Foundations of Spiritual Formation II: The Disciplines of Life

Transcription

1 Foundations of Spiritual Formation II: The Disciplines of Life SF508 LESSON 08 of 08 Gordon T. Smith, Ph.D. President of resource Leadership International in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada This is lecture number 24 in the series entitled The Christian Life: An Evangelical Spiritual Theology. This is the last and concluding lecture in this series, and it s a continuation of what I began in lecture number 23 in addressing the whole question of spiritual formation and the disciplines of the spiritual life. I have sought to stress thus far, one, the need for intentionality. Character development is a requirement and it will come as the fruit of an intentional program of spiritual formation. Secondly, I ve stressed the need for a clear goal, and I suggested that a Christocentric program of spiritual formation would seem to be biblically and theologically appropriate focused on Christ and the knowledge of Christ. Thirdly, I have now been stressing the need for order, and it s in a continuation of that theme on the need for order, for structure and order to our lives that I want to address the need for accountability. First, I talked about the freedom that comes with order and then I spoke about the need for two poles, an order that moves between solitude and community. And now, thirdly, still on the subject of order, I want to address the subject of accountability. And I want to begin by talking about accountability to ourselves. Many people are recognizing that one of the most fruitful disciplines of the spiritual life is journal writing. In a sense it s the equivalent to the conversation that I spoke about when I talked about conversation as the actual means by which we know the grace of community. In a sense, the equivalent exercise within solitude is journal writing. Journal writing is really nothing but a written record of our prayers of what we are saying to God and what we sense God is saying to us. It is my experience and observation that the journal is an indispensable means by which we get a sense of what s happening within our own hearts and develop a legitimate accountability to ourselves as we monitor our own emotional development, process the transitions of our lives, keep track of critical choices and decisions, and have a sense of what s happening to us in our prayers. In other words, a journal is much more than a mere diary. 1 of 17

2 It s an account of our relationship and encounter with God, with ourselves, with others, and with our world. I believe it is Tolstoy who once wrote that between the lines of what we write in a journal is an outline of our future. But this is only the case if, when we write, we write as though in conversation with God. A journal is not something in which we write with a view towards one day publishing our memoirs. It is rather a private space in which we are massively honest with God and with ourselves. It is the journal that enables us to be accountable to ourselves, to see things as they really are; and few things in my mind are so effective as a journal to enable us to live mindfully, intentionally, and to keep our hearts from allusion on the one hand and despair on the other. A simple format for writing in a journal might be to regularly, perhaps daily but at least every few days, to write things. For example, to describe what is happening, to write the following things. To write what is happening in your life not as by way of a diary but to be able to identify the circumstances in which you re going to say the next thing. Second, to identify what s happening to you emotionally, to include how and when you feel angry, fearful, discouraged, and what you are learning from all of that. What you write, what you ve written so far is essentially your perspective, you might say, your side of the conversation, but then it s important also to say what do you sense God is saying to you in all of this. How is God speaking in the midst of all of that? What are you learning? How is God prompting your heart? Where do you sense God calling you away from sin to go back to the whole matter of discernment? In the end, we are seeking in this journal to keep a record for our own sake of what is happening in our own spiritual lives. But moving on, secondly, we need to also stress the need for accountability to others. Not just to ourselves but to others. Ignatius Loyola spoke of a willingness to call what is black white and what is white black if he were so directed or decreed to do so by the church. And Protestants usually respond to this with horror and indignation, for a Protestant black would only be white and white black if there was chapter and verse in Holy Scripture that indicated as much. But though Protestants and many contemporary Catholics recoil from the hierarchism of Ignatius and his apparent unthinking subservience, a closer look reveals that he was affirming a cardinal principle of the spiritual life accountability or submission to authority. We may not appreciate 2 of 17

