What it Really Means to Listen: Spiritual or Holy Listening

"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry . . . ." James 1:19

Spiritual listenting is a contemplative undertaking and not a problem solving task. It is essentially prayer....Spiritual listening as a contemplative discipline pushes us...to a level of listening beyond our own powers of analysis to the grace and the gift of divine life itself....To listen this way is to listen with the heart and mind and open wide. It invites us to be changed along with those to whom we listen.

Wendy Wright, "Desert Listening" Weavings 9:3 (May-June 1994)

Desert ascetics cultivated a heart engaged in intense listening. Listening for the Beloved's voice cultivated a wise and compassionate heart, able to yield to the movement of the Holy Spirit. Listening to the ebbs and flows of the Spirit was fundamental to a life of discernment. A still, focused attention was needed for fruitful discernment. True discernment does not presuppose how the Spirit will move, nor what God will say. In this life of cultivated listening, ascetics were open to the unexpected. They were willing to risk being surprised.

Desert ascetics were deeply aware that their cultural  backgrounds, educations, and life experiences framed and influenced listening...Ammas steeped their minds in scripture and other sacred writings in order to cultivate minds and hearts able to listen for God's voice. Growth in self-awareness clarified the lens that filtered and colored their listening. The clearness of the prism was the goal.

~ From Lauren Swan's book: The Forgotten Desert Mothers: Sayings, Lives, and Stories of Early Christian Women

Gorging On Excess

" Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?'” Hebrews 13:5,6

Over the Christmas holiday I was thinking about how excess keeps us from truly appreciating what we have and from experiencing God. A shorter word for excessive consumption is gluttony. Gluttony of gifts or food. Gluttony of certain experiences.

Think about it. The first cookie tastes delicious, but by the fifth one, we've lost our appreciation for it. More than a few toys and a child throws the rest aside playing only with those that capture her imagination.

We can gorge on the internet or television or food or relationships or sex or clothes or work or hobbies or success--or even books. Yet as we all know...instead of being filled full we remain dissatisfied. So we start the gorging-dissatisfaction cycle all over again.

Money, prestige, success, power and relationships will not fulfill us. We hear that all of the time. But do we believe this? It's not that any of those things are bad in themselves. It's when they are used illicitly that destruction overtakes us and the world. They become evil when we misuse them and turn them into idols.

What can be done? Detachment from these things through prayer and fasting. For some it'll require a life-long detachment. For others frequent detachment.

When we fast from these things...the things we gorge on...we'll go through detox. We'll suffer all sorts of maladies and delusions--just like an addict going through detox. As we fast we'll see just how attached we are. We'll see what power these things have over us. They've become false gods.

But the truth is that a simpler life, a less excessive life, is hospitable to God and his ways. Remember how Jesus said we can't serve two masters?

Is Our God Talk Far Ahead of Our Behavior?

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I've parked myself in the book of James. I've been thinking about silence and how it is good to ruminate on our relationship with God, on what we know about him, and then reflect on whether or not we are really following Jesus. I've said this before; but we mistake God-talk for godly lives. We can talk very sophisticatedly about God and yet live a God-less life. It's a sort of functional atheism. It is also self-deception.

When I was younger and perhaps into my early twenties, I couldn't believe the unfaithfulness of the nation of Israel as recorded in Scripture. Time after time, God did miracles, proved himself faithful, yet they worshipped other gods. They had rebellious spirits and wandering hearts.

The other day I was thinking about it and realized that our church, I'll say the American Church because that is my context, is just like ancient Israel. We are anemic, ill Christians as a whole--although there are many, many,  incarnate icons of God walking around and drawing many to him--if we only have eyes to see them.

I think about my own life and wonder if I too am anemic. Where in my life does my God-talk exceed my God-living? Oh there are areas. Yes, there are. When we ask those questions of the Lord he will reveal things to us. For every deficiency in Christ character (deficiency in spiritual fruit) that I have, there is a corresponding fruit of the Spirit that God wants to grow in me.

