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Category: Devotion

Mindfulness and Presence

Published by mhelbert on November 21, 2019

I wrote a couple pieces recently that touch on the idea of a person being Mindful or Present to the Spirit of God at various times.
I wrote about being Present in Prayer Here.
Celebrating the Liturgy with Intent Here.

Mindfulness, as I wrote, is nothing new. Nor, is it limited to any one faith or belief system. It’s a way of seeing and interacting with the world around us in a meaningful way. Too often we simply go through the motions of life without any recognition of the fact that we are actually Alive.
And, there are other living beings and a whole Cosmos around us is many times simply missed altogether.

It’s hard work opening our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to the world around us. It’s even harder to sit with that world and appreciate it for what it is At. That. Moment.
So, baby steps are necessary.

“What? Baby steps? I’m a grown adult human being! I don’t need no stinkin’ Baby steps!”

Well, yeah, you do.
So do we all.

I already mentioned a couple areas where we can begin to engage ourselves and practice Presence.
These are ways to take Baby steps.
Little by little we can learn to be Present to God in prayer and Liturgy.
Eventually, with time and practice, maybe we can actually find ourselves immersed in God’s Presence at these times.

Another way to learn to walk in Mindfulness is to pray formulated prayers.
The Daily Office is one such type of prayer.

I must mention here that I spent way too many years in a religious tradition that thought that the only Really Real Prayer was one that the Holy Spirit magically put in your mind at the very moment the prayer was offered.
This was, “Being Led By The Spirit.”
Any other kind of prayer was wooden or rote or the tradition of mere mortals.
That kind of prayer would never “work,” (whatever that means).

However, like I wrote concerning the Liturgy, written prayers were also composed with intent. They were produced under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Just because something has been around for centuries doesn’t make it any less Spiritual.

That said, I was saying Morning Prayer today. Just as I have many, many times over the last decade or so. I read the Introduction and prayed the Confession. I offered the Venite with the antiphons. I prayed the Psalm and the canticles. I prayed through the readings, the Creed, the Our Father, and the other various Collects and prayers for today. I finished the Thanksgiving.

All of this has been part of the Church since the beginning.
All of these prayers and readings are designed to focus our hearts and minds on the Present Moment.
If we are Mindful and Present with the prayers and the Scriptures then we can, as today’s Collect says,
“hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.”

Of course, we can simply read through them Office like any other text we encounter. Many people do. For them the written prayers are just something that needs to get done, something to check off of their ‘To Do’ list.

But, when these prayers are approached with Mindfulness and an intent to be Present, they can be life giving and transformative.

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Union With God

Published by mhelbert on November 2, 2019

Today I’m going to leave writing and and stuff alone and return to reflections about God, the Cosmos, and me. There are thoughts that niggle at the back of my brain that sometimes just need to be turned loose on the World.

Over the years that I have pursued God, or maybe God was pursuing me, through various forms of contemplative prayer, the idea of Union with God has peered through the mist from time to time.
I’m no historian, but I have read and heard stories of certain practitioners of various religious traditions seeking to become ‘one’ with, or joined together with deity.
In the Christian tradition that concept became famous during the Middle Ages through various mystics who then wrote about their experiences with “Mystical Marriage.” Or, they described their contemplative journey as a pilgrimage up mountain or into some kind of many layered mansion. These journeys culminated in some kind of mystical, ecstatic experience that left that person somehow changed.
It seems that this concept of Union with God is still the prevalent one today.

I don’t see it that way.

That way of experiencing God’s presence in one’s life seems too, well, individualistic. The journey is a solitary one. The trials along the way are ‘me’ against the powers of darkness that would stand in my way. Obstacles that I would need to prove myself worthy against in order to prevail.
Eventually, if I had remained steadfast and faithful, I found the prize and claimed it as my own.
That sounds all cool and everything. Especially, in our Western culture that elevates the individual to some kind of cultural sainthood.
But, I’m sorry. I just don’t see that model of Spirituality anywhere in the Scriptures.
Yeah, I get it that God is concerned about us each individually. And, God delights when we each desire to be with God. We, each of us, is precious to God.
I don’t think that’s the end of the story, though.
The whole idea of “Me and Jesus against the World” just doesn’t ring true.

So, how does Union with God fit into any other schema?
It seems by its very name to be something that only affects a particular individual.

