality of life and whether or not I was a person of integrity, of sound speech, and of good works, to use Paul’s words to Timothy. I was deeply threatened by this. None of us is perfect. All of us can begin to have doubts, to wonder whether we really have the stuff that it takes. I know the evil one used these charges against me to raise many doubts about my own competency in ministry—and how I thank God for friends, wife, and colleagues and lay leaders who stood with me—but I would have shamed them deeply if the charges had been true. I would have had nothing to offer them if the lies about me were not lies.

Attending to our character and our character development is not incidental to congregational leadership, and so when Paul writes to Titus, he writes and calls him to character, to maturity. He calls for good works, by which he means the capacity and the inclination to respond with generous compassion and helpfulness. He calls for sound speech, clearly a maturity of . . . by which the Scriptures mean persons of few words but words that are simple and true. That is, he was calling for an individual who was not prone to chattiness or flattery. Not a person who was prone to fain affection.

I am struck by something in this regard. We are often impressed by people that are friendly, kind, and just generally nice. They make us feel warm, accepted, and loved. And while good relationships are important, what Paul stresses here is something else: integrity, sound speech, gravity, good works. These are the fundamental qualities that make for authentic character and character development. We must not confuse warmheartedness



5 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

with genuine, spiritual character.

But further what impresses me also here is the intentionality to which both Titus and Timothy are called. It is clear that Titus is not just to model integrity of character. He is to teach. He is to be intentional in his instruction about the importance of character and integrity. If people in his congregation, in his community of faith, experienced the transformation of character that was due to come, it would come in response to an intentional ministry that was focused, I would note, on instruction, on sound doctrine, on teaching that is consistent with sound doctrine; and in this respect I’m impressed by two things in here and in the letter to Titus. There’s the general call to all to a life that is characterized by good works, but then also Titus is called to be very specific in his instruction. He advises him to teach older men in Titus 2:2, and then older women and then younger men. He talks about slaves and how they should be taught.

No doubt Paul does not mean here to be exhaustive but what strikes me is there’s a real sense in which we would be wise to focus our instruction according to the needs and situations of our hearers. There’s a place for older men to meet and reflect and to be taught on what it means to be an older man within a community of faith and in the world. There’s a place for those with a specific occupation. Whether lawyers or school teachers or business people to be together, to learn together, and to be intentional about the challenges of Christian character and character formation within their own particular sphere of work. There’s a place for homemakers to think together and receive instruction together on what it means to be a person of integrity and character in the home. That is, what strikes me in all of this is the fact that it can be both general but also specific and perhaps the Sunday pulpit is the place for a general call to nurture character development but then through small groups and through other forms and structures to be deliberate, consistent, and careful in calling one another to character formation and nurturing that character formation.

In all of this, I’m once more reminded that however much we might be inclined to pray for and call for revival when we see character deficiency in the life of the church, the apostle’s response was to call for teaching—careful, deliberate, consistent instruction; and I cannot help but wonder if revivalism as a spiritual movement does not at times miss this. That the Spirit works through a careful, consistent teaching of the Christian community to bring



6 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

about the maturity of character for which we long.

Finally, still in stressing the importance of a program of spiritual formation, it seems to me also that it’s clear that Paul assumes that the leadership of congregations represents these ideals towards which we seek. Titus in this case, as well as Timothy in his case, were going to play vital roles in the appointment of leadership to the congregations in which they served. And in both Titus and in Timothy, Paul outlines the qualities of the lives of those that are to serve within leadership in the church. There’s to be stability in their home. There’s to be a sterling quality to their lives. There’s to be a temperance in their appetites and a deep contentment when it comes to money and things. Further they are to be people who display grace, hospitality, a love of goodness and prudence; and they are to be people of the Word and of sound doctrine.

No doubt Paul is here again not trying to be exhaustive, but notice the kinds of themes that come through. They are to be domestic people, individuals who are stable and committed in their family relationships and who manage the affairs of their homes well, show hospitality towards others. Second, they are to be temperate, moderate in the fulfillment of their physical appetites. Thirdly, they are to manage their finances well, content with God’s provision but also good stewards of that very provision. Fourthly, they are to be people of the Word who have developed the capacity to teach others. And finally, they are to have a heartfelt passion for goodness and righteousness.