So there needs to be times of silence and solitude in our lives--communal and individual reflection too--so we can get an idea of what fruit God is trying to grow in us. During these times, we must cease striving to right the wrongs in others and allow God to lovingly till our souls. Silence and a listening ear instead of a wagging tongue allow us to do that. As far as I go, I feel the Lord showing me that I need to train myself to pause when I am naturally inclined to speak. I just need to listen.  To listen.

I am a monastic activist by nature--a missional mystic I suppose. But the silence and stillness of the holy is calling to me. I need to reel that activity in. There are a million causes and needs all around me. But I need to retire to my cell, like Jesus, I need to head off to the lonely places in the wilderness to pray and be.

 Isaiah 30:15 says, "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength...." That's what I mean. A rhythm of repentance and rest and quietness and trust is calling to me in this season. And as I get into that rhythm, I think that my God-talk and God-life will be more evenly matched. I will choose my words more carefully; my words will count for more.

I think this will be a year of further training in listening to God and others. May God have mercy on me a sinner and give me these graces.

Spiritual Renewal

"Those who study the history of the church have discovered that three elements are generally in place in seasons of genuine spiritual renewal: fervent study of God’s Word, concerted and united prayer, and a willingness to confess brokenness and dependence upon God. These three choices of the will are ones that each person alive today can make… and when we do, the choices of the heart will follow. This is often the time when we see individuals come alive in the love of Christ, filled to overflowing with the fullness of the Spirit."

This comes from The Rev. Dr. Stephen A. Macchia's post "Choices" over at the Conversations Journal Blog: http://conversationsjournal.com/2011/07/choices/.

The Gift and Discipline of Listening

Do we listen to others?

"Listening is one of the most basic ways we submit to each other. In fact, listening is minute-by-minute submission to others. I clear away what is going on in my mind and I follow what others are saying. I 'die' to my own desires and 'live' to theirs. Loving God and loving others are tied together. Said Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 'He who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual chatter.' But as we live life in union with God, we become steeped in empathy and genuinely care for other persons. We begin to live our lives in Jesus' attentive presence. This is what life in the kingdom of God here and now is meant to be."

~ Jan Johnson in her book Invitation to the Jesus Life: Experiments in Christlikeness

Life-Transforming Silence

Only silence will allow us life-transforming concentration upon God. It allows us to hear the gentle God whose only Son "shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice above the street noise (Matt. 12:19) It is this God who tells us that "in quietness and trust is your strength (Isa. 30:15 NAS).

~ Dallas Willard from The Spirit of the Disciplines

 

Time and Internet Addiction

Posting this summer has been haphazard because I've been away visiting family. Our families don't have internet access. So the only way I can get on is to find a hot-spot, usually at a coffee shop. But what I've discovered now as I did while I fasted from the internet and fb during lent is that I don't miss it.

Our internet addictions have robbed us of the life teeming about us. It's like we've entered Plato's Cave.  The world outside of the internet becomes the shadows. Addiction is a  strong word. But, I'll use it...even for myself.

It's hard for us to conceive of people that spend little to no time on-line. But if I think of it, I know many such people. Most of them are family members, older and younger than me. They're freer. I on the other hand work in an environment where part of my job is to correspond with people all day. Also, I am a writer, so sometimes I'm reading articles in the New York Times or other online venues, trolling for ideas and information. 

But, I find it all vexing. Because of the temptation to spend my time doing easy research, or catching up with others in quick bursts, I live a less full life.

I'd rather write letters and have letters written to me.

But letter writing is fading away because people feel they know all there is to know about us. They see it on FB.

The other vexing thing, the temptation I find is, that I start comparing myself to other writers instead of following Jesus. It's the comparison trap.

So as a spiritual discipline, for emotional and spiritual health, I am limiting my interent time now that I am home where I do have access.

