102 – Sabbath – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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This past week my mind was drawn once again to the idea of Sabbath.  Maybe it was because after a busy week and then a weekend “off” I still felt tired on Monday morning.  Do we sometime think Sabbath means a “day off?”  I invite you to spend time with me this week considering what Sabbath can be. To stimulate your thinking,  I offer this thought I found online a few years ago,

“Sabbath ceasing [means] to cease not only from work itself, but also from the need to accomplish and be productive, from the worry and tension that accompany our modern criterion of efficiency, from our efforts to be in control of our lives as if we were God, from our possessiveness and our enculturation, and finally, from the humdrum and meaninglessness that result when life is pursued without the Lord at the center of it all.

“A great benefit of Sabbath keeping is that we learn to let God take care of us—not by becoming passive and lazy, but in the freedom of giving up our feeble attempts to be God in our own lives.”

(Marva J. Dawn in Keeping the Sabbath Wholly)

What is your understanding of Sabbath?  What is your practice of Sabbath?

 

101 – Spiritual Formation – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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The other day I was going over definitions of “spiritual formation” (and spiritual practices/disciplines) that I have shared here and then Monday I came across a  blog post by Jayne Davis titled “String Theory.”

http://www.abpnews.com/blog/spiritual-formation/string-theory-2012-06-01/

The first sentence got my attention,  “I often get asked, ‘What is spiritual formation?’”  And after that it gets very interesting.  Let me share a couple of sentences,

“Instead of responding with a definition or list of practices, I usually ask folks to think about their gut reactions to life’s circumstances and what shapes those reactions….  Gut reactions.  That’s what spiritual formation is all about — engaging in practices that train our gut reactions to be by faith and not fear; that shape how we instinctively see the world and solidify our trust in what we know to be true….At the slightest hint of trouble, our defenses can cause us to believe the worst motives in people we trust, underestimate people we love.  It can make the journey very lonely, and keep us from ever accomplishing the really good stuff together….This is my ‘String Theory.’  Most of us keep getting tied up by the same string in our lives.  Your string is different than mine, but we both know the frustration of getting tangled up … in the same way… again and again.  The question is, what are you doing to put your gut reactions in God’s hands… before they happen?”

I like this take on spiritual formation and practices.

This has got me paying attention to my gut reactions and the “strings” that tie me up.  What about you?  Can you see or name any of the “strings” that prevent you from putting yourself in God’s hands?

 

100 – Poetry – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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I came across these lines from the T. S. Eliot poem “The Dry Salvages” a few weeks ago when I was looking through the book Simplicity by Richard Rohr,

These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses;
And the rest is prayer, observation, discipline,
Thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood,
Is Incarnation

I don’t presume to offer any “explanations” of these lines today but I offer a question or two.

Do these words describe or identify something you’ve sensed or experienced?

Do these words in any way “ring true” to you? Or Not?

99 – Action and Contemplation – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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I recently saw an article at the Alban Institute website by Bruce G. Epperly entitled “Finding the Right Blend of Action and Contemplation in Ministry.”

https://alban.org/archive/finding-the-right-blend-of-action-and-contemplation-in-ministry/

In the article he counsels against the tendency of many of us to emphasize one over the other.  He writes,

“ … mysticism can lead to ministry and prayer can lead to protest…. Mysticism – embodied in times of prayer and retreat – leads to mission.  When we are weary and anxious, our imaginations are constricted…. A renewed imagination can feed a multitude and revive a congregation.”

How do you find the “right blend?”

One way to help find that blend might be to look over your day and your week and take an inventory of how you spend your time.   Once you see how you spend your time, you are in a better place to see what might be out of balance and even what you can do to find the right blend.

Remember you need not do this alone.  You might find value (and direction) in sharing your “inventory” with a trusted friend whose insight you value.

What do you think your inventory will show?  Are things in balance or do you need to think about some change?

 

98 – My Saints’ Calendar – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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Have you looked at the calendar lately? Did you notice that Monday was a day to recognize St Matthias, or yesterday to recognize St Isidor the Farmer, or that tomorrow is Ascension Day?  The Christian calendar points us to the seasons of the Christian year and points our attention to those various churches recognize as “Saints” (or maybe “saints”).  I have to admit that often I don’t know why I am suppose to appreciate some the various Saints.

But that’s different for “my” saints’ calendar.  A couple of years ago, I started my own saints’ calendar.  Some of the same names that appear on “official” Christian calendars are included (such as St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, and St Ignatius Loyola), but these persons are included not because they are listed on a church’s calendar.  They are on my saints’ calendar because their writings (and spirit) have meant something personal to me and in many cases have challenged me.

My saints’ calendar doesn’t stop there.  Thomas Merton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Tillich (among others) are on my calendar.  My spiritual journey has benefited from having encountered these and it seemed important that I remember them.

My saints’ calendar also includes a college teacher, a professor/minster of music and pastors that are very important to me.   None of these are as well known as the three mentioned above but in many ways their influence is more profound.

What about you?  Would it serve a purpose for you to think of the Saints and saints that have had an influence on you and put those names on a calendar (or put them if some form) where your attention is called to them from time to time?

And maybe it is always a good idea to ask, who has a hand (and spirit) in making me who I am?

 

97 – Pray – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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A few days ago I came across something Mother Teresa of Calcutta said about praying,

“Try to feel the need for prayer often during the day and take the trouble to pray. Prayer makes the heart large enough until it can contain God’s gift of Himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive Him and keep Him as your own.”