That is, we have here a call to Titus to be a person of character; to Titus to be a person who through instruction encourages and nurtures character development in his congregation; and thirdly, to Titus to be an individual who in the appointment of leadership takes character and character development seriously.

In all of this, I’m impressed again by the fact that it comes through intentionality, and I’m then of the opinion that each leader of a congregation or leadership of a congregation needs to consider two things in response to this call for intentionality. First, we need to have a clear goal and an understanding of how we are going to reach that goal; and different individuals in light of different biblical and theological convictions are going to identify the goal. I’m going to identify one here, but you might adapt that in light of your own convictions and then develop a program that enables individuals to achieve and mature towards that goal.



7 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

More than likely, it is appropriate to say this, more than likely a program of spiritual formation in all of its intentionality will reflect both the strengths and potentially the weaknesses of a particular theological or spiritual tradition. And it seems to me wise to be intentional. To say these are the strengths of my tradition. We are going to nurture people within this tradition. Indeed, I think it’s fair to say this: that every individual that I know of who represents distinctive maturity, somebody of character, of a distinct, in a sense, mature holiness in their union with Christ, it always strikes me that when I meet somebody who I could think of as approximating what it means to be a saint, it always strikes me that they have been nurtured within a particular theological tradition, but more than that that whoever did the nurturing took account of the weaknesses of that tradition. And so it seems appropriate that those within Baptist or Reformed or Holiness or Pentecostal or Wesleyan traditions would intentionally nurture people within the strengths of those traditions but at the same time be cognizant of those weaknesses, those things that we might want to borrow from others. For example, for those of us influenced by the revivalist tradition to find ways to incorporate the contemplative, the sacramental, and the intellectual, [to] be focused on the mind as a way of strengthening the very things that are already strengths within our own tradition.

But having stressed all that, my bottom line is to say to stress the importance of intentionality. I recently heard someone suggest that there’s really only one tragedy in life and that would be the tragedy of not becoming a saint. There really is only one bottom line in every person’s life—to become a saint—and my point here is that it does not just happen. It is the fruit of an intentional program of making it important and then of seeking to achieve that end through a program of instruction, nurture, and formation.

But then, second, we need to reconsider what is the goal. What is it that we are after? What does this goal look like? And it’s captured, it seems to me, in the words of Ephesians 4:15, when the apostle Paul writing to the Ephesian believers speaks of that goal as

“we grow up into Him who is the head even Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Somehow, in some form or another, this captures the essence, the heart, and the goal of Christian spirituality. Christian spirituality is focused upon Christ. Christ is the goal. Christ is the heart and



8 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

soul of what it means to be Christian and of what it means to mature as a Christian. If I consider the themes of the great hymns of the faith, hymns such as:

“When I survey the wondrous Cross, On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all of my pride. Forbid it Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charmme most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns copose so rich a crown? Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were an offering far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

When we seek to be united with Christ, we are seeking particularly to be united with Him in His death and resurrection such that the Christian believer’s life is bound up in the death of Christ and ultimately finds its greatest joy and satisfaction in union with Him in His death and in His life. And the great hymns of evangelical piety were hymns that spoke about this union but sought to foster this union with Christ, to know Christ and to be able to celebrate and be united with Him in His death and resurrection. It is this to which baptism points (Romans 6), and it is participation with Christ, union with Him with the sacrament of Holy Communion as we are reminded of in I Corinthians 10. It points to this very same reality that we would be united with Him in His death and resurrection, in fellowship with Him in His death and resurrection; and in the language of John 16, that we would draw life and strength from that mystical union with Christ our Lord.

Now I want to walk around this central abiding theme, the central abiding theme being Christ: That any authentic, Christian spirituality is christocentric, which by the way means that an authentic Christian piety is not church-centered but Christ-centered. For so many Christians, they define their spirituality not in terms of a relationship with Christ but in terms of an activism, a level of religious activity, and particularly religious activity around the local church.