Taming the Hunger for Fame: The Discipline of Secrecy Part 1.

I am struck by this discipline because it seems that so many of us do not practice it. It is so needed in evangelical Christianity. Most everyone is vying for attention, vying for numbers. Pastors, churches, musicians, writers, media outlets. In our pursuit of numbers, of fame, of notoriety--all in the  name of God of course, are we being faithful?

Well, let me not be coy. God has given me the ministry of writing. But I wrestle with my gift all of the time.  Because everywhere I turn I hear, "Get more followers! Build your platform! Do something to attract more people to your blog!"  One agent told me that I'd have to have 5,000 visits/hits a day to be considered famous enough to be considered. Really there's no chance for me via blogging, unless of course, God makes a way. Perhaps you've heard something along the lines that obscurity is death for an artist--death for a writer.

But then again, I think about how Jesus labored in obscurity for thirty-years. I just cannot take illegitimate actions to try and accomplish only what God can do. I am not saying that I won't continue to write or speak; what I am saying is that I can't take this business into my own hands. God says "no" to me as far as illegitimate self- promotion goes. Perhaps all forms of self-promotion are illegitimate. Christians go back and forth about that. And I am in no way standing in judgment over what others are doing. I am accountable to God for my attitudes and actions though.

The discipline of secrecy is of great help in this area. This disicpline takes all kinds of forms in our individual lives depending on our temptations. Here I will include an excerpt from Dallas Willard's book, The Spirit of the Disciplines, that explains secrecy:

"In the discipline of secrecy--and here again, the word is not perfectly suited to our purposes--we abstain from causing our good deeds and qualities to be known. we may even take steps to prevent them from being known, if it doesn't involve deceit. To help us lose or tame the hunger for fame, justification, or just the mere attention of others, we will often need the help of grace. But as we practice this discipline, we learn to love to be unknown and even to accept misudnerstanding without loss of our peace, joy, and purpose.

Few things are more important in stabilizing our walk of faith than this discipline. In the practice of secrecy, we experience a continuing relationship with God independent of the opinions of others."

pp. 172-173

* More on this in the next post

Solitude and Silence For the Sake of Others & More . . .

This is a reflection from my friend Jean Nevills, a fountain of wisdom--way up there near Portland, Oregon. Thank you Jean for these good words, words flowing from your solitude and silence!

Happy Easter Monday!

I was sitting this morning with the post-resurrection scenes in John 20 with Mary Magdalene, Peter and John, and especially with Thomas when I was surprised by the gospel writer (John) interrupting his gripping narrative. If it were a movie, there would be a freeze-frame with this voice-over:

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come (continue) to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have Life in His Name.” Jn.20:30-31

It would have been enough for me to stay with Mary and Jesus in the Garden –or with the disciples in that locked room, or with Thomas in his doubting against all hope because it was all so impossible enough to stay with their bewilderment and dismay, their relief and confusion, their anxiousness, doubt, and wonder—that is enough to live with for a while.

But I was moved by John’s interruption of the narrative at this point because I felt his grasp on my shirt collar that pulled me into the Story. The inclusion surprised me, much like the way the Arsee Oromo surprised us at Kosovo when they put a robe upon our shoulders to honor us and made us part of them. Their story became my story that day in Ethiopia.

It was that kind of pull that I felt when I hit verse 31. At this point, the story is not only about Mary and the other disciples. The story is also about me. About my moving from wanting to believe to believing that Jesus is God’s Christ, and mine; that I may have Life in His Name—in His character and realty. Unlike Thomas who doubts against all hope until he can see to believe, I hope against all my doubts that believing, I may see, and clearly, my Lord and my God. And I pray for his Life to be realized in me.

