Also, from Chapter 29 of the book, We Make the Road by Walking by Brian McLaren
Jesus continues his teaching to the disciples by encouraging
them to practice some key spiritual disciplines, but most importantly to NOT
make a show of the practice. To practice them in private, alone. Brian McLaren says “If you want to see
change in the outside world, the first step is to withdraw into your inner
world. Connect with God in secret, and the results will occur “openly.”
I get the importance of spiritual disciplines. And I think
that almost none of us are as dedicated to the serious practice time required
in these disciplines to make us the sort of disciples Jesus is calling.
And probably the part we all struggle with the most is the
‘secret life’ of the disciplines that Jesus is suggesting here. Perhaps for most of us, prayer and giving and fasting (and
other disciplines like Bible study or singing hymns) comes in being with a group
of people like our faith community. Even in our worship service, we have times
of public prayer and public giving.
We might decide to fast as a community or to give something up for Lent
as a community.
So for Jesus to suggest that the way we truly become agents
for change is by withdrawing from the world as we practice prayer and fasting and
giving… well, that is counter-intuitive for many of us.
I think part of what we can focus on this week in this
passage is the importance of our self-reflection and our inner work on becoming
a true disciple. Choosing a
spiritual discipline to follow and then intentionally practicing it, day after
day, with deep connection with God being your focus, your purpose. After all, you don’t immediately run a
10K without training for it. So think of these spiritual disciplines as
practicing. And practicing regularly creates in us a habit and a way to reach
our goals. Many of you know that
once you start, for example, an exercise routine, you REALLY miss it when you
don’t get to do it.
How can we make the practices of giving, or fasting, or
praying (or you add your own practice) lifelong habits that help us become
better disciples? How can we start
to devote our own private time to following God, instead of just the activities
we are involved in with others at the church or in our volunteer work?
When I was in seminary, we had to work on some sort of
self-improvement goals and many of us went to counseling sessions as a way to
work on these goals. I chose to
work on spiritual disciplines. It changed my life. But, I let ‘the real world’
crowd in on me once again, and I lost touch with many of my practices. How can we avoid starting these
practices and then not continuing them through the long haul?
Thoughts? Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org
or comment below.
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