Enjoying God

(This is a part of my "loaves and fishes" offerings - click here to see the original post.)

"The enjoyment of God should be the supreme end of spiritual technique..."                J.S. Mackenzie

"The chief end of humankind is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."

Westminster Shorter Catechism

In the realm of spiritual formation - which is somewhat of a fad term these days (i.e. you'll get about as many definitions as there are people trying to define it AND "programs" that will help you be "formed" with three easy steps for $79.95)  - there are many spiritual "disciplines" which are offered to help a person turn to God, to "contemplate God," in order to help one be more open to being conformed to His image. We hear from the pulpit that we are to be "like Christ" in the midst of our ordinary daily living. We are encouraged to invite others to "come and see" Jesus - but what are they seeing? How does true spiritual transformation happen? And is it happening in your life as you heed the "action steps" of a weekly admonition?

Primarily, true transformation happens because the Lord, who is the spirit, brings freedom - as we behold Christ, what "veils" us from true life is taken away - and we are transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor 3: 15-18). One of my professors at Western Seminary, Dr. J. Carl Laney, said often, "We are transformed to the level of our beholding." Therefore, spiritual disciplines are supposed to help us "behold" Christ and open our hearts to His love so that we may be like Him (NOTE: 1 John 3:2 - could it be that as Christ appears to us, not only in the 2nd coming, but in our everyday lives, we will become more like Him?)

Most people, however, when confronted with the idea of spiritual "disciplines," imagine ascetic, arduous and painful practices to "slay" the lusts of the flesh etc. In other words, to stop sinning; To alter behavior - don't drink or chew or go with girls who do. The end result - often a church comprised of people who look like they've been sucking on lemons. (I'm borrowing phrases from my former pastor!) I'm not convinced that most Christians are actually practicing disciplines that help them actually to enjoy God, to enjoy the generosity He lavishes upon us, and as a result, to mirror a life that brings glory to Him.

Furthermore, in what ways do you and I and our church bodies sense God enjoying us? Brennan Manning often says that he believes God loves him because God is theologically bound to do so. "But, do I believe He likes me?" This is much harder to believe, but if embraced would radically transform whole congregations.

Do you believe He enjoys and delights in you - likes you? Why or why not?

This week, I encountered more people seemingly enjoying God/life (at least His creation) while walking in the woods then I did in church. I received more blessings and kindnesses from "strangers" I passed then from people sitting in the pews. Why are people happier walking in the woods then sitting in a worship service? Hmmm.

What spiritual "techniques" do you employ in your life?

• "Quiet Time" -  a common term to describe a set aside time to study the Bible and discover timeless principles by which to order our lives. Why is it the "only" quiet time of our day? Why so compartmentalized? Regardless, if you have a "quiet time" - does it bear the fruit of enjoyment/joy in your day as you interact with others, yourself, your circumstances?
• Prayer - In what ways do your prayers lend you enjoyment of God? Life? Living?
• Attending small groups - Is there an honest enjoyment of being with God and others in your gathering - how does it impact the rest of your week?

There are many, many spiritual disciplines one can undertake to discover, recover or deepen their intimacy and enjoyment of God. A great resources is Adele Calhoun's book, the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook. In it she clearly denotes that it is not the disciplines (doing all of them, doing them in order, doing them "rightly") that are the goal. But choosing the ones that help you open your heart to trust His love - and that bear the fruit of enjoying God.

How is God inviting you to intentional cooperate with opening your heart to His love and to enjoying Him?

Mackenzie continues:

The enjoyment of God should be the supreme end of spiritual technique; and it is in that enjoyment of God that we feel not only saved in the Evangelical sense, but safe: we are conscious of belonging to God, and hence are never alone; and, to the degree we have these tow, hostile feelings will disappear..."

As you enter the fall season, evaluate your spiritual techniques...which are leading you toward an enjoyment of God, others and self? Maybe you need to "shake up" your current routine by asking God how He'd like to spend time with you. Please let me know what you discover.

If you are interested in or desiring to have a spiritual life more characterized by enjoyment of God, vs. a rote, uninspiring duty, consider having your spiritual journey "companioned" by  a trained spiritual director. Spiritual Direction is an ancient practice in the church – where a "soul friend" journeys alongside and lends you courage to pay attention to all that your life – your true life – is voicing and longing to voice and contribute to a world in need. A Spiritual Director helps you engage with spiritual techniques that help you discover, recover or deepen your intimacy and enjoyment of the real God - not who you imagine, fear or want God to be. In Spiritual direction, the director does not direct or coach your life – but (s)he will help you overhear the nuances of your own soul in tandem with the True Director, the Holy Spirit. For more info or questions on how to find a Spiritual Director and/or ask what Spiritual Direction is all about, click here or on the links below.