John interrupted his narrative because the whole point of writing it was for my sake—or to borrow from Ruth Haley Barton’s chapter title: For the Sake of Others. Like John, she gets the point that is beyond writing the narrative, beyond practicing Silence and Solitude:

“…. the practices of solitude and silence do, in time, bring us full circle—back into life in the human community. Whether we have been away for a half an hour of solitude, and an extended retreat time or have dropped completely out of sight for a whle, God, in his time, does eventually bring us back to the life he has given us. Perhaps nothing in our external circumstances has changed, but we have changed, and that’s what our world needs more than anything. Without pressing or pushing or trying to do great altruistic deeds, we discover that much that happens in solitude and silence ends up being ‘for others’—as paradoxical as that may seem.” Pg. 131

In some ways, it relieves the guilt of “not getting anything done” by our practice, because, after all it ends up being for others, particularly the others that our life is lived in closest proximity with. And after it has its effect on us, it may even change them. And change our families, our work places, and eventually our world. I am hoping for that, I am looking for that, I am believing for that.

Monotony

Here in the Midwest USA, it's been frigid and mostly cloudy. Many around me have bemoaned the long cold winter and this present darkness of February. It's the time of year when people get more depressed than usual. Much of the depression is spawned by the lack of sunlight and by remaining indoors. One friend of mine mentioned that she even feels like hibernating. It is a common thing 'round these parts.

I even find that I get bogged down by the monotony of things. Perhaps acedia is taking hold. But as I have written before, at least for me, it is these very monotonous days that can serve as our spiritual discipline.
So this morning I thought, "Let's change up our schedule a bit". My daughter Iliana and I played "school" with her little stuffed animal friends. She probably has fifty. Each of course has a distinct voice and mannerisms. Today's lesson was words in the English language that end in "-ing". Ring, sing, bring, and sting. We played show and tell. She showed her little animal friends and  baby dolls two toy trains and a track.

We then went to the downtown library (we live in a very small town but it has a good and friendly library). We signed out a few books.

And this is what I think about. If I am having a dreary monotonous day, I must not allow it to seep into her. Indeed, it is quite a spiritual discipline to be a good mother--or any caretaker really. It is a spiritual discipline to do what needs done throughout the day--to show up. If we would be responsible for our family and friends--for the well-being of the souls around us, although we all have bad days, we must ask God for the strength not to let monotony or the long cold dark winter months get the most of us.

God cares about the simplest things in our lives, like our energy and motivation levels. And he wants us to ask him for enough manna for the day. Like today, I needed motivation and energy to be a good mommy, to not let the weather make me frigid inside and cold (lacking enthusiasm) towards my daughter. I am her world and one of the icons of God in her life (along with my husband and others).

I am not sure where you are today, it may be summer where you live. But know that God cares about the simplest things in our lives and he gives us bursts of energy and the graces to do even the little things faithfully if we'd but come to him (see Matthew 11:28-29).

Jesus' Feasting . . . Our Feasting

These are the words of Jean Vanier from his and Stanley Hauerwas' book, Living Gently in a Violent World (IVP 2008):

"I want to begin by saying something about knowing and not knowing. I love chapter two of the Gospel of John when Jesus brings the disciples to a wedding feast. It is a wonderful moment of celebration and relaxation, showing us that our life is to be enjoyed and that we are all called to feast. At the wedding feast of unity, people drink lots and laugh and have fun. It is a time of togetherness and friendliness. And I imagine that Jesus came to this feast to have fun. I don't think he looked at his watch (which he didn't have) and said, 'I must hurry and do a miracle there because they need me!' No, Jesus at Cana was having fun. Mary saw that the wine was running out, knew that the family would be humiliated, and asked Jesus to do something about it. There's something profoundly human about Jesus--the first thing he does in John's Gospel is to turn water into wine so a bride's father won't be embarrassed." p. 22

Tech-Potatoes.