Over the past few years I have had the idea of Humans as Ikons of God. That’s pretty much what the stories in Genesis calls us when the writers mentioned ‘in Our Image.’ Humanity is, in these stories, created to fill the role of Steward in God’s Good Creation.
A steward is a representative of someone else. The steward has authority to act in the Name of that someone else. The steward, in effect, partners with that someone else in order to achieve the benefit of, not just that someone else, but of All that is under the authority of that someone else.
For us, that entails the entirety of the Cosmos.

Union with God, to me anyway, seems to be more about partnering with God in order to achieve God’s Good Will in the Cosmos than with any kind of individual ecstatic experiences.
Union with God seems to be contingent, not just on my efforts against unseen enemies, but on my willingness to hear Jesus’ knock on the door of my Heart. Then, opening it so that He may come in and “abide” with and in me. Not for my benefit alone. Although, there is that. But, for the benefit of All.
Paul wrote to the Church at Rome about how the creation groans waiting for the daughters and sons of God to show up.

The further that I walk on this path of my life and seek God’s Presence, the more I am convinced that this life is NOT simply some kind of preparation for ME in order to be ready for some after life. That is not, CANNOT, be the purpose of God for the Cosmos.
God’s purpose is redemption of ALL. Life for ALL.

HERE!

NOW!

IN THIS LIFE!

Union with God means to partner with God, Work with God…

Love with God.

Are we ready for that?
Maybe.
But, together, United with one another in Union with God I believe that we can be.

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What? Another Committee?

Published by mhelbert on October 8, 2019

Tonight I’m going to be meeting with something called the “Spiritual Growth Committee” at St. Barnabas.
Now, I’m not really sure why this committee was originally formed. I guess I’ll find out later. I do know that the Bible study that I have led for the past few months is somehow under the auspices of that committee. So, there’s that.

Those who know me can maybe understand my apparent ambivalence to this. First off, I’m not a big fan of ‘committees.’ They are usually formed for some arbitrary reason like, “Gee! Maybe we should form a committee for that!” (Whatever “that” is.) There rarely is a need for them. Then, once formed, they tend to exist for the singular purpose of ‘existing.’ In the rare event that there truly is a need and a mandate for a committee to form, the mandate seems never to be met and the committee just lives on and on and on……

I also really hate meetings. Another example of existing for the mere purpose of appearing to do something. Anything. At all. Even when nothing of any real substance is, in fact, taking place.
“Hey, Bill! Let’s get the committee together to have a meeting.”
“What do we need to talk about,” Jim?
“Oh, I don’t know. But, at least we’ll look like we’re accomplishing something.”
“Good call, Jim!”
Yeah, meetings…not a big fan.

So, you ask, why am I involving myself with these two things that I really don’t hold in very high esteem?

Well, sometimes I think that we must entertain some things that appear pretty much useless in order to add legitimacy to something that IS important and NEEDS to be addressed. In this case, appearances are pretty important. People seem to really like it when something appears to be important and official. I don’t know, to me it seems pretty silly, but hey, there are “People.” You know?

Ok, so what’s so important that it can get me to leave my house and miss Jeopardy!?

Spiritual Growth and Formation. That’s what.

I’m convinced that the only thing that separates the Church from every other social justice organisation on the planet finds its source in those few words. In fact, most of those secular organisations can do the work far better than the Church. They can mobilize a larger slice of the population and, far and away, they can fetch the financial resources needed far more easily.
I’m not implying that the Church should abdicate this vital work and allow secular groups to own all of that work. No, no, no. The Scripture is clear, and our hearts concur, that justice for those who are in need and who are ostracized by society is part of what God desires us to pursue. All I’m saying is that on the ground these other organisations are really well-equipped to do that work. (In fact, it’s usually a good idea for the Church to partner with them. Together much good can be done.)

Back to Spiritual Growth.

The Church is unique in that she can help people find a path that leads to the Source of Life.

Yeah, that’s what I said. A pathway to the Source. That alone is not necessary to do good works. But, it is necessary for the Church to be the Church. It is our Raison d’être.
Awareness; Presence; Communion is the fertile soil in which ALL other expressions and acts of faith sprout and grow. This produces good fruit in the life of the Church and in the lives of the people.