3 the way this principle was expressed, but spiritual submission is an essential component of a Christian spirituality. That is, we are called to submit to those who are given authority, to whom we should be accountable within the Christian community. This is perhaps the element of Christian spirituality that is most lacking amongst evangelicals. The reformation forms the right of an individual to hear the voice of God to worship God through Christ without the mediation of another and to understand the Scriptures in his or her own language. But this individualism, while affirming valid biblical truths, had the unfortunate tendency to undercut other critical principles, specifically the principle of spiritual authority and accountability. And Christians, many of them, have come up with the idea that they are autonomous. They stand alone before God. They are accountable to no one but God and to themselves, but the weight of the scriptural evidence suggests strongly the principles of authority and accountability, and that the lack of this represents a spiritually dangerous state of affairs. Many Christians live as spiritual hermits by internalizing our secret worlds known only to ourselves; and while we need to know what s happening in our hearts, in part we do not come to face up to those because we do not allow others to speak into and around our lives. As Protestants, we tend to live alone as spiritual hermits, confessing to no one, acknowledging little of what happens in our inner world to anyone else and therefore experiencing no spiritual and genuine friendship, that of having someone who represents any degree of spiritual authority in our lives. We lack structures of spiritual accountability. Spiritual obedience is one of the signs of the church, one of the marks of the church, whether it s obedience to pastors or elders or bishops or whoever it is that would have spiritual authority within the Christian community. Even though we acknowledge the priesthood of all believers, nevertheless every tradition within the Christian church, including the Protestant/Evangelical traditions, has recognized the need of the principle of spiritual authority and the need for spiritual accountability. If you take, as an example, Wesley, well known for the intense, small-group meetings that characterized the Methodist movement there were no Wesleyan individualists. To be part of this movement of spiritual renewal meant that one was actively involved either as a member of a band or a class group that met for mutual accountability, mutual encouragement, and ministry. Somehow we need to recognize the 3 of 17

4 need for accountability and express this concretely in our lives so that we are no longer living as spiritual nomads. Authentic Christianity cannot be lived in isolation as an interior hermit. David Augsburger notes the importance of this for all Christians but places particular stress on those in leadership. He warns that public ministry is in constant danger of destroying the leader if appropriate channels of accountability are not in place. He validly insists that mutual accountability and interdependence are essential to overcome the individualism of Western Christianity. Augsburger suggests that our egalitarian society has in part let us to abandon vertical models of authority, but these have not been replaced with models of mutual accountability and community. We tend to think of authority figures as people who make our lives unpleasant or as people who put limits on our joy and freedom. But in actual fact, living under identifiable authority with intentional accountability grants us perspective and freedom. I m a squash player, and I enjoy playing as well as thinking about the game. In contrast to tennis, in squash the player who wins is usually the one who s able to control the center of the court. And when I was receiving instruction, the trainer kept insisting that after every shot I needed to return quickly and as effortlessly as possible to the center of the court. From there I could with two strides return just about any shot from my opponent. When I lost a point, it was usually because I was caught off center. In the same way, authority in our lives is like a center point of reference, something that to which we come back to and from which we then have the freedom to respond to the circumstances that arise in our lives. There are different ways in which this accountability can be expressed. One, of course, is the essential act of living in submission to the preached Word and the administered sacrament. Christians cannot know spiritual vitality unless we sit under the authority of the preaching of the Word of God and receive the spiritual nourishment that comes through those who administer the Lord s Table to us. A second form of accountability is found within congregational life. We are part of communities, and we live in mutual accountability and submission to one another; and within that community we live accountable for our lives. People have the right to speak to us. But there s a third, perhaps, pattern of accountability that has not been very much a part of our own spiritual heritage within Protestant evangelicalism but which increasingly we are beginning to recognize is of great value. Some Christians have 4 of 17