In 1999, I was an undergraduate resident assistant (RA). At my Christian college, they told us to be aware of persons who were addicted to the computer. "Watch out for them," our supervisors would tell us, "They'll withdraw from others, isolate, and we want them to be invested in others." I now work at my alma mater. And you know what? I am not told to warn anyone about being addicted to the computer. Although, sometimes I hear rumblings from students about being addicted to Facebook.

When I was in high school, I really appreciated a shirt that one of my peers had. On the front it read, "Bow to the new god." And on the back it read, "Kill you T.V." The shirt was meant to communicate that television had achieved god-like status. It could brainwash you. It formed you, without you being aware. Back then, people used to be denigrated for being couch potatoes.

Why do we not similarly discourage others from being computer potatoes? I think that not only the computer, but other technologies malform us in ways we aren't so aware of just yet. Yes, there has been alot of talk about isolation. It's not just that though. I know it's so much more but I haven't thought about it long enough. I do know some philosphers and theologians have though. I need to look into it.

And don't get me wrong. Obviously, I am using computer technology to post this. I rely on a computer for my job. I have to answer e-mails sent to me. But then, I do remember life without all this. And some people, like Wendell Berry, intentionally live a life free of all these gadgets. It gives them peace of mind and allows them to interact face to face. They aren't inundated with information. Eugene Peterson has termed much of e-mail word pollution and encourages people to write letters (hand-written).

I remember how free I felt last year during Lent when I took a sabbatical from posting on my blog and from checking Facebook (I wouldn't say I'm addicted, but I check FB once a day or less). I felt like I had so much time!

And while I so enjoy posting and am nourished by thinking through what I write, it is good to fast and use that time to be nourished by the Lord in different ways. Not posting is a discipline of abstinence.

I don't think I am a techno-phobe. No. But, I do wonder at the ill-effects technology has on us. Technology has implications for our spiritual formation in Christ. We should talk about this in our churches. And of course we shouldn't be tech-potatoes.

Spiritual Disciplines

Here I have listed some of the spiritual disciplines. They are divided into disciplines of abstinence and disciplines of engagement. This is not an exhaustive list. You need both. At a retreat, Dallas Willard mentioned to our group that if we participate in disciplines of engagement without the disciplines of abstinence, burnout is not far behind.



Disciplines of Abstinence             Disciplines of Engagement

solitude                                                        study

silence                                                          worship

fasting                                                          celebration

frugality                                                      service

chastity                                                        prayer

secrecy                                                         fellowship

sacrifice                                                        confession

obscurity                                                      submission

                                                                         exercise

                                                                        pilgrimage

Beholding God I

Probably the most important thing you can do in your life is to keep your gaze on God. Behold God.  Pay attention to God, focus on God in every possible way. You will have abundant life (John 10:10). You will become whole, holy--like Christ--conformed into his image (Romans 8:29). But how might you and I do that? I will post on that soon. I alluded to it the other day when I posted Charles Wesley's words about a single eye toward God.

I believe this is the most important thing I can tell you.

May you be filled with his shalom.
Marlena

Three Important S's in Spiritual Formation

I am tired and exasperated today, and for no good reason. I was up until 2 a.m. So, I was tired and of course Iliana woke up earlier than I would’ve if I were childless. But I wouldn't trade her for anything. And she is sick. So it was hard for me to be awake. We watched a few cartoons and played.

I have been slow in realizing how important sleep is for my spiritual formation. If I don’t sleep, I am grouchy and tired…not the wife, or mother, or worker, or friend, or follower of Jesus I should be. The best thing I can do for myself, my family, and those around me is to sleep. Get enough sleep. That means I have to train myself to go to bed early. I need a lot of help. God help me! I need solitude, silence, and sleep.

Last week on retreat I had lots of solitude and silence, this week very little. May the Lord give me grace to be disciplined that I might receive more grace! Solitude, silence, and sleep are very important if we are to grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ...if we are to live well...to live like Jesus would live if he were we.