I am convinced that attention to Spiritual Formation is the ONLY thing that can make the Church the Incarnate Body of Christ. The living, breathing Gift of God to the Cosmos.

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Formed by the Spirit

Published by mhelbert on September 27, 2019

“Formed by the Spirit.”

Wow! That’s a pretty loaded phrase. I mean, what does that even mean? Lots of folks over the centuries have tried to define that in ways that are clearly and easily understood by people. They offer suggestions about reading Holy Scripture so that, “The Word may dwell richly within you.” Hey, that sounds good! Or, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,” to quote St. Paul’s missive to the Church at Rome. What does THAT mean? Others say that to be formed by the Spirit involves learning all that we can about “why we believe what we believe.” The big word for that is Apologetics. I have found that kind of approach really only creates arrogant, ignorant people.

What about prayer? Surely, that must form people in a spiritually kind of…thing. Right?

Maybe. Again, what does that mean? How can I, or anyone, perform any ritual, be it reading, praying, attending a church, or whatever that will actually allow for Spiritual Formation?

As you might guess, I do have an idea or two. Well, maybe only one. I’m really not sure myself. But, I think that it stars with…wait for it…Grace.

What?!? Grace? Now, what does THAT mean?

It means that I have no idea. It means that I’m not the one making the call. It means that any formation, or better, transformation is by nature out of my hands.

Now, I also want to make something else clear. We are NOT without responsibility in this. At the end of the day, I must make the decision to accept that grace. But, I truly think that’s pretty much all that I can do. Why, you ask? Why am I not more integrally culpable in my own formation? I think the easiest answer is the first one to come to my mind.

So that I may have nothing to boast about.

That’s right, kids. If I don’t have the wheel in my hands. If someone else is driving, re. God, then I can’t go around telling folks to “Look at ME! I’m spiritual!

Another reason that may not be as obvious, but is certainly more important, is that I really don’t know what it is that I really need. What does formation look like in my life? I am truly without a clue. But, there is One Who does know.

That’s where faith comes in. “Faith,” you ask, “Do you mean blind following your invisible friend to some unknown destination”? Well, no, not at all.

It means that no matter what practices I may find myself doing, I trust that God is doing something. What that is I neither know nor care. Not in my pay grade. It means that I accept that God actually DESIRES to be graciously active in my life. And, that God is actually CAPABLE of being active in my life. Perhaps more importantly, that God actually IS active in my life. There is no following the Yellow Brick Road to some paradisiacal Emerald City. There is only faith.

That, my friends, is where Spiritual Formation is securely moored.

What that all looks like is impossible to describe. For every person there is a different world being created. God doesn’t work in systematic ways that can easily be adduced and analyzed and then mass produced for everyone. No. Can’t be done. Although, many have tried with their surveys and polls. God is Spirit. God is essentially “Other.” We cannot describe nor define God. Period.

We can only sit quietly and let God’s grace flow over us, through us…permeate every cell. To, in essence, alter our Spiritual DNA.

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Awaken! Arise! Away!

Published by mhelbert on September 26, 2019

Awaken!

In silence Your I hear Your voice.

Words Silently Spoken quicken the Life Force of Spirit that dwells within.

Arise!

Shine from Eyes filled with Wonder; Power; Love!

How I long to feel Your Love coursing through my veins,

Entering every cell; altering the very DNA of my Heart of Hearts.

Away!

May we join with kindred Spirits and fly into the æther that exists

Within Us; Without Us

Let voice ring with Joy; Happiness; Love

For Your Legacy is found in such as These.

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The Image of God

Published by mhelbert on December 28, 2018
Image from http://www.messagetoeagle.com/astronomers-probe-the-cosmic-web-of-the-universe/