 

• creating unhurried space for the soul 
• soul care retreats, resources and coaching

For more info about reFresh - go to www.mysoulrefresh.com

LIVING THE QUESTIONS – PART III

(This is a part of my "loaves and fishes" offerings - click here to see the original post - Living the questions - Part I is here.)

Only God can meet my haunting questions satisfactorily. I don't think He necessarily answers the question, but he promises to be with me – and that is [or at least was originally intended to be] enough.

The Lord is my Shepherd – I shall not want (ps. 23:1). 

Oh to be so content and trusting that my every unanswered question dissipates in His Presence...that I don't need to know because His Presence that goes with me also gives me rest (a settledness/at-home-ness in His Presence) Ex 33

In Spiritual Direction with a compassionate listener, she, in her silent, attentive presence with me, gives me courage to be comfortable with unknowing. A good Spiritual Director, like a good river guide, has journeyed into the territory of the rough waters of the soul. She is engaged in the practice of encountering giant boulders of pain, swirling currents of questions and undertows of desire. She is one who is herself living the questions, surrendering to the heights, depths and widths of God's love that surpass her understanding (Eph. 3: 18-21).

The journey requires unknowing...a trustful surrendering of what I think I know to be true...this cannot be done in a nice, half-hour morning devotional where I extrapolate principles for bettering my life (behavior, attitudes, etc). For most North Americans bred on dualistic reasoning, linear thinking and with the internet at our disposal to gorge our brains with information – we think knowledge/info and "googling it" is power (perhaps even our means to 'salvation'). We believe answers will relieve our suffering. We are rarely invited to a journey of unknowing. Yet the One who is Mystery...well, He gently beckons...not to impart knowledge, but to be with.

Nouwen writes: 

“Teachers can only teach when there are students who want to learn. Spiritual Directors can direct only when there are seekers who come with a question. Without a question, an answer is experienced as manipulation or control. Without a struggle, the help offered is considered interference. And without the desire to learn, direction is easily felt as oppression” (8).

Do you have vexing questions? Are you weary of living in a pathological busyness that is sucking love and life out of your days?

Again, Nouwen offers the value of spiritual companionship and guidance: “Spiritual guidance affirms the basic quest for meaning. It calls for the creation of space in which the validity of the questions does not depend on the availability of answers but on the questions' capacity to open us up to new perspectives and horizons” (9).

Oh how I long for people to experience relief – to companion others into the rough and glorious waters of the soul. reFresh was born out of this longing to created unhurried space for the soul. But just as not everyone will desire to go on a wild, white water rapid adventure for fear of being flipped out of the boat...not many desire to go into unchartered waters and canyons and rapids of the soul...where breathtaking, life-altering views and experiences lay waiting. I long for reFresh to be a place where people can ask the questions, to live the questions with God and one another, to let the questions (and God) open us to new perspectives and horizons.

Anyone interested and want to join me?

---

If you are asking ultimate life questions - trying to “figure life out” - or ready to consider some of these deeper longings of your soul, please consider journeying with a soul friend – a trained spiritual director. Spiritual Direction is an ancient practice in the church – where you companion with a person who journeys alongside and lends you courage to pay attention to all that your life – your true life – is voicing and longing to voice and contribute to a world in need. A Spiritual Director does not direct or coach your life – but (s)he will help you overhear the nuances of your own soul in tandem with the True Director, the Holy Spirit. For more info or questions on how to find a Spiritual Director and/or ask what Spiritual Direction is all about, click here or on the links below.

 

• creating unhurried space for the soul 
• soul care retreats, resources and coaching

For more info about reFresh - go to www.mysoulrefresh.com

Hoping to God that God is God - Part II

I long to belong.

I am scared of belonging.

What does that actually mean anyway? That I'm accepted? Wanted? Fit in? Or am I merely a bona fide card-carrying member because I passed some weird initiations and have a few seminary degrees and certificates and can spout off some odd creeds and Bible verses and look and spend like most of the others who belong to my particular flavor of Christianity?

That I "heard" the God of the Universe say that I belong to Him both thrills and threatens me. But I don't really know all of what this means. Who am I? Meaning I am both in awe and confused. I didn't think that was possible.

• Tell me about a time when you were both in awe AND confused at the same time...
• What "threatens" you about belonging? How do you prevent yourself from being yourself in your efforts to belong?

