Me n Eddie

Weekly McDonalds stop

Why couldn't it be a weekly Chipotle stop??

Stupid football!

Sometime o HATE this sport

My Best Friend

Trade for Boardwalk and Park Place?

I'll throw in $2,000 in monopoly money

Spiritual Formation 08: FASTING

Can I be honest? I really don’t like fasting.

I can’t say that I’ve ever had a good experience fasting. I’m hungry all time, I’m irritable and I’ve never experienced a breakthrough like other people have talked about. Truthfully, I don’t feel like I’m a very good Christian when I start talking like this.

On the other hand, I can see clearly why fasting can be a good discipline for spiritual formation.

Anyway, here are some of my thoughts concerning fasting as I interact with the topic in my Spiritual Formation class. I’m not convinced that fasting is a requirement for Christians. I don’t think that’s it’s commanded in the bible. I don’t think it’s ‘up there’ with The Lord’s Supper or even on par with singing praise-songs. I do think that fasting is good, but not required. I recognize that fasting has long been a benefit to Christians throughout history, but up to this point, I personally have not found fasting to be worth the effort. It’s at this point that all the highly spiritual and disciplined Christians scold me for uttering these words.

I believe the scriptures when they say that mankind doesn’t live on bread alone, but by the words of God. Ultimately, I believe that God, not food, sustains me. In a very real sense I don’t need food more than I need God. So, in this sense my fasting experiences are a sign or a symbol to me and to God that I need God more than I need food. As a matter of fact, I need God MUCH more than I need food. Ultimately, God will sustain me for eternity. At some point in my life food will fail to have any sustaining qualities at all.

I remember that once I had heard a teaching about fasting and this phrase has stuck with me. “While fasting, we aren’t meant to be fasting FROM something, but we are to be fasting TOWARD something”. I pondered this statement and I think that I agree. I think that a fast that is intended to be an experience related to Spiritual Formation should not be reduced to a phrase like, “I’m fasting from red meat, sugar, or alcohol.” I think that a big point to fasting should not be what we are fasting from. I think coming from that angle cheapens/lessens the impact of the fast. The focus shouldn’t be what we are giving up, but on something ahead of us. The focus shouldn’t be on what food we are missing, but it should be about what we are missing! In other words, there’s a very real sense that we are ‘giving something up’ (food), but the focus might be better if it was surrounded by what spiritual need (i.e. confession, repentance or prayer)we’ve given up– what spiritual things have been missing in our lives. So, in that sense, fasting may be best if it’s focused on what we are fasting TOWARD, which should be something vital to our lives that we currently don’t have, but that we desire to have.

This has not been my favorite topic to discuss. Maybe that means I should engage it more?

Photo op with Taylor L.

He's such a stud

Warm blueberry scone. Gold Coast coffee. Chapter on fasting. Irony.

Warm blueberry scone. Gold Coast coffee. Chapter on fasting. Irony

Me and Eddie

He looks so much older these days

Spiritual Formation 06

WHAT: I am taking a class in Seminary called “Spiritual Formation”. One assignment is to write about a page worth of thoughts that interact with content of each lecture and readings or somehow connect with my own spiritual formation. It’s meant to be more introspective than scholastic.

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I missed class last week, so my Spiritual Formation reflection will be based on our assigned reading - Richard Fosters chapter seven titled "The Discipline of Solitude" (found in his book, Celebration of Discipline). On a side note, I've read this book before (many years ago) and I would not hesitate to recommend it to any/everyone.

On another side note, I bought this book via amazon.com and it was previously owned, aka "used". The book was in incredible condition, no marks, dog ears, or coffee stains, except for chapter seven. The previous owner made several marks in chapter seven, but in no other chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN – The Discipline of Solitude.

"Settle yourself in solitude and you will come upon Him in yourself."

--- Teresa of Avila

My Interaction with the above statement: (which are the first words in the chapter) is that it's only true for Christians. I think that there is plenty of biblical material concerning God dwelling in believers, but the same is not true for non-believers. The amazing experience of finding God WITHIN is only a benefit (and it's a great benefit!) to true followers of Jesus. Yes, we were all created in God's image, but that's not to say that the Holy Spirit, in a very literal sense, dwells inside an unregenerate person. When you add that with Paul's insistence that we are "in Christ", Christians are unique to all humanity in this way: we are in Christ and Christ in us. It's in this way that solitude can lead to an informed investigation of God's dealing in us and our dealing with God; Spiritual Formation is the result.

I liked how the author differentiated solitude from loneliness. He calls loneliness and "inner emptiness" while he describes solitude as an important factor for inner fulfillment.

The author brings up Dietrich Bonheoffer's, Life Together, to point out his consecutive chapters titled, "The Day Together" and "The Day Alone". This provided a certain amount of motivation and conviction for me as he describes how both Day's are essential for spiritual success. I found this quote from the Bonheoffer to be very profound.

"Let him who cannot be alone beware of community"

"Let him who is not in community beware of being alone"

--- Dietrich Bonheoffer

I think that the person who can't be alone will have a very difficult time addressing the brokenness found in their inner world. The person who can't be in community will probably struggle some sort of self-infatuation. Both extremes will inevitably cause problems for spiritual formation. I have a personal acquaintance with both extremes; I have flirted with both camps over the years. Currently, I'm in a situation where solitude is more prominent than community. I own some responsibility for being in this solitude-heavy situation…

…On the other hand, I have grown to believe that God has brought me to what St. John of the Cross called, A Dark Night of the Soul. Richard Foster devotes some time to this in my reading for the week. If God is indeed part of this Dark Night, then it's to be expected that my life would (for a time) be more focused on Solitude than Community... not to the exclusion of community (I'm not advocating extremes).