God, Almighty Creator, seated in the Heavenlies on Your Throne! All Powerful, Ever Present, All Knowing!
This is the image that most Christian sects share somewhere in their core beliefs. These are images that help followers grasp the enormity of God. For, as they also teach, God is Infinite, Eternal, Alpha and Omega, First and Last. These words describe how impossible it really is us to wrap our finite, human brains around any concept of the Divine.
In fact, it is so impossible that the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, states clearly that we humans are not to even attempt to imagine God in any physical form. It seems that God was pretty serious about that.
Of course, we didn’t pay much attention to that.
Yesterday, my wife and I spent a couple of hours at the Cleveland Museum of Art. (What a great resource! But, that’s another story.) One thing that was abundantly clear was that artists throughout history have tried to imagine the image of God! Canvas and paint; carved wood, alabaster, and other stone; precious metals and gems. We saw images of God the Father looking down from the sky. There was one where the Holy Spirit was painted as a giant dove whose wings appeared to be proceeding from the mouths of Father and Son. I even saw one rendering of the Holy Spirit that looked more like an over-fed pigeon from Central Park in New York City made of silver. These were offered by various artists to render God, to usher the Divine into the non-Divine. And, no one seems to mind. There were wars fought over images and icons. “It’s ok to make these images. Just so long as we don’t “worship” them.
I considered this today in the quiet of my office, candles burning casting a gentle, living light.
What image might I use to describe God? How might the divine be understood by mere flesh and blood?
As I sat silently in God’s presence I saw an image.
I saw what many scientists think the Universe looks like. It reveals a vast network of light. Clusters of stars and nebulae connected to each other by “threads” made of the same stuff. In between there is Dark Matter and Dark Energy, (not all is light). Nebulae, dust, stars, comets, Black Holes, debris of every king, light, dark … All of it. Every creature, plant, and rock. The very particles of light and every wave of energy.
GOD.
I AM.
I AM BECOMING.
Near us.
Within us.
Yet…
Not us.
Entirely, “Other.”
This is what God ‘looks’ like!
Yet, even this is not quite right. Is it?
We tend to see God by way of negation.
God is not there.God is not present with “Them.”
God is not, cannot be, this or that.
I call bullshit on that.
God is not a negation; a non-presence. God is a lively, vital Presence! God is a resounding YES! It may be said that God penetrates into the very essence of the Universe and reaches beyond both time and space.
That, my friends, is entirely Inclusive.
Make no mistake, I think that there is definitely a difference between God and Not God; Creator and created; Divine and Non-Divine. Yet, they cannot be separated.
I have no idea how any of this works. So, please don’t ask. I’m not God; not Divine. I’m just a clump of dust that somehow contains the essence of the Divine. A spark of that live-giving energy that resides within molded clay.
May I be a clay lamp rather than a clay pot.

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Let It Be So, Now

Published by mhelbert on July 31, 2018

The first time that the writer of Matthew noted the actual words of Jesus was when Jesus traveled to the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin, John. Why this time and this event I’m not sure. Why didn’t the writer have anything to say about Jesus’ younger days? But, except for Luke and his record of Jesus as a 12 year old, the Canon is silent.

John had been baptizing people who came from all over Palestine. He was apparently a simple man. His clothing was common and the food he ate was what he could gather from nature. Even the message that he preached to those seeking baptism was simple, “Repent! For the Kingdom of God has come near!” He freely baptized anyone who came and confessed whatever sins they may have committed. And, John was not afraid to get right up in the face of people who thought that they were oh so pure. He was more than happy to help them ‘discover’ the error of their ways.

Into this strolled Jesus.

He walked down to be baptized. John tried to deflect him by saying, “Whoa! I’m the one who should be baptized by You! Yet, you came to me?” John recognized something about Jesus that apparently no one else did. To John, Jesus was the master and he the student. Masters didn’t do things like this. So, naturally, John “tried to hold him back.”
It’s kind of ironic that John, acting as the lesser of the two, made a presumption about Jesus and tried to enforce it. He recognized Jesus as Master, and then told him, “No! You can’t do that!” Imagine saying No to your boss!

Jesus didn’t respond by saying, “John, John…you simple man. You have no clue what you’re saying. Don’t you realize who I am? Now, stop talking nonsense and do your job.”

Instead, Jesus simply said, “Let it be so now. For this way is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness”.

I can see a smile on Jesus’ face when he said this. In a way he said, “Yeah, I know. But, there’s something going on here that’s bigger than both of us. So, John, please do this.” He did not simply dismiss John and his concerns.  In fact, he honored John’s inclusion, “For this way is proper for US…” Jesus, Son of God and all, demurred and humbly asked his cousin to render this service to him.

So, I learned that God has a streak of humility. God doesn’t seem to need to strut into a situation and throw the Divine reputation around. “Hi. I’m God. And, you’re not.”