5 come to see the great value of the small group and others have come to see the value of the spiritual director. Many Christians find it valuable to be part of a small group that serves as a close community of peers. These groups can take a variety of forms, but ideally a group would meet regularly. Perhaps a group of men or a group of women or couples or whoever it might be, a group of leaders for reflection on the Scriptures, sharing of personal concerns, encouragement, and counsel and prayer and accountability. Many times leaders within congregational life are involved in small group ministries but usually in a pastoral or study leader capacity. The genius, though, of a real small group is that the leader is only a facilitator, not leading the group but encouraging mutual conversation, mutual accountability, the kind of conversation I spoke about earlier. Protestants are also rediscovering the vital place of a spiritual friend or a director, something that Roman Catholics have known of for centuries. A spiritual friend or director I will use them interchangeably for the moment is that individual with whom we openly discuss and reflect on the inner pilgrimage of our lives. He or she is that individual in whose presence the inner recesses of our minds and hearts are no longer secret. In a formal relationship, the heart of spiritual direction is the act of guiding the prayer life of a fellow pilgrim. Informally, a spiritual friend is a fellow pilgrim we trust for guidance, encouragement, and counsel and with whom we feel sufficiently accepted so that we are free to confess our sins. Alan Jones has cited two reasons why it is profitable for a Christian to have a spiritual director. I will add a third. These reasons apply also to the value of a small group. We need a spiritual director because of our own capacity for self-deception. Those who acknowledge the need for spiritual direction and friendship are people who have no allusions about their own spiritual maturity and strength. This recognition arises out of a genuine humility. The heart is deceptively wicked. Our motives are far from pure, however much we wish that they were. We need a friend, a director who can ask us the questions we may well be avoiding. The friends who love us most do so unreservedly but also with discrimination. They do not love blindly or foolishly. The book of Proverbs includes many descriptions of genuine friendship, and we note in Proverbs 27:6 that true friendship is characterized by candor: 5 of 17

6 A false friend flatters but faithful are the wounds of the friend (see also Proverbs 28:23). In other words, spiritual friendship includes a willingness to confront, to challenge, to bring words of encouragement where necessary, but also to bring words that challenge motives, actions, and priorities. We enter willingly into this kind of relationship because of our own capacity for self-deception. We need the honesty of a true friend. We need to know without doubt that there is someone who is candid with us. A spiritual director or friend is also of great value because of our constant need for hope. Our tasks in the world are filled with obstacles and difficulties. We have a vocation, each of us, but we seem to encounter failure and frustration at every turn. We lose hope. Our courage wanes. We all need encouragement, someone to restore our hope. But encouragement is empty words when it is not accompanied by love. Our hope is restored when we are reassured and reminded of God s grace and work, while confident of love and acceptance. We must not then underestimate the transforming power of divine love working through a director or a friend. We all need this love expressed through reassuring words [that] restores our hope, renews our vision, and reestablishes our confidence in God; and we need it constantly again and again. And then also we need a director or a friend to serve as a codiscerner when we are making critical or important decisions in our lives. This includes questioning motives with candor and honesty. It includes giving encouragement so that by divine guidance we can fulfill God s call in our lives. But more specifically, we need someone to help us to listen to God s voice when we come to a fork in the road. That s essentially what a spiritual director can enable us to do: To discern our feelings and our motives in prayer. A friend can hear us and help us to weigh the pros and cons. By direction I do not mean that they tell us what the Spirit is telling us to do. No, the spiritual director does not replace the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Rather they serve as co-discerners. They help us to see, to hear the voice of the Lord clearly, and to encourage us to respond wholeheartedly. Thomas Green, in his book Come Down Zacchaeus, has suggested that we should look for four qualities in choosing a spiritual director. First, it should be somebody that we are comfortable with. Second, she or he should be someone who understands what 6 of 17

