On Meditation:
Meditation is also a fascinating concept to me, but first I think it’s helpful to compare/contrast the many popular notions of what meditation is and is not.
For Christians, our lives of reading, prayer and meditation are about a filling of the soul of God and things of God. In other religions, we hear more of an emptying of the soul and mind, reaching an eventual state of peace or Nirvana. A posture of emptying might also be necessary for Christians – an emptying of anxiety and stress or control. Those things empty out, but we don’t stay there as an empty person. The goal then is to see God flood in and fill us, for God to be our source of peace and comfort.
In Merton’s book, a most helpful section he wrote is about a simple form of meditation. From page 101:
Here it might be worthwhile to outline the simple essentials of meditative prayer, in schematic form,
1) Preliminary : a sincere effort of recollection, a realization of what you are about to do, and a prayer of petition for grace…
2) Vision : the attempt to see, to focus, to grasp what you are meditating on. …implies… Faith.
3) Aspiration : From what you “see” there follow certain practical consequences. Desires, resolutions to act in accordance with one’s faith, to live one’s faith. Hope. …the possibility of these good acts with the grace of God.
4) Communion : here the prayer becomes simple and uncomplicated. The realization of faith is solid, hope is firm, one can rest in the presence of God. Love.
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On Spiritual Direction:
The concept of spiritual direction (also called spiritual friendships or other things) has been on my mind for a while now – my imagination captivated by the experiences of a spiritual direction relationship.
Our call as Christians is to spread the lifestyle of discipleship – the lifestyle of living by faith in Jesus, the Way, Truth and Life. Permeated by God’s grace, we move and breathe. But, what does this lifestyle look like? Who will show us in tangible ways what it might look like to walk and follow after Jesus? Who will ask us the questions that open new doors of insight and help us see God’s promises in Scripture even more clearly?
In informality, I think we’ve all had a spiritual director or two in our lives – a person who has asked us questions that really affected who we are. A person who listened far more than they spoke and was a gift of God to us in a time in life. A person who we seemed drawn to, looking forward to our next conversation because with them, Jesus and everything of God seemed to become quite tangible, thanks to God at work in the relationship.
Thomas Merton’s book gets at spiritual direction, what it means, and why it’s needed. His book is written for both the “professional religious (monks)” and everyone who isn’t a monk or nun.
From the book:
The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a man’s life, to get behind the facade of conventional gestures and attitudes which he presents to the world, and to bring out his inner spiritual freedom, his inmost truth, which is what we call the likeness of Christ in his soul. (p.16)
In essence, the direction relationship is about listening and walking together to be encouraged to walk like Christ. Having someone present with you, acting as a second pair of eyes, is so helpful, so needed. It’s hard to see so much of what we need to see in order to turn and walk with Jesus, like Jesus.
Yet, as you might imagine here, there’s a great deal of humility that needs to surround this relationship and relationships like it. It takes a lot of gusto to drop the pretenses or to allow someone to probe into our inner lives and challenge us where we perhaps thought we had things figured out. It’s not always about being comforted but also about transformation, which takes us to the greater comforts – the love of God.
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A Jesus Dream
January 29, 2010
I want to share a story a friend in the ministry told me while we were in New Orleans together. The story is about the lead pastor at his congregation in Houston and a dream he had. (My only wish is that you could hear my friend tell the story.)
Here’s the sketch:
My friend says his church in Houston used to do everything “Willow Creek style”, which typically used to mean a high emphasis on “seeker-sensitivity” and many things piled on many things for people to do (catch the word “do”). They probably had a lot of success in keeping people busy with church things, in church programs, and creating a strong churchy type person (the kind that just loves everything “church”).
One night, the lead pastor of this congregation had a dream. In this dream, Jesus spoke to the lead pastor and said, “Why have you become content to keep a thousand people busy and not make any disciples?” (I wish I remember the words a little clearer!) This just leveled the pastor, as you can imagine. Another mysterious piece is that Jesus was in this dream – which isn’t something I’ve heard much of and never really experienced for myself.
The amazing impact from my hearing of that story is that the pastor listened to Jesus in the dream! His ministry outlook changed and his vision of “success” in the ministry was moved 180 degrees. Instead of many upon many programs to keep people busy, his congregation has been striving to make disciples in a very grass-roots way (maybe I’ll write about that later!). Instead of seeing success as a “successful church system” his with-Jesus leadership has been seeing success as helping people to walk with Jesus and becoming like Jesus as they walk with him through repentance and belief.
When I heard that story in New Orleans, I was struck with a moment of awe. I mean, the people I minister with is dwarfed by this people in Houston (number wise). How is it that this guy in an otherwise successful looking congregation come to the realization that they’ve been missing the point for so long!? …God is definitely on the move.
This story isn’t unique these days, and I cherish that. Many leaders are seeing the need to move from what some have called “consumer religion,” “consumer spirituality,” or what I call “consumer churchianity.” I love the momentum this has today and I love hearing that call to “Go and make disciples!”
Now, what does this look like in my/our congregation? I think it means focus and simplicity. It means that I as a leader will need to redefine my understanding of “success” and plant the seeds of this vision in the hearts of those leading beside me. It means that success isn’t in how much or how big, but how deep, how relational, and how lovingly authentic. …really, I think this is both the easier and harder way. Easier because it’s so simple and so focused: Jesus says, “Go and make a type of people that act and live like I do – fully reliant on the grace of God, becoming more in love with God and the people around them every day.” But it’s also hard: I think it’s hard to break the paradigm of church-success. I think it’s hard to focus on the fact that our call isn’t to make a successful looking Trinity (my church) or an impressive list of activities for people to be involved in – our call is to help people become like Jesus through the Grace of God and the working of the Holy Spirit in and around us. The people that call themselves “Trinity” will then in that light of focus become strong and courageous – not caring to leave a namesake for themselves but to help those around them experience the Name of Jesus – the one who has saved, is saving, and will save.
May God guide us and take our hands. May God open our souls into the light of following him – living a lifestyle of repentance and belief, living in the beauty of God’s Grace in Jesus.
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