How often I have heard missionaries and pastors describe perhaps in passing or very intentionally that such and such a person is really active in the local church and that, for them, kind of represented then [that] they must be mature; then we



9 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

have accomplished our goal for that individual because they are active in the local church. But it makes me cringe when I hear that kind of thing. However much I believe firmly it’s clearly it’s come through in these lectures about the communal character of our Christian spirituality, of the importance of liturgy and worship and of learning together. If we define our spirituality ultimately in terms of this kind of activism or active involvement, we ironically turn the focus of our attention away from that which must be central, that we would be found in Christ, that He is the hope of glory, that all that we want to be is in Jesus, drawing life and strength from Him.

From that perspective, then, as I said walking around that central thing, I think we can identify some of the features or characteristics or indicators of spiritual maturity. One of those is holiness. That is the experience of God’s righteous life being borne out within us, the fruit of the Spirit being borne within us. I have already given some indicators of this, but I would note three that I find it helpful to identify as indicators, integrity in finances, integrity in speech, and integrity in sexuality; surely three critical indicators of spiritual maturity, holiness. But again it’s the fruit of an encounter with God, the encounter with God, namely the encounter with Christ.

Secondly, I think it’s important to consider also the idea of joy, that an individual who is spiritually mature is an individual of a deep and unflappable joy in the midst of the joys and sorrows of life in a broken world. But again that joy is the fruit of a union with Christ.

And then also in these lectures I’ve stressed the significance of wisdom, that surely spiritual maturity, that one of its key indicators is that an individual is wise. That an individual knows God and knows themselves, and this is what John Calvin speaks of in the opening words of Calvin’s Institutes. We find those words, that this is wisdom to know God and to know one’s self and to realize, of course, that wisdom is found in the interplay between the two.

I could go on, but I think this is an indicator of where our thoughts perhaps need to go. But now I want to ask the question: How do we get there? First then, the importance of an intentional program of spiritual formation that leads to character development. Secondly, the goal—mature character—is reflected in union with Christ, evident in holiness, joy, and wisdom. But



10 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

now, thirdly, I want to talk about the structure. Looking at the structure as we then approach, then later on the means by which we achieve this. It seems to me that if we’re going to reach this level of spiritual maturity, this character development, we need to realize three things when it comes to the structure. We need to see the importance of order and routine on the one hand. We need to see the interplay, the powerful interplay between solitude and community on the other. And, thirdly, we need to stress the importance of submission and accountability.

I begin in a consideration of the structure or the form or the wineskin within which this happens by speaking of the importance of order and routine. Order brings freedom. Without order, our energies are dissipated and our focus is dimmed. We are either caught up in hectic, confused activity, or we are left purposeless and confused about our identity and what to do next. It is through order a gracious routine and rhythm to our days, our weeks, our months, and our years that we live in strength and freedom. Without order, deadlines become burdens and time becomes an enemy; something we always struggle against and feel constantly threatened by. With order, time is a friend and we are able to give time to that which is more important. It’s important to stress that by the use of the word order I’m not using it as synonymous with regimentation or rigidity. The order of our lives is an order that fits our lives, that’s customized to our personalities, to our vocation, to the circumstances of our lives. Rather, it’s an order that enables us to thrive within the particular circumstances of our lives in a manner that suits who we are, our temperament and our personality. The order that brings freedom to an artist or to a homemaker will be quite different than the order that brings freedom to a dentist or a school teacher. But each, I insist, will find freedom through order.

It is through order that we find the freedom that comes with regular Sabbath rest, and thus the joy of a life in which both work and rest are embraced, where Sabbath is indeed Sabbath rather than merely a day off. It is through order that we come to accept with grace both our responsibilities and our limitations. The order of our lives frees us to respond with grace and compassion to needs along the way without being derailed from our fundamental call. It is with order that we’re able to find and create the time to nurture our relationship with God and to have clarity about what God is calling us to do in the midst of the confusing and bewildering and competing demands and expectations. I’m convinced increasingly of this: that busy people who are busy are



11 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

often as not accomplishing little. Their busyness feeds their own sense of the heroic. It feeds their own egos, but does not feed their spirit.

It is helpful as we order our days to remember and work with three guiding principles. Some of you may hear these principles as another form of time management, and in one sense they are, but the ordered life is the fruit not so much of time management (whatever that means) as the management of self as the ordering of one’s life. And thus what follows is not time management techniques—though there’s no doubt that there are techniques here that would enable us to live a more orderly life—but rather the root principles that give us freedom from disordered lives.

