Week 15 - Day 99 - Spiritual fitness, the uncomfortable way
Scripture focus: He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding. Proverbs 15:32 NIV
"I'm feeling agitated, nervous, and upset."
"OK. Tell me more." In our community, this is a big win - identifying our emotions and expressing them appropriately.
"I don't like the way we're doing our weekend celebration services; why have you stopped teaching on the twelve steps each week?"
For nine years, every single Sunday morning and Saturday evening, we've used our celebration service to illustrate one of the Christ-centered twelve steps. If I were better at math, I could tell you how many times we've marched through the 12 steps - but my memory says: we've done it a lot! This year, we're studying 52 key words that I think are foundations for building a big heart. For me, a big heart is one that epitomizes the twelve step process. It's a heart that quickens at the voice of God (steps 1 - 3). A big heart is concerned with others (step 12). A big heart has acquired some skill sets (steps 4 - 11), and is fit for community (steps 1 - 12 and beyond). A big heart is both spiritually minded and capable of doing kingdom work on planet earth. A big heart is a big deal. Have you ever heard of a guy by the name of Jack Lalane? He's one of the early pioneers and proponents of physical fitness. He's ninety-three years old and going strong. (He can still do one-armed pushups!) He works out two hours a day. He changes up his fitness routine every thirty days. He says the human body gets too accustomed to a routine, and loses the benefits of the training if we keep doing the same thing over and over (sound familiar?). Anyway, after nine years, I thought it was time to change up our celebration service routine. And that left us feeling a bit uncomfortable. I understand the feeling. I've had to completely change up my preparation routine too. I agree with my friend that a switch in our routine is upsetting, but I realize that we haven't abandoned our twelve step model, we've merely changed the way we have conversations about it. Frankly, it was easier to do it the old way. But I don't think we're going to find our freedom or our grand epic adventure doing the important stuff the easy way.
"It's easier to run a religion if you can standardize everything, including the people. . .Somehow we've equated conformity with holiness. Spirituality is more identified with tradition and ritual than it is with a future and a hope. Too often discipleship equals standardization. It's almost as if God's solution to the human problem is cloning, making us all the same, extracting from us all that is unique, destroying that which makes us different. The tragedy, of course, is that this has nothing to do with Jesus. The tragedy, of course, is that this has nothing to do with Jesus. It would be an understatement to say that Jesus was unique. Even if he were not God, he would have been history's most extraordinary human being. He was a nonconformist; he was anti-institutional; He surrounded himself with outcasts. He was everything except what they expected. Jesus' life was a model of uniqueness, and his movement was nothing less than that. The people he chose to entrust his message to had to have been the unlikeliest of candidates. . .The son of a carpenter gave the responsibility that would typically be entrusted to priests and the theologians to an unqualified group consisting of fishermen and even a tax collector. Furthermore, his inner circle also consisted of a woman who was once a prostitute. From background to temperament there was nothing about Jesus' disciples that reflected conformity - neither did his message." Soul Cravings, Erwin McManus, entry 22, Destiny.
I'm blessed to live in a community that knows how to tell the truth - this change feels weird - AND is courageous enough to try new things. It requires discipline AND builds big spiritual muscles AND strengthens the heart!
Recommended reading: Deuteronomy 32 in the morning; Psalm 79 in the evening
No comments:
Post a Comment