Archive for January, 2011

One of my resolutions is to read the Bible in 2011.  I’ve done the one-year-Bible-read a dozen times, but it’s been a while, and I’ve gotten rusty on some things I used to recall on demand.

I believe spiritual practices are like a map leading to a priceless treasure.  Yet this distinction is essential: they are not the treasure. However, the emphasis on spiritual practices is sometimes so enormous that we wind up confusing the treasure map for the treasure.

My recommended practice is meditating on passages of scripture in relation to the movement of God in history. A surprising fruitful practice for me, I learned from early Christian writers, is to mediate on scripture in light of the Pauline mystery.

As we think and talk about spiritual practices and the spiritual disciplines, I find it helpful to hear how others pray. From the incredible prayers in Scripture to the prayers of the saints across the ages, listening in on the great cloud of witnesses and then incorporating their words into my personal liturgy provides encouragement and support.

In honor to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, our brilliant (and thoughtful) managing editor Joannah Sadler suggested that we share a gift with our readers. In Issue 8.2 of Conversations Journal, Ruth Haley Barton of the Transforming Center wrote a moving piece on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life of contemplation and action. Below is the text of that article in its entirety, as well as a link to the PDF, should you prefer to read it with the design elements in place.

May the incredible story of King’s life of faith speak to you today.

About a year ago, my husband started this crazy workout program called CrossFit. It’s a form of exercise that is growing in popularity across the United States involving “muscle confusion” exercises and what I consider to be crazy feats of strength. Each day he returns from his workouts looking a little like he’s been sideswiped by a bus. And he loves it.

Muscle confusion is a practice of doing exercises that use not only the main muscle you are working out (like your quads) but all of the little stabilizing and supporting muscles around it. Usually these workouts include balancing, endurance and odd angles as well. Instead of working out your body very specifically, your body is learning to respond to any and every situation with stability and strength.

Bryan didn’t always love these workouts, though. When he first started, he felt like the young, skinny kid in gym class who is about to get picked on. We live in the town that hosts the Olympic Training Center, and my husband’s workout partners occasionally included bronze medal winning weight lifters. He was definitely out of his class. He had to fight through feelings of inadequacy and the sense that he might be the only guy in the world who couldn’t do a pull-up.

Fast forward a year, though, and Bryan is holding his own. Not only that, he feels better, he’s eating better and he’s lost weight. At a not-so-diminutive 6’6″ in height, he has struggled his whole life with weak knees. Today, he doesn’t even think about whether or not his knees can hold him steady while he balances hundreds of pounds on his shoulders.

When it comes to the spiritual disciplines, I’ve regularly heard them described as a workout for your soul—something that allows you to open yourself up to God through indirect effort when you can’t necessarily do it directly by your own willpower. I believe that to be true. What’s made this come alive to me this year, though, is watching Bryan’s unconscious confidence in his own body build through just such a process. It’s inspiring.

What would it be like if I could so confidently trust in God’s goodness in my life, because I’ve practiced a discipline of gratitude, even when I didn’t want to? What if, because a habit of listening prayer, I became so sure of the voice of God in my life that I trusted His words to me, no matter how much pressure I was shouldering at the time?

Bryan’s crazy workouts aren’t the way that I choose to maintain a healthy lifestyle and stay fit—for me it’s a combination of home workouts, running and boxing training. And the spiritual disciplines that I undertake won’t necessarily be the ones that you need to inspire and move you toward a deeper experience and love of God in your life.

And yet, we can all be motivated by the fact that God’s response to our consistent application of spiritual practices (whether they make us feel sideswiped by a bus or not) is to strengthen us on a soul level. As the writer of Hebrews says, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.” (Heb. 12:11-13, NIV)

Join the Conversation

What are the disciplines or practices that you’ve seen “strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees”?

What helps you get through the unpleasant times in a spiritual discipline, where nothing seems to be happening or not progress being made?

By the time you read this blog entry, you will most likely be aware of the bombing that occurred today in on of Moscow’s busiest airports. At the time of this writing, 35 are dead and more than 125 injured. We don’t know many details other than this: someone walked into a bustling airport, full of life and movement, and brought death in the form of a suicide bombing.

This morning my “tea fortune”—or whatever you call those tags that hang on the end of the teabag—really got me thinking about spiritual practices. I try not to put a lot of stock in tiny slips of paper that have an inspirational quote or instructional message.  I’ve never played the lotto numbers in a fortune cookie slip either.  Well, I’ve never actually played the lottery, but you get the point.

One evening over this past holiday season, my kids and I were trying to decide which movie to go see.  I had been to everything I had wanted to see and so had they.  Since they have no problem seeing movies over and over they went to the closet for an old favorite. “Oh, no,” I groaned. How many times do I have to sit through “Dumber and Dumber”?

My friend Glandion Carney is on my mind today; but not for a good reason. Glandion is in the hospital battling against an infection. My prayers are with this dear brother whose free-floating, free-form prayers have earned him the nickname Theologius Monk. I have a difficult time thinking about Christian disciplines without seeing a picture of Glandion in my mind. He certainly has broadened the way I have come to view these spiritual practices.