The principles of an ordered life presuppose the three levels of understanding by which we think about our life in the world and our sense of vocation, if you can recall the things that I said there. The first and most fundamental call of our lives is to be Christian, and our priority of nurturing our identity and our character development as Christian. Second, we must order our lives around the specific call of God on our lives. Who am I, and what has God called me to do? And thirdly, we need to order our lives around the daily duties and responsibilities to which we are each called, our immediate responsibilities.

First then, the first, in a sense, step in finding the freedom that comes with order is to sustain clarity about what is important. To live an ordered life is to have a clear sense about what really matters. Invariably, a disordered life is but a symptom of a lack of clarity about priorities and purpose. Thus a to-do list, for example, is really a spiritual exercise. It’s not a random identification of the things that need to be done. It reflects what’s important. What is most important? What over the long term needs attention? That which will never be accomplished unless we only think and act in turn . . . if we only think and act, pardon me, in terms of the urgent or the immediate. Our sense of what is important is rooted first and foremost in that fundamental call to be Christian; to say it matters to me more than anything else that I grow in faith, hope, and love. And at the center of our lives, then, we sustain a pattern of spiritual discipline and nurture that enables us to be thoroughly Christian, to know, to love, and to serve Jesus.

Further, it seems to me that the order about what is important should reflect also what we are fundamentally called to be and fundamentally called to do. Whether it is the priority of raising



12 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

children, of cleaning a house, of writing a paper—whatever it might be. When my sons were in their pre-adult years, they of necessity were a priority. I identified them as this is what is important to me. And other things, quite frankly, I had to decide could wait. And while this did not mean that I could not neglect career or vocation or my ministry, it was essential for me to have a sense of perspective on my career and on my ministry, because at that stage of their lives, they had to be a priority for me.

In all of this, though, I think it’s important to keep in mind one’s fundamental identity and one’s fundamental call and always realize, always realize to keep that in front of you as one of the things that is of critical importance. Many people, by the way, have found the first things first to be a helpful way to prioritize a to-do list. It is a way to cut the propensity towards procrastination that leaves so many scrambling with deadlines at a later time.

First then, sustained clarity about what is important. Second, the second principle that enables us to live an ordered life is to accept with grace the limitations of life. One of the ways in which order brings freedom to our lives is through the gracious acceptance of our limitations. We cannot do all that we wish we could do, and we cannot be all the things that we would be. With that then, we can stop trying. We can learn to depend on others either by delegating to others what we could possibly be doing but by simply accepting we don’t want to do everything and can’t do all things, but also maybe there are other people who can do it just as well if not better than we can.

Further, accepting the limitations of life includes living with grace when there are interruptions, delays, unforeseen developments in our day. As a friend used to put it so well, life is messy. This means, of course, that we cannot respond with frustration and irritation every time we are caught in a traffic delay. Life is messy. Traffic delays are part of the package, part of owning and driving a car, part of urban life. It means that we choose in an ordered life to sustain a flexibility, a sense of humor, and a fundamental patience with ourselves, with others, and with life itself.

Then, of course, the freedom to accept our limitations is evident in the ability to say no; what I’m convinced is one of the critical spiritual skills and disciplines. For so many, their lives are one continual burden for the simple reason that they are trying to do too much. We accept more than we can possibly do well. We respond to the requests or needs of others when we often know



13 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

that we are being driven not by a spirit of love and power and self-discipline (to quote the language of 2 Timothy 1:7), but by some other propensity, often the unwillingness to accept our limitations.

It’s always helpful at this point as a discipline to at least know what it is that keeps us from saying no. For some it’s the fear of rejection. For some it’s the longing for acceptance. For some it’s the sense of busyness and power that’s like an adrenalin rush; the more things they’re doing, the more alive they feel. But the inability to say no is always a way of death. We can never do enough to feel that what we have done will gain us the acceptance or the feelings of importance. It will always in a sense be a cycle, a routine out of which we cannot break. Therefore, we must before God resolve that we will not take on more work or more responsibility than we can fulfill with a calm and serene heart, without hurry or a rushed busyness; and this resolve is liberating. It will keep us from much grief. More to the point, it will free us not only to live an ordered life, but to live a life that is ordered around who we are and what we are called to be and do.