To end this journal entry, I want to point out what the previous owner of my book found important enough to mark…

"Therefore, we must seek out the recreating stillness of solitude if we want to be with others meaningfully."

--- Richard Foster

Spiritual Formation 05

WHAT: I am taking a class in Seminary called “Spiritual Formation”. One assignment is to write about a page worth of thoughts that interact with content of each lecture and readings or somehow connect with my own spiritual formation. It’s meant to be more introspective than scholastic.

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This week in my Spiritual Formations Class we had an artist come who began the lecture by making this assertion:

While engaging in the creative process for the purpose of Spiritual Formation…

1. We understand ourselves better

2. Hear God better

3. Experience less temptation

We basically spent the rest of the class time interacting with his assertion.

Here are a few of my thoughts:

First, the professor made a very important observation on what is meant by "the creative process". He made a strong case for the inclusion of other things besides art in the term "creative". He suggested that problem solving is an engagement of the creative process. So, anytime we are wrestling with what to do with one of our children's struggles, we are engaged in the creative process. A business man who is implementing new strategies for the company is engaging the creative process.

So, what would happen if we engaged the creative process for the purpose of our own Spiritual Formation?

WE UNDERSTAND OURSELVES BETTER.

I think that this must be true. I consider myself an artist – one of those "creative-types". In the creative process it's not difficult at all to understand how I am involved. For example, if I'm writing a song, it's easy to see what kind of mood I'm in or what themes are resonating with me at the moment. I think that if a person were to make an attempt to understand oneself while in the creative process, it will probably enhance both the quality of the art and the needs or victories of the artist.

WE HEAR GOD BETTER

Imagine writing a song, a poem or a story. Any creative process (done with spiritual formation in mind) could easily lead to "hearing" God. If it's problem solving a touchy issue with your child or your spouse, it's easy to see how God could be heard. Crafting a song or a poem would require contemplation about God, his perspectives or his desires. In song writing I can learn about my current view of God… as a tyrant, as a lover, as magnificent?

EXPERIENCE LESS TEMPTATION

This assertion seemed the most like a "duh" moment. I think that anything that we do for spiritual formation focuses us on God and godly things so that while engaged we experience less temptation.

Overall, I enjoyed this angle on Spiritual Formation. I felt like it validated some of my own creative efforts with writing, photography and music. Even though life is so busy and difficult, I think that I now have some permission to work on my spiritual formation via the creative process without feeling guilty – like I should be doing something "better" with my time other than playing my guitar or taking a photo. Additionally, with the myriad of challenges as a father and a husband, I can take time engaging some of the problem-solving as an exercise in spiritual formation. So, rather than simply trying to fix something or make a good decision, I can engage the entire process as a way to understand ME, hear GOD and experience less temptation.

Spiritual Formation 4

WHAT: I am taking a class in Seminary called “Spiritual Formation”. One assignment is to write about a page worth of thoughts that interact with content of each lecture and readings or somehow connect with my own spiritual formation. It’s meant to be more introspective than scholastic.

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This past week in my Spiritual Formations Class, we had a lecture about Lectio Divina (Wiki Article here). After the lecture we were given about 35 minutes to interact with Mark 1:1-13. Read the verse at this link.

This week's Journal entry is a recap of what I did, what I saw and what I prayed.

Part One: Lectio (Reading)

I read the passage through about 20 times. That was a lot of times to read it, but I found that I kept getting distracted in the room with 20+ other students who were doing the same thing. I could hear chairs squeak. I was thinking about all the things that I needed to get done. I had a hard time quieting my inner world enough to engage the scripture (much like my initial Spiritual Formation Assessment when I wrote about my time near the stream). I found that reading it over and over began to help me focus on the scripture.. I noticed that the word "Desert" appeared four times. I also noticed that I've felt like I've been in a desert. The similarity intrigued me, now I was really engaged.

Part Two: Meditatio (Meditate)

I began to chew on the words I was reading. I began to become more and more interested in the meaning behind the words. I noticed things like how Mark considered the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus (Verse 1) was in Isaiah. For Mark the beginning wasn't with genealogies and the Birth Narrative like Matthew and Luke. Nor was the beginning found "in the beginning" like John. Mark saw the beginning in Isaiah who foresaw a forerunner for Jesus who ended up being John The Baptist. I noticed other curious things like how Mark asserts that the "whole" Judean countryside and "all" of Jerusalem. I noticed that The Trinity appears at the baptism; Jesus in the water, God's voice and the Spirit as a dove. I thought was pretty cool until I read something I've never noticed… Apparently it was only Jesus who saw the heaven torn open and only Jesus who heard the voice from heaven. I found that to be a bit disconcerting.

Part Three Oratio (Prayer)

Next, in this discipline, we are meant to pray. It is meant to be a dialogue. It's meant to be deep like a bride and groom. It's meant to be close like a friend to a friend. It's also meant to be a prayer from a servant to God and vise versa. Among other things, I prayed that the Holy Spirit would help me to pray. I found myself praying that God would allow me to be used in a similar sense that John the Baptist was used. I know that he "prepared the way" for the flesh-and-blood Jesus on earth, but I asked if God would use me to help prepare people for Jesus work in their lives and hearts. I asked God to think about allowing the "whole" of Judea and "all" of Jerusalem to come hear what I would have to say about Jesus. I prayed that that would never happen for MY sake, but for God and His Glory.

Part Four Contemplatio (Contemplation)

In this stage we are meant to sit in a wordless time of contemplation. We are meant to simply rest in God's presence. It was at this point that I while I excitedly prayed about being like John The Baptist I realized that I had forgotten that he was beheaded.