7 we are seeking in our prayer and spirituality. Third, this person should be able to respond objectively in interpreting our personal experience in prayer. And, fourth, it should ideally be someone who we recognize is further ahead of us in the spiritual pilgrimage. As Father Green notes in his own writings, good directors are hard to find, but his reminder s well taken. God is committed to our spiritual growth, and He will not leave us alone. By His grace we can find an individual who can at least encourage our direction. If we cannot find a spiritual director, then at least we can find a peer, a spiritual friend with whom we can walk together. Authentic spirituality is not lived alone. It is lived alongside of another. We need friendships; we need relationships. We need people to support and to encourage. So far I ve suggested different ways in which we can acknowledge spiritual authority and live in response with intentional spiritual accountability. We can be accountable to ourselves in our own journal. We can submit to the preached Word. Secondly, we can submit to a congregation of fellow believers; and thirdly we can live... fourthly, pardon me, we can live an intentional relationship of submission within a small group of believers or to a spiritual director or friend. It seems to me that there s a fourth means. Pardon me, a fifth means by which we can concretely express this principle. Spiritual accountability can be exercised through spiritual reading, the careful and meditative reading of the devotional or spiritual classics. This reading is designed to increase not merely knowledge about God but personal intimate knowledge of God. It is valuable to read the spiritual classics as literature reflecting on the piety of another age in the history of the church. But spiritual reading is different for it arises out of our conviction that within the universal church God has gifted some individuals to express remarkably for all ages the nature of the spiritual life, of what Tozer calls the deep things of God. We view these authors not as ancient historical figures, but as pastors and as teachers and as guides to Christians even today, so that Martin Luther still serves as a pastor to the 21st century through his writings. Bernard of Clairvaux still serves as the director of the spiritual life through his On the Love of God. Spiritual reading is done with an open spirit, a submissive mind, and a willingness to hear God s voice and to follow Him. Not with academic detachment but with openness. 7 of 17

8 Before I go on, I think it s important that I stress that there s an attendant danger to this component of spirituality, particularly the whole idea of spiritual authority and accountability. The danger is authoritarianism and spiritual dependence. Alan Jones in his work Exploring Spiritual Direction notes that spiritual direction lends itself to abuse. People long for authority figures. Cults are built around strong, religious, authoritarian models; and since spiritual direction is based on obedience and submission, exploitation is very possible and can be a constant temptation. People seek guidance. They are sheep seeking a shepherd, and often there will be men and women who are quite prepared to exploit the needs of vulnerable people seeking help. Some teachers and writers today have so emphasized authority and accountability that individual responsibility is forsaken. As I call here for spiritual authority and accountability, I call it not as an absolute but as something that comes alongside. We must never treat human authority whether parents, employers, pastors, or government leaders as somehow deserving unquestioned obedience. No and never. Never with any level of human authority. To do so perverts the otherwise essential and good component of the Christian life. The reason is simple. All human authority is conditional, not absolute. Ultimate authority only belongs to God; and ultimately our final accountability is found in solitude when before God we answer to God for how He speaks to us. We must watch out then for government officials who undermine justice, for pastors who failed to preach the Word or administer the Lord s Table. Blind submission is irresponsible. Nevertheless, we can and must encourage true spiritual direction that is evident in spiritual friendship that encourages dependence not on the spiritual director ultimately but on Christ. A true counseling ministry, for example, does not create dependence, rather it provides individuals with the mental, emotional, and spiritual tools to mature in Christ as interdependent members of a Christian community. False spiritual authority encourages dependence. True spiritual authority fosters a maturity that leads people to interdependence. Some people, unfortunately, like this posture of dependence. They would like to remain in a childlike mode. They would like to remain dependent, but to do so represents in itself a form of spiritual immaturity. So in considering this whole question of spiritual formation and the disciplines of the spiritual life, I ve addressed, first, the importance of character and of intentional character development. Secondly, 8 of 17