 

• creating unhurried space for the soul 
• soul care retreats, resources and coaching

For more info about reFresh - go to www.mysoulrefresh.com

Hoping to God that God is God - Part I

This morning I attempted to sit in silence with God. I am longing for my heart to be healed and know that unflummoxed peace, confidence, and the lack of defensive and judgmental postures from encountering the world in fear. This can only come as Deep calls to deep and melts away all my ingrained compulsions and lusty attachments. In this I am hoping to God that God is God...and good.

So I sat with Him - or more appropriately, squirmed in my attempt to settle my soul while using the "centering" phrase, "I belong to you" every time there was a "distraction" (only about 6000 times...). A few times I heard (not audibly, but assuredly in my core) in response, "Yes, you belong to me."

Those five words brought simultaneous comfort and terror.

• What does "belonging" mean to you? 
• How do you respond to belonging to God?

 

• creating unhurried space for the soul 
• soul care retreats, resources and coaching

For more info about reFresh - go to www.mysoulrefresh.com

Offering some loaves and fishes...

I've been reading through a compilation of Henri Nouwen's thoughts on Spiritual Direction in a book of that same title. In one of his chapters, he speaks of the importance of writing as a spiritual exercise/discipline to help us "discover what lives in us." Here are some of his thoughts:

"For me, to find God in the word often requires writing. Spiritual writing has a very important place in spiritual formation. Even so, writing is often the source of great pain and anxiety. It is remarkable how hard it is to sit down quietly and trust our own creativity...even after many years of writing, I experience real fear when I face the empty page. Why am I so afraid?

"The writing itself reveals to us what is alive in us. The deepest satisfaction of writing is precisely that it opens up new spaces within us of which we were not aware before we started to write. To write is to embark on a journey of which we do not know the final destination. Thus, writing requires a great act of trust. We have to say to ourselves: 'I do not yet know what I carry in my heart, but I trust that it will emerge as I write.'

"Writing is like giving away the few loaves and fishes we have, trusting that they will multiply in the giving. Once we dare to 'give away' on paper [or electronic blog] the few thoughts that come to us, we start discovering how much is hidden underneath these thoughts and thus we gradually come in touch with our own riches and resources" (99).

As I have journeyed with Jesus over the past several months, I've encountered spaces and places within my soul that are new to me. The newness presents both a thrill and a threat...and often as I've shared with others what I'm experiencing (mostly a deep unraveling of much of what I thought was important) I get cockeyed looks of concern or meddling formulaic fixes for my seemingly off-kiltered gait. I had one person ask me, "How do you want us to pray specifically for you in the weird place you are in?" As if I wasn't already feeling like a freak - I am tempted to feel out of place: too serious, or arrogant, or perhaps verging on, dare I say, heresy.

So, Henri has challenged me...dared me.

The blank page scares me. Sharing the blank page scares me even more. But do I believe that the few loaves and fishes that I'm stumbling upon - wondering how in the hell they will ever feed me - will somehow, when distributed via the hands of God, more than adequately feed 5000? I am dared to believe, but help my disbelief.

In the Biblical story (Matt 14:15-21) people ate as much as they wanted. It wasn't necessarily measured out equally nor fairly. People took what they wanted. Ate what they wanted. Until they were satisfied. There was no judgment or constraint on how much or little anyone took. At the end of the day the disciples aren't bummed because "So-and-So" didn't get his fair share or that Mrs. Farmer ate more than her fair share and pocketed some rolls. Their job was to distribute the goods. There was no "comment form" to register anonymous complaints. As far as we know, there were none because everyone ate until they were satisfied.

I am sheepish to offer/distribute what I've been given - to open myself up for critique, to be vulnerable, asking questions that I think I "should" know the answers to by now - especially as a career "religious" person. Or to ask questions that will likely make too many waves and/or draw too much attention to me or to those questions that we just don't ask in church. I prefer to wrestle in obscurity. Yet I feel invited, and compelled, to offer the doubt-riddled, inadequate loaves and fishes reflections (actually mostly questions)...about ministry, loneliness, spiritual union with God, women in ministry, spiritual direction, shame, inner healing - all without concern of who eats, how much they eat, if they criticize me for not offering steak and lobster instead and for not cooking their fish to perfection (ha - I don't even like seafood, raw or cooked!). How God multiplies, satisfies and/or unnerves people ... well, that is Her job. (I know - I offered that pesky gender pronoun on purpose...)