“… feel the need to pray often during the day…”

“… take the trouble to pray.”

“Prayer makes the heart large …”

“… God’s gift of Himself.”

As I read and reread this, it seems to me that Mother Teresa captures something important about praying and about spiritual practices in general.  It often takes effort and intention to “practice” anything.  We don’t wait to just “feel like it” but “take the trouble” to do this thing.

Do you agree with her that praying changes the heart?

I fear that any spiritual practice can be so self-centered it is nothing more than an ego-trip.  If we see it is about “God’s gift of himself” and we stand ready to receive that gift and all the challenges and responsibilities it entails then we stand ready to grow.

I recently heard a minister quote 2 Timothy 1:6, “… stir up the gift of God, which is in thee …”  You have a gift. What will you do now?

 

96 – Thin Places – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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It wasn’t too many years ago I heard the expression “thin places” for the first time and knew I was “suppose to “ know what it meant and appreciate its importance.  Unfortunately, I neither knew what it meant nor did I know why I should be impressed by a conversation on thin places.  If I recall correctly, it was explained to me that a “thin place” was someplace where the “veil” between heaven and earth was “thin” and we could easily touch or be touched by heaven (or the divine or God).

Jump forward several years and I am traveling to Florida to visit my wife’s family.  My wife and stop and take time to walk along a beach on the Gulf of Mexico.  While I was standing on the beach, listening to the surf, and looking at the beach and water and sky, I was overwhelmed by a sense of the presence of the Holy.  I don’t have many other words for it except that I felt I was “standing on holy ground.”

Jump forward a few more years to this past weekend.  Again, I am in Florida with my wife and standing on a beach (this time an Atlantic beach).  It was very nice.  It was pleasant.  But no sense of overwhelming holiness touched me.

Why?

Is it about geography?  Are Gulf beaches inherently more “holy” than Atlantic beaches?  Is it about time?  Are beaches holy at a particular time of the day, or on a particular day of the week, or only at certain times of the year?  Is it about the sound or the climate?  Is it about me?  Does the “holy” only show up when I am in certain attitude?

I have no doubt that on that beach on the Gulf of Mexico years ago I sensed in a special way the presence of the Holy.  My experience this past weekend was also educational.  It helps me remember I cannot “make” God show up.

Maybe I can do things to prepare myself.  I can do things that make me more open to God’s presence, I can spend time looking for glimpses of God but can I control where and when and how I encounter God?

If I go back to that Gulf beach, what will I find?  Should I go back there to “meet” God again? Or, should I ….. ?

Where and when have you encountered a “thin place?”  Where and when will it happen again?  What do you bring to the place?

95 – Patience – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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Have you thought of “patience” as a spiritual practice?  This quote from Henri Nouwen arrived in my email yesterday and gave me a new perspective on “patience.”

“Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Let’s be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.”

It also gave me some perspective on “impatience.”  Is impatience trying to avoid the present moment as Nouwen suggests?  Is patience part of fully opening ourselves to the present?

What might you miss today if your impatience takes you away from the present moment?

(Source: email from Sojourners, sojo.net, on April 24, 2012, subject:Verse and Voice Daily Scripture and Compelling Quotes)

 

94 – Lent & Easter – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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Many weeks ago ( #21, #22, and #23 ) I mentioned what Dallas Willard calls the spiritual disciples of abstinence and engagement.  He sees both as necessary for the Christian life and likens it to “outbreathing” and “inbreathing.”  I wonder if others might think of them as the “journey inward” and the “journey outward.”  Or even as we sometimes contrast Lent and Easter.  In his list of disciplines of abstinence Willard includes solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, sacrifice, and watching; while in his list of disciplines of engagement he includes study, worship, celebration, service,  prayer, fellowship, confession, and submission.

Fasting and sacrifice are certainly associated with Lent but so are study and service.  Celebration and worship are associated with Easter but what of watching?  Perhaps in this Easter season we could look over Willard’s two lists and do a self-check and consider if one or more of these needs our attention in the weeks to come.

 

93 – Octave of Easter – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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“We made it!  We made it through for another year!  Doesn’t Lent seem longer to you every year?  It does to me.  But, we’ve done it for another year.  Lent was long but I guess I got something out of it.  Then there was Easter Sunday.  It was great.  Lots of activities, lots of things going on at church the week before Easter and that weekend was really busy.  Sometimes I think they try to crowd too much on the weekend, you know, things for kids, extra choir rehearsals but I guess that’s just the way it is.  But, like I said, we make it though another year of Lent and Easter.  It’s over now and we can get back to our normal schedules.  It will be a relief!”

Have you every heard those remarks before?  Ever had a conversation that went something like that?

Is it over?  Sometimes it seems we act that way and feel that way.  After all, the Sunday after Easter is called “Low Sunday” by many and many experience a post-Easter “let-down.”  But if you look at the church calendar and the lectionary you see something different.  The week after Easter Sunday is called by some the “Octave of Easter” and the readings help us focus on life and Resurrection.  In fact, the church calendar refers to the weeks from Easter Sunday to Pentecost as Easter.  Not one day, but eight weeks (50 days) when we hear what Resurrection life is.

We sometimes give thought to what our Lenten practice will be for the 40 days of Lent, but do we give much thought to what our practice(s) will be for the 50 Days of Easter?  What will help us to live more and more as a community of the Resurrection?  What will form us more and more to be a people embracing the hope and promise of Resurrection.

What will the 50 days of Easter be for you?