9 the goal, union with Christ; and now, thirdly, I ve spoken to the whole question of structure and order with a concluding word on the whole matter of authority and accountability. Now, fourthly, I want to address what would be the focus of a program of spiritual formation. Where would our attention go if we were to design a program of spiritual formation? And I give this more by way of an outline for those who are considering a program of spiritual formation within their own congregational life as they seek to encourage and foster the spiritual life for a particular group of people. First, in this regard, it needs to be comprehensive. That is, it needs to take account of each of the fundamental or four levels of need within our human experience. If we consider going back to the early lectures in which I talked about the consequences of the fall, that as a result of the fall we experience guilt, bondage, and alienation, and that that alienation is experienced on four levels because of sin we are alienated from God, from ourselves, from others, and from the created order it seems to me appropriate then that a program of spiritual formation would seek to nurture reconciliation on all four of these levels. First, a reconciliation with God; that is, a relationship with God to nurture and to give people the skills, the disciplines, to live in communion with God, to nurture the capacity for prayer, that ultimately to say we will be mature Christian believers when we are able to live in intimate communion with God with peace, with joy, with strength. Able to meet God in prayer, able to hear God in prayer, able to confess our sins and receive His forgiveness, able to receive and know His love, able to hear Him speak to us in times of choice. That is the first, in a sense, focus of a program of spiritual formation as those disciplines that enable us to learn communion with God, to learn how to pray, to learn how to worship, to learn how to hear and discern the voice of God. Secondly, it seems to me also that we need to emphasize reconciliation with self. That is, a mature Christian experience is characterized by a mature self-knowledge. In sin, we are alienated from self; as a result of sin, we lose touch with our own identity. We live in illusion not only about God but about ourselves; and thus a mature disciple of Jesus is characterized by and it seems to me that a program of spiritual formation needs to encourage and work towards true self-knowledge, true self-acceptance, true honesty of self, emotional maturity coming to terms with our 9 of 17

10 own emotional development and then within all of that coming to clarity about one s own self and one s own calling, that a program of spiritual formation encourages the sense of personal and vocational integrity. Thirdly, as clearly as been stressed, we are alienated from others; and one of the fruits of spiritual maturity, and one of the signs and characteristics of spiritual maturity, is that we live reconciled with others. A mature disciple lives in truth with respect to his or her fellow human beings. And in the whole lecture on love, I spoke about the necessary characteristics of love, what it means to love another. This is clearly something that we need to learn how to do to teach and to foster a loving community, but it also means that we learn matters of justice: What it means to have and to live with personal and social integrity, and what it means, therefore, to foster justice in our communities, in our neighborhoods, wherever it is that we live and work. And further to develop the reconciliation with society or with other s component of the spiritual life means that we learn to serve with generosity and effectively, that we learn to live in the language of Philippians 2 for the sake of others. And then, finally, we are also alienated from the created order and surely, therefore, there should be an ecological component to a program of the spiritual life. That if we re going to live as men and women reconciled to God s creation, that a program of spiritual formation teaching and encouragement (whatever the skills might happen to be) would enable and encourage people to live in their world in a way that is congruent with that world. One of the things I would note in this regard is that part of this means that we come to accept and delight in the very world, the part of the world that God has placed us. I m always impressed by people s capacity to compare, to compare and always to put one geographic setting down over against another. I ve lived in the tropics. I ve lived next to the ocean. I ve lived in the mountains. I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, now between mountains and ocean. I ve lived on the prairies. I ve lived in the country, and I ve lived in the city and each is beautiful in its own way. And one of the most absurd things is to compare one dimension of God s glorious creation to another. For those of us who have lived in the prairies, it always perplexes me why people who have not lived in the prairies cannot see the beauty of it. What misses them? What, in a sense, got missed out of their own spiritual formation? But it seems to me that the first act of 10 of 17

