The Basics

We get all out of sorts all of the time don't we? Disoriented. We wonder where God is at, wonder why there seems to be no deepening in our relationship with him or much goodness blossoming in the world. Instead of walking away from the person we were a moment ago we find ourselves walking toward the person we don't want to be--walking toward the person we were a moment ago.

Why is it that we find ourselves constantly in such a state, a state where there seems to be no growth in grace? Well, obviously there is not a simple answer, but I think I can add a piece to the puzzle of the answer. A piece that you and I are familiar with, but one that we need to be reminded exists.

It could be that our perceptions are just jazzed up or it could be failure to engage in the basics.

The basics. You know how eight hours sleep, healthy eating, and excercise are of great help in living a salutatory life? Likewise so are the basics of prayer, solitude, fellowship, service, confession of sins, the reading of Scripture, and celebration of great help in the spiritual component that makes up our life.

The problem is, it's so hard for us to do the basics in the physical part of our life as well as in the spiritual part of our life. They are both part of the same life and so I don't want to dis-integrate them. Our physical part of life affects our spiritual part of life and vice versa.

So why don't we pray for grace to do the basics?  Pick one thing? It's impossible to change all at once. But God working through us and in conjunction with decisions of our will--does bring about change.  Little by little.

I encourage you and myself to pick one of the basics and ask God for grace to make it a habit in our lives. The more of the basics that we practice the more peace and stability in our lives. May this truth travel what appears to be the short distance between our heads and our hearts.

Vow of Stability

We are but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return (see Psalm 78:39).

God is stable...he changes not. His character changes not. However, everything else in life, is in a sense,  unstable. We are but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return (see Psalm 78:39). Yet, how we long for stability in our own lives! Rootedness in God and in a community.  An anchor. Is it possible?

Could it be that we play a part in the stability we long for? Can we remain present in a particular place to particular people even though it may cost us personal success? Could we stay put and present in our particular community? Would we stay for the good of others and ourselves--only moving if God moves us?

Quoting Father Guy, a monk from Blue Cloud Abbey, Dennis Okholm writes in his book, Monk Habits for Everyday People, "God has placed us in a community of people with whom we would not have chosen to live had it been up to us."

Continuing on the thought of stability, Okholm notes, "But it means more than just remaining in place. Stability means being faithful where we are--really paying attention to those with whom we live and to what is happening in our common life. In fact, persevering in stability is really persevering in listening. A person who stays where God has put her (not in abusive situations of course) because it is with that group of folks, speaking the truth in love, that she will grow up with them 'to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ,' as Paul puts it to the Ephesians (4:11-16)."

He explains further, "Conversion and growth in character happen when we remain, not when we run. This is where the vow of stability links up with the vow of conversatio moralis (conversion of life).

To remain stable and present to others where we are would indeed require a conversatio moralis for many of us. But the concept of being present and faithful to God and to those around us--moving only if we are called to move--some would say forced to move--is something we have to think about.


Monk Habits for Everyday People pp. 90,91,92.

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.