And then a third principle for an ordered life: Create and embrace the spaces in your schedule. An ordered life includes spaces, times in our days and times in our weeks that are unscheduled and uncommitted. We can be intentional in the creation of these spaces, but we can also learn to accept the spaces that inevitably come our way, waiting times over which we have little if any control.

First, create the spaces. Recent writing has suggested that we create margins in our day. What a wonderful word! Margins in our day between our activities, with time for thinking, planning, conversation. Arriving early for appointments so that you are centered and at peace when it’s time to go into your meeting; or if you are planning a meeting, to plan to end early before the scheduled adjournment time so that there’s space to free others so we’re not rushing from one thing to another. Begin the day with a margin, a space for prayer and reflection to quiet your heart, to prepare for the unforeseen. But then also embrace the spaces of the day. Include, by which I mean to accept with grace, the waiting times that we do not choose but that are just part of life. We can accept them as gifts rather than as burdens or as interruptions. We can with grace accept that waiting is a part of life. Whether in traffic or in the waiting room of a dentist or if someone else is late for an appointment, we can allow impatience



14 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

and irritation to filter into our hearts, or we can accept the time that is given to us as a gift, an opportunity to read something, an opportunity for prayer, or an opportunity to learn something through observation. Three simple principles, but if followed they would enable us to live in freedom, a freedom of an ordered life. A clear sense of what is important, to accept with grace our limitations, and to create and accept spaces in our daily schedule.

But we must go further and secondly consider the following: that if we live ordered lives, there are two very particular anchors if we’re going to grow in the knowledge of God and grow in self-knowledge, if we’re going to grow in spiritual maturity unto Him who is the head. There are two particular spheres or anchors to our lives that are absolutely essential. I’m convinced that there are no exceptions in this regard. The ordered life is structured around and is anchored in two realities: community and solitude. The one without the other is of little value. It must be both community and solitude.

First, we need the grace of community. If we come to clarity about who we are before God, if we learn about God and learn about ourselves, we do so within the context of community. It is within community that we discover the truth about God and about ourselves in such a way that we are enabled to grow and mature in our faith. And while there’s no doubt that there are dangers to communities—communities can be oppressive; communities can actually distract us because they can be characterized by mutual dependency that is unhealthy—not all community is healthy. I nevertheless say this: that we need one another. We need the grace that enables us to live in communion with others. This communion is a means of grace, and it’s the very stuff of life. It really is remarkable that God would say, as we read in Genesis 1, that the creation is very good but that it’s not good when it comes to a solitary Adam.

In other words, Adam needed more than God. He needed the company of others, and only through this company could the radical aloneness of his human soul be overcome. We are not created to live in isolation. We are created to live in community. It is through community that we learn to honor one another, to honor without flattery but to honor with a love informed by truth. It is in community that we learn forgiveness, the capacity to bear with one another as Christ has accepted our sins and forgiven us. It is in community that we learn how to serve and be served, how to give and receive, how to give, how to love, and to receive love.



15 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

Without this we remain fundamentally alone, one-dimensional and ironically disconnected, not only from others but from ourselves and from God. And so when the apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4, when he says that we grow up into Him who is the head, he says it comes as the result of each person doing their part. We need one another.

Ultimately, it may be that the greatest gift of community and the fundamental means by which community is attained in the spirit is through conversation. It is conversation that sustains marriage, friendship, congregational life, and community. It is congregation that is . . . conversation, pardon me, that enables us to work together effectively. Most of all, though, it is conversation of friends. In family between spouses or between parents and children, between peers and with those older and younger, it is through conversation that we grow in wisdom, grace, and strength. It is through conversation that we are encouraged and heartened and thus enabled to overcome our fears and grow in faith and grow in love and grow in hope.

Conversation involves two simple acts, both of which are essential if we’re going to nurture the spiritual life together. First, conversation involves the grace and discipline of listening. There’s probably no greater service that we can give to another than in listening to them, for in so doing we honor, accept, and respond to what matters most. We serve one another by listening to one another. And in a sense we’ve only served one another when we have begun by listening to one another.