Join me on this pilgrimage if you'd like ...please. I am running across too many people who feel alone in the struggle. So, ask your questions with me... offer your loaves and fishes with me...and we'll see how God might just feed us and lead us to discover who we are and what is alive in us, and who we are being invited to become. May we come to discover and live more in touch with the lavish, fully satisfying riches and resources of God in the ordinariness of our daily questions.

 

• creating unhurried space for the soul 
• soul care retreats, resources and coaching

For more info about reFresh - go to www.mysoulrefresh.com

What is the goal of our spiritual lives?

My friend and former co-worker Tom Ashbrook has written an amazing book, Mansions of the Heart, where he offers a beautiful vision of the "so much more" that God offers on a journey toward His heart of Love.

Tom writes,

"The goal [of Christianity] we choose as the primary one becomes the lens through which we see and interpret the person of God and our spiritual experience" (p. 20).

What do you think is the "goal" of the Christian journey?

If it is to just "stop sinning" - how would that lens color how you see God and what activities you involve yourself in? If it is to merely gain "fire insurance" - how will God be relevant to you in your daily ordinary relationships and activities? If the goals is to be "missional" - who is God to you? What if the goal is to be united with Christ in Love?

• How does your perceived/stated goal of the Christian journey impact how you order your daily life? 
• According to your goal, what role does God play? In this goal is God more a judge? A power source for doing more effective ministry?

What if the goal of the Christian journey is a transforming love relationship with God...how would that effect/order your daily life? What would God's primary role be?

If in your journey things are not working quite like you expected - and/or if you are experiencing a bit of frustration and feel out of sorts, give Tom's book a read. You'll be delighted to read of the "so much more" that God has in store for His beloved ones.

You can also check out more about the ministry Tom is involved in at www.imagochristi.org - and if you're in the Portland area, check into joining us on a Discovery conference Jan 25-27th, 2011.

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Entering rest...Unhurry Up™

“Rest is a death. We die to ourselves, our agendas, and learn that God loves us deeply just as we are. We dies to ourselves when we choose not to pummel God with more words but to simply sit as with a friend in silence, trusting the Spirit's work on our behalf. For even in our silence, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, praying for us and through us.

“This is the miracle: God's purposes may best be accomplished through our inactivity.

“Our Shepherd holds out his hand and invites us to cease striving, to rest along the banks of still waters. And we lay down our knapsack, put our weary hand in his nail-scarred palm and let him lead us.”

~ from Resting Place: A Personal Guide to Spiritual Retreats 

by Jane Rubietta (22-23).

 

• As you read about “entering rest” - what word or phrase felt like an invitation to your heart – something to pay attention to?

• What agenda might God be calling you to die to in this season of your life/circumstances?

• What parts of you life feel wearisome right now (relationships? Finances? Vocation? Health/Physical?) Imagine Him holding out His hand to you...describe how that feels.
  
  
   Write out a prayer of how you want God to lead you toward rest in your life....
  
  

Unhurry Up™

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Part of clergy burnout is lack of physical health

David Gibson, a religion reporter, shares that religious leaders, whether rabbis, imams, or priests, are suffering dire health consequences. Snippets from the article are below:

"God may have rested on the seventh day, but for a growing number of his ministers, there is more work -- and stress -- than ever, and less chance to unwind. That has led to all sorts of health problems among clergy, from a lack of exercise and a rise in obesity to problems of depression and substance abuse and all the many ills of modern life that pastors spend so much time helping their congregants tackle.

"Indeed, even as the folks in the pews head off to vacations this summer, priests, rabbis, pastors and ministers of all faiths often find themselves looking after those left behind and still in need of spiritual support, or using any down time to catch up on the inevitable backlog of administrative work that always takes second place to the care of souls....

"A national survey in 2001 of more than 2,500 Christian religious leaders conducted by Duke Divinity School showed that 76 percent of Christian clergy were either overweight or obese, 15 percentage points higher than for the general U.S. population. And other research has shown that clergy across all faiths are succumbing to higher rates of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and other ailments than their congregants.

"But experts also say the solutions have to start at the congregational level.

Congregants can encourage pastors to take time off, and not view everything in the church as the pastor's responsibility. They can also be sure to provide healthy food at church events. But clergy must also learn find time to exercise or relax, even if it means saying no to some requests. Otherwise, they won't be healthy enough to serve their flock later on."

Are you a pastor?

• what in the article caught your attention? 
• Take 5 minutes and ask the Lord, "How does this connect to my story?"

Are you a congregant? 

• How might you help your pastor have the space to cultivate their own soul care so as to help you cultivate yours?

Click here to read the whole article.