11 ecological or environmental reconciliation is coming to see the very beauty of the space that God has placed, one, and then living in a way that is congruent with the place that God has placed one. First, then, in terms of the focus of spiritual formation, are the four dimensions of reconciliation: with God, with self, with others, and with God s world. But, secondly, I think we can also innumerate several potential dimensions or [foci] to a program of spiritual formation that can encourage us to be certain, you might say, that we are comprehensive seven things, it seems to me, that need to be included in a genuine program of spiritual formation. First, there needs to be a very intentional focus on Jesus Christ. If that is the ultimate goal, then it only makes sense that that is the focus of our attention. That we always keep Christ present, you might say, in the whole program of spiritual formation that we design. Always seeking this end, that whatever it is we are doing, whatever discipline we are learning, whatever it is we are studying, it is all towards an end, which is Jesus Christ our common Lord. How then do we achieve that? Here are the seven things. First, we need to encourage radical surrender and consecration. We need to encourage people to recognize the fundamental character of the Christian life as a transfer of allegiance, to nurture and encourage, presenting our lives as living sacrifices before a holy God. Secondly, it includes enabling people to respond intentionally to the inner voice of the Spirit. I m convinced that the four things that I gave earlier in these lectures the assurance of love, the conviction of sin, the illumination of the mind, and guidance in times of choice that s one way in which we can pass on. It s a transferable concept enabling people to respond intentionally to the voice of the Spirit, to set their minds on things above, the Spirit, rather than on things below. Thirdly, any program of spiritual formation will also give attention to the mind, will recognize the importance of intellect and of study, and will encourage as I have sought to emphasize again and again through these lectures programs of teaching and learning and study. That is, to make a disciple is to teach as we read in Matthew 28: Teaching them all that Jesus has given to us. And you cannot avoid the obvious emphasis on teaching in the Pastoral Epistles where we have the most obvious example of somebody being told how to nurture character and spiritual formation in the life and witness of the church. 11 of 17

12 So, firstly, the attention to the will, a radical surrender to God. Secondly, attention to the prompting of the Spirit, intentional response to the Spirit. Thirdly, the renewal of the mind. Fourthly, separation from sin. Surely a comprehensive program of spiritual formation will teach repentance and rejection of sin, and this will include not only acknowledging where there is sin and drawing it to people s attention, but also encouraging the practice of confession. How do we confess our sin and then learn obedience by obedience? Learn to become holy people by leaving sin behind? That is, a fourth dimension of a program of spiritual formation will include attention to the matter of sin, repentance, confession, and obedience. Fifthly, it seems to me that a program of spiritual formation will always have an orientation towards service and mission. That is, it will enable people to think about the big picture, what God is doing in His world through word and deed, and then the particular picture of How is God enabling, calling me? And then, how can we enable one another to teach, to serve, to respond to opportunities, to give ourselves generously for others? It seems to me that in this regard the classic line to think globally and act locally is an imminently appropriate term of reference. To always be thinking about: What is God doing in the world, and how can I engage in that? Can we not within our communities of faith nurture a posture and an attitude of service? To nurture a posture and an attitude of otherness of seeking to live our lives for others? But it involves more than just thinking about what God is doing in the world, we need to serve together and realize that much of spiritual formation happens in the actual act of service. As I want to seek to know, to love, and to serve Jesus, I ultimately can t come to know Him unless I serve with Him so that service itself is formative. Number six, I want to stress the healing of the whole person. Clearly, when we speak about spiritual formation, we need to give attention to the whole of human identity, to the whole human person. It includes attention to the physical. We are psychosomatic beings, and one vital dimension by which we encourage spiritual, emotional, whole-being health is encouraging people to take their own body seriously, to seek by good nutrition to live in a healthy way so that their bodies are not slothful; for physical slothfulness will almost inevitably lead to spiritual slothfulness. If there is sickness and disease, to understand the circumstances in which this was experienced, and if in any way it s the consequence of sin, to seek the reformation of life so that we can live healthy and 12 of 17