But then conversation also includes speaking. But it must be a speaking that is without innuendo, without complaint, without sarcasm. It is the word spoken without pretense or posturing. The spiritual word is the truth plainly given without exaggeration, without flattery. Some, it seems, cannot speak without being condescending, controlling, patronizing. And it’s the death of conversation. But when conversation happens that is true, without pretense, without patronizing, it is life to us. In listening and in speaking we nurture intimacy with one another. We grow in honesty. We grow in humility. We grow in faith, hope, and love. It is through conversation that we come to terms with our joys and our sorrows and acknowledge and live through pain, anger, mourning, and discouragement. It is through conversation with our spouse, family, colleagues, and others that God grants us wisdom and the capacity to grow in our love for Him, in our love for others.



16 of 17

Lesson 07 of 08

But as noted, community needs to be complemented by solitude. Indeed, community without solitude is oppressive. It is death rather than life. Without solitude, community is oppressive. Without community, as we shall see, solitude is self-indulgence.

Earlier in these lectures I made reference to a text in the gospel of Mark 1 where Jesus is pressed by Peter and the other disciples to return to Capernaum because of the needs of that town; and without occasion, without equivocation, He advises them that He must go to other villages also that He might preach there, for that, He says, is why He has come. That is what He had to do. But lest the disciples think that He is heartless and lacking in compassion, we read in verse 42 that He comes upon a man who is desperately ill, who calls out to Jesus; and Jesus, filled with compassion, reaches out, touches the man, and heals him.

Here is what makes this so remarkable. Jesus had a clear sense of purpose. He knew who He was and what fundamentally He was called to do. He was not derailed or overwhelmed by the needs of Capernaum. Neither was He caught up in the emotional pleas of His disciples. As Glen Owen the great Scottish Canadian preacher put it so well: It was more important to Jesus to be a servant than to be thought of as a servant. But then, lest the disciples or the readers of Mark 1 think that this means that Jesus is so driven by His call that He lacks compassion, we are brought up short by his encounter with the leprous man. He was filled with compassion. In other words, it was the case with Jesus, and will be the case with all of us, that God will never so call us that we cannot respond with compassion along the way as I’ve already stressed.

How do we get to this? How can we be this kind of people? People with this level of clarity—this is who I am and this is what I’m called to be—and people who can respond with compassion along the way. How can we have ordered lives that are lived with peace and joy and serenity? Lives that enable us to respond to criticism without being defensive, growing towards emotional maturity; lives that are focused on what we are called to do but at the same time able to respond along the way to the needs that we see. The question is: How can we be this kind of person? The answer, I’m convinced, is found in verse 35 of the text when we read that Jesus “very early in the morning, while it was still dark” went to a solitary place to pray. And it was here that His disciples found Him when they with frustration exclaimed that they were looking everywhere for Him.

Transcript - SF508 Foundations of Spiritual Formation II: The Disciplines of Life

© 2019 Our Daily Bread University. All rights reserved.

Christ-Centered Learning — Anytime, Anywhere

17 of 17

Desciplines of the Spiritual Life pt. ILesson 07 of 08

Solitude is fundamentally a place of prayer, of personal and individual encounter with God. To be in solitude is to be intentionally present to God. Solitude then is not the act of being alone. It is the act of being alone with God, and it is therefore the fundamental and most essential act of a Christian spirituality. It is the place of emotional and spiritual development in which we give our undivided and unqualified attention to the One who calls us, to the One whom we seek to love. If we want to know, love, and serve Jesus, it’s going to happen because we are committed to solitude, to time alone with Jesus. It’s essential to so many dimensions of our spiritual life. I’ll begin to speak to some of these in the lecture that is yet to come. But for now, to stress, it is in solitude that we come to terms with our joys, our sorrows, our emotional ups and downs, and most of all that we come to terms with Jesus Christ our Lord Himself and nurture a love for Him. Jesus, Jesus, I am resting in the joy of what thou art. That is fulfilled in solitude.

Desciplines of the Spiritual Life pt. I · we claim to know God, not only should we mature in our...

Documents

Transcript of Desciplines of the Spiritual Life pt. I · we claim to know God, not only should we mature in our...