The Illusion of Control ~ Holding It All Together

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Colossians 1:17-18

We want what's best for others and for ourselves. And many times we think we know best. We know who those single friends and family members of ours desiring to be married should marry; so we dive in head first trying to arrange a relationship we're hoping blossoms into marriage. We desperately want to control our lives, so we lay awake at night worrying about finances and our futures and our children and family members who seem to be circling the drain of destruction--about to go down. We're awake; we're the ones losing sleep, not them. We want our churches to flourish, so we are awake at 4 a.m. trying to control and solve problems human beings can't. Only, we don't know it yet. Out of good intentions, we seek to right the wrong in the world, the wrong in our neighborhoods, in corrupt systems, and others. We have the answers.

There is nothing wrong with doing all the good we can to all the people we can for as long as we can. Wasn't it Wesley who said something along those lines? But can we discern when we've crossed the line, when it has turned from bearing each other's burdens to playing God? It all starts off with good intentions. But then we start functioning under the illusion that we can control others if we just reason well enough, if we are just persuasive enough, if we exert enough effort. We confuse ourselves with the Holy Spirit.

As the 90's lingo goes, we need to learn how to step off. We have to act, yes, but really we have to surrender control and our desire to hold it all together. We have to let go of the illusion of being in control. There is only so much we can do and say. We have to practice trusting God instead of just saying we trust him. Our controlling acts and attempts at holding-it-all-together actually reveal our lack of trust. We all want to be gods. We all want to assert our wills. And often, we prefer our will to the divine will.

Recognition is the first step. Recognizing what we are doing. And then we confess it to God and to others if need be. When we do, we hear God whisper that it is all right, that in him all things hold together. That includes our lives, and health, and mental health. Some may say, "Well my health is gone, my mental health is gone, and the innocents suffer abuse and terror." Yes. This is hard. But in the end, the Bible calls us to appropriate the hope that in Christ all things hold together. He will make all things right, hold it all together, where human effort fails or where human effort is insufficient.

We don't know what it all will look like, this holding all things together of Jesus, this control of God's. But he does ask us to be still, to know that he is God and to let him be God. We can only do so much. Do we know where our efforts need to stop and where God takes up the slack? Really it is his grace, it is him that enables us to do anything at all. Let us remember that we serve a good and righteous and just God. A God full of kindness and compassion and abounding in love.  Let us remember that when we are weakest he is strong. Let us not play God even when tempted.

On Silence & Self-Assertion & Prayer - Another Good Word From Peterson

"Why is there so much noise in the world? Why do we chatter so much? In this most expensively schooled society in the history of civilization, why is there such a torrent of verbal garbage? Why do we put up with it? Why don't we turn off the bluff and bluster of our radios and televisions and enter into the silence? Is it because we really do not want to hear the word that will expose the futility of our self-assertiveness and make us new, that will command the abandonment of our cozy fantasies for a life of hazardous faith? Silence is prerequisite to hearing. If we reject silence, our words are reduced to puffing our own shriveled selves. If we talk all the time, or let others talk all the time, our ears and mouths are filled with cliches and platitudes, mindless chatter and pretentious gibberish. In silence, language is renewed. In the absence of human sound it becomes possible to hear the logos, the word of God that gives shape and meaning to our words . . . .

Neither persons nor nations can exist in a healthy state absorbed in novelty and defined by advertising . . . . A self that denies itself, it seems, is not anemic and spindly. Unself-assertion is not wallflower piety. There is something healthy going on here connoting solidity and strength. In contrast, self-assertion turns out to be not self-assertion at all, but impulse assertion. The self wants to be excited, entertained, gratified, coddled, reassured, rewarded, challenged, indulged. There are people on hand to manipulate and market these impulses by seduction and persuasion. The American self [*including American Christian culture]characteristically chooses advertisers instead of apostles as guides. Self-assertion is, in fact, a euphemism for a way of life dominated by impulse and pressure. The self is alternately moved from within by whatever occurs in the emotions and glands, from without by whatever is presented by fashion and fad. As we become practiced in prayer we are unmoved by such bagaelles."