13 wholesome lives. It s appropriate within many of our traditions to anoint those who are sick, and in the anointing of the sick praying for God to bring healing, to attend to the whole of the inner person, to seek the forgiveness of sins, to seek the confession and then the forgiveness of sins, but also to see how one s physical, emotional, and spiritual life are integrated. It also includes attending to emotional well-being. I have sought to stress in these lectures how emotional maturity is a critical and key sign, an indicator and dimension of spiritual maturation; but all of that to say, it s the whole person. Not just their religious lives but their work, their emotions, their physical well-being, their relationships the whole of their lives. So I would say a program of spiritual formation is wholistic. And then, finally, number seven is to affirm the sacramental celebratory worship side, the liturgical side of an individual s needs and therefore of their formation. Earlier in these lectures I talked of the formative power of worship within the context of community, and surely then we must incorporate that and acknowledge that and say: What role does the liturgical and sacramental have within our worship? How is this worship event formative? Ultimately because it leads us into the company of God, but it s also formative in that it leads us in thanksgiving, leads us in confession, leads us to hear the Word of God, and then leads us into union with Christ in His death and resurrection through the sacramental act of the Lord s Table. That is, it is in itself a formative act. And I have had on more than one occasion a prompting in my spirit in which I said to people with whom I was providing counsel or direction, I have said to them it seems to me that more than likely one of the most fruitful things you can do at this chapter of your life is to take the Lord s Supper regularly, to find grace in this chapter of your life, to recognize in a sense the formative value of the Lord s Table. And in one sense those communities of faith that celebrate the Lord s Supper only occasionally, in some cases monthly and sometimes even less often then that, really miss out on what can be one of the most significant elements in the formation of a people into the image of Christ. Point number four, then, was the [foci] of a program of spiritual formation. Now point number five: I want to speak particularly to how we design a program of spiritual formation for particular context and particular places. I want to stress this as I conclude this series of lectures: That if we re going to develop a program 13 of 17

14 of spiritual formation that is appropriate and good, it is not only biblical, it is not only theological, it is not only comprehensive, it is not only Christian and evangelical in all that say, it is also specific to a particular context and to a particular place. That is that a program of spiritual formation should be designed for the particular context and circumstances of our lives. Let me take as an example, say you are a student in a theological school and you re in seminary; and as a student in a theological seminary or a theological school, you need to then consider this: What is the appropriate spiritual practice? What is the appropriate spiritual life? What is the way that I can order my life and order a program of spiritual formation for life and work as a student in a theological school? Perhaps you are, on the other hand, a homemaker raising children, and you ve got three young children at home. Again, to ask the question: What is an appropriate program, an intentional plan of spiritual theology or spiritual formation, pardon me, for myself and for the sake of others like me for an individual who is a homemaker raising three children? If you re a medical doctor, what is a structure or a program or an intentional approach to spiritual maturity that is appropriate for that particular setting and that particular vocation? To do this we need to accept the context and circumstances of our lives. We need to embrace positively the context and circumstances of our lives recognizing what resources we have available to us and how we can structure our lives around the resources, the opportunities that are available to us at that time. In the Middle Ages, oftentimes the image of a bridge was used, as I mentioned earlier in these lectures, to define the character of a Christian life, to say grace is available but grace is available in a very particular way to a particular set of circumstances. Oftentimes in the Philippines, I was impressed by the fact that people came from North America or from the UK or from other parts of the world to the Philippines as missionaries and were always perplexed particularly when they came to a city like Manila with over 8 million people that their spiritual life seemed to go into dysfunction. And oftentimes I longed to stress to people [that] what worked in central Iowa in a small city there, what worked in a village in the UK, will probably have to be readapted in some very fundamental ways if we re going to live and work in a circumstance like metro Manila as a missionary. That is, our 14 of 17