Excerpted from one of my favorite books by Eugene Peterson, Where Your Treasure Is. Pieces taken from pages 88-90.

Four Sources of Peace

"Finally, I want to teach you the way of peace and true liberty. There are four things you must do. First, strive to do another's will rather than your own. Second, choose always to have less than more. Third, seek the lower places in life, dying to the need to be recognized and important. Fourth, always and in everything desire that the will of God may be completely fulfilled in you. The person who tries this will be treading the frontiers of peace and rest."

Thomas A Kempis

The Discipline of Stability . . . Resting in Jesus

I get this excerpt from Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's book, The Wisdom of Stability. I actually met him at Duke Divinity school. He is as humble and peaceful as his writing in this book. He is speaking of the discipline of stability in a mobile culture. It is a well-written, beautiful book, one that I'll read over and over again. I usually go back to the good ones over and over again. An interesting thing to note is that he writes from inner-city Durham, NC where he has committed to staying with his family. There is great despair and hope visibly intertwined in his community. He is not writing from a serene country alcove. This book is one I highly recommend!

"When Jesus invites us into the rest of his his easy  yoke, he is not saying that we can take it easy while he does all the work. Rest is not a couch where we kick back in front of the TV, glad to be home for the holidays. Rather, it is the place where we learn the rhythms for the work we were made for from the One who made us. Rest is coming home to the way of life that fits, learning to inhabit the story of God's people and practice the craft of life with God wherever we are.

If stability challenges us to stay put in a mobile world, its wisdom also promises a way of life that is sustainable, giving rest to weary souls. By sitting in their cells and looking the devil in the face, the desert mothers and fathers were able to name the powers that keep us from life with God. Seeing the problem clearly, they focused their attention on developing practices that made it possible to resist the devil's schemes. The very practical pursuit of life with God revealed to our desert forbears their utter dependence on the grace of God and other people. 'One thing that comes out very clearly from the reading of the great desert monastic writers,' says Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams, "is the the impossibility of thinking about contemplation or meditation or 'spiritual life' in abstraction from the actual business of living in the body of Christ, living in concrete community. The life of intimacy with God in contemplation is both the fruit and the course of a renwed style of living together." Again we cannot rest in God without learning a new way of life with our neighbors. The craft of life with God is learned in the workshop of stability in community."

pp. 60-61.

Spiritual Discipline of the Mundane

"Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house."

--Proverbs 24:27

We loathe the mundane. We'd much rather be off doing something more exciting, something more meaningful. Doing laundry, homework, dishes, yardwork, cooking and cleaning seems so underwhelming. What would happen if we let all the monotonous tasks go, if we didn't fulfill our daily responsibilities? Chaos.

We see it all around us, people addicted to adrenalin, neglecting the tasks and people at their fingertips. I'm talking to myself here. If I neglect the laundry or dishes or daily task of picking up the apartment because I'd rather read or spend time in other places with other people, I suffocate from clutter. Stress invades. Conflict arises.

• If we daily neglect acts of love and service to our loved ones, death invades our relationships.

• If we daily neglect our work it catches up to us. We get a bad grade, bad review or get fired.

• If we daily neglect caring for our bodies, we lose teeth, gain weight and contribute to the onset of disease.

• If we daily neglect to intentionally remember the poor, oppressed, orphans, and widows, we develop a lifetime habit of ignoring them. We live for ourselves. And Jesus says we'll go to hell (Matthew 25).

• If we daily neglect caring for creation, we'll make it uninhabitable.

I wonder how often governments that ignore fingertip tasks have stirred up conflict?


There is a spiritual discipline involved in fulfilling the mundane tasks set before us. When we fulfill our daily assignments we do our part to hold the world together. When we fail to, we add to its dissolution.