15 spiritual practices, the structure and character of our spiritual life need to be designed for the particular circumstances in which we live. Secondly, and let me also stress this, that it needs to be comprehensive. That is, that we need to recognize that spirituality affects every dimension of our lives, and so that as we choose a spirituality that fits our lives, we move beyond wishing what our circumstances were to embracing them, but then seeking to address every dimension of our lives in that particular context. That is, what does my life look like here, and how can my spirituality seek to encourage and inform and sustain the whole of my life in that particular place? Thirdly, we need to recognize the unique dangers, the unique points of vulnerability that might affect our lives in the particular chapter of our life that we are living. Paul, for example, in writing to Timothy urges him to warn rich people about their unique vulnerability they have in their riches. And there are times in our lives in which it seems that we have plenty. Some people are wealthy all of their lives and therefore they always need to be attentive to this. But if our lives have plenty, what dangers do we need to look out for? Or perhaps we are living lives of little, of scarcity, and what we need to watch out for is the idea that somehow we are being... the self-martyr kind of complex. The self-pity kind of complex, the idea that we would grow cynical because of the little that we have. If you are a student in an academic environment, you need to embrace both the strengths of that but also recognize the weaknesses, the potential for cerebralism, the potential for competitiveness and comparisons with other students, the potential for busyness. If you are a pastor, to recognize the danger of an ego that is filled with people that want you. That is there are both strengths and resources that we need to embrace in a new opportunity, but there are also, of course, there are also those limitations, those dangers that may come in that particular chapter. First, then, to say: What are the unique circumstances that I m in? Secondly, to think wholistically about the whole of my life; and then, thirdly, to recognize the dangers. 15 of 17

16 And then, fourthly and finally, to say this: That we need to establish a disciplined, structured environment regardless of where we are. Again that structure, that routine, may be different for different people even in different places, but we will not be able to thrive unless we embrace an obvious routine and discipline that is appropriate to our lives and to the circumstances of our lives in a particular time and in a particular place. To sustain whether I m in seminary, whether I m raising children, whether I m a missionary, whether I m a business person to sustain a commitment to daily prayer and consistent Sabbath rest. At no point, for example, to think that I am somehow beyond daily prayer and Sabbath rest. Whatever our responsibilities to recognize the need for that, to whatever our responsibilities to sustain a pattern of recognizing our limitations, to say in this particular context I cannot do all of these things, to within whatever context we are called to, to sustain key friendships through small groups or spiritual friends for spiritual growth and well-being. Perhaps, as many times is the case, to find a spiritual director at that particular chapter of your life, and this may involve travel. It may involve 2 to 3 hours of travel to go and meet somebody once a month or once every three months, but to say: If I need this, I m going to find it for this particular chapter of my life, and then, of course, to incorporate times of intentional leisure and recreation. A hobby as I have suggested, family and friends and physical recreation. In all of these, to say these are the things that need to be incorporated into my life at this time and in this chapter. But finally, as I conclude, to stress once more that the ultimate goal is that we might know Jesus. He is the author and finisher of our faith. The ultimate goal of the spiritual life is that we would be able to sing from the very depths and core of our beings, Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what thou art. To be individuals who find in Jesus life and strength and hope, and coming back to Jesus to say that He is the One who has saved us, who has sanctified us, and who is the hope, the very ground of our being; to in our daily lives nurture a relationship with Him so that we increasingly come to know Him. To know Him even as He knows us, to love Him even as He loves us, to serve Him because He has served us so that increasingly chapter by chapter in our lives, year by year, we are able to say that my life with Jesus is one that has grown deeper each year. Each chapter of my life, Jesus becomes more special, sweeter to me. Jesus becomes more important to me. Increasingly, I begin to see that Jesus is everything. He is the 16 of 17

17 hope of my life. He is the hope of glory. And I suppose if there s a bottom line to all of these lectures, it is that. May they in some fundamental and critical sense enable us to know, through the work of the Spirit of Christ... to know Jesus. He is the ascended One. He is the Lord of glory. He has risen on high. He has granted us the gift of His Spirit. He has called us to be His disciples. What a great and noble calling. May we indeed by God s grace come to know and love and serve Him. I say all of these things and grant these lectures in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Christ-Centered Learning Anytime, Anywhere 17 of 17