No, Jesus showed that he needed others in order to fulfill his calling.

What about the rest of what Jesus said? What’s all that about ‘fulfilling all righteousness?

I found at least EIGHT different ways to understand this statement. The text itself only contains 8 Greek words. Yet we have at least that many ways to explain them! (For those who think that a ‘simple’ reading of the Bible is the best way? It’s not!)

One of the reasons states that this baptism was an act that needed to be performed. Jesus was, in effect, checking an item off of his Messiah ‘To Do’ list. But, there’s not a lot of evidence to back that up.

Another was that, like the folks over at the Qumran community, he was performing a ritual cleansing. But, if Jesus was Divine, this was an unnecessary formality. The early Church recognized the doctrine of Jesus’ sinless nature. So, what was he being cleansed of?

There was only one reason out of all the ones I found that seems to fit. It fits Jesus’ humility shown to John as well as his humility to God the Father. It also fits what we may assume was Jesus’ perception of his role as Son.

He was somehow aware of what the Father desired and knew that this was simply the right thing to do.

Jesus acted on a gut feeling that God desired him to go to his cousin, yeah the weird one, and allow his cousin to baptize him.

How much of this act did in fact have some basis in Jewish custom and ritual? Don’t know; don’t care. It’s not important.

What is important, and I think the point here, was that Jesus desired to please God.

So, Mike’s paraphrase of this verse would be something like, “Please, John, do this for me. It’s the right thing for me to do to please God at this time.”

What does any of this have to do with my question, “Who are you God…Really?”

I think that there are a few things here that I can learn.

1) God can be pleased. Or, better, we can do things that make God smile.
2) Jesus revealed sensitivity to both God and John. God must also be sensitive to what we think and say.
3) Jesus was humble. He chose to honor his cousin. He didn’t use the “God card.” He chose to John in this simple act of pleasing the Father.
4) Some things may not be morally or theologically right or wrong. Would Jesus have been less than divine if he hadn’t gone to John? No, I don’t think so. But, for him, doing the right thing was, well, the right thing to do.

One thing that was not mentioned here was that God somehow “led” Jesus to be baptized. I just finished a book by Richard Stearns who has been the CEO of World Vision for the last several years. In this book Stearns wrote again and again how God led him to become CEO. He shared examples of what he understood to be supernatural interventions that guided him from a lucrative position in business to become the head of an international aid agency. But, behind all of that, he wrote about his and his wife’s own passion to be involved in cross cultural missions. They had been involved in various missions’ conferences and had read literature about missionaries and the work that they did. But, his education and vocation didn’t seem to fit. Eventually, he said that he could no longer ignore the ‘signs.’ God was, in effect, forcing his hand. I don’t believe that God’s in that kind of business. Yes, I think that we are each capable of seeing various routes to take and what the various outcomes may be. That is where we discern what may be the best path for us. We may know what would be pleasing to God. But, ultimately it’s up to us to make the choice. Or not. God doesn’t coerce a decision one way or another. God doesn’t stack the deck for us to make one decision over another. We are co-workers with God in redemption. There’s a big world out there with lots of need. God simply asks us what we are going to do. The decision is ultimately ours. Just as Jesus’ decision to be baptized by John was his own.

And, it pleased the Father.

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A Confession

Published by mhelbert on April 12, 2018

Before I publish the last part of my series on the rapture, I must confess something.

No, nothing like that! Get your mind out of the gutter!

No, this is a confession about being torn.

Last week I shared on Facebook that I was having difficulty finishing this series. I wrote that I didn’t want to be mean. I even posted a video from Buckaroo Bonzai about not being mean.

Consequently, during my quiet time with God I sat with my doubts and concerns about this. How can I present a view that is opposed to one that is popularly held without being mean? This is what I wrote in my journal…

I’m still torn. So much of American Protestantism is built on lies. The lies are not stable. They cannot stand. Yet, people cling to them and build towers on them. These people are secure in the lies. The lies are like old friends. They are comforting. They are familiar.

They are lies.

The lies must be destroyed. The buildings and structures built upon them will fail and collapse. People will get hurt. Or, worse.

Some will survive the crash. These will flounder around like fish on the beach. They will try to grasp anything that appears secure. Anything to save themselves.

So, therein lies my dilemma.

The lies need to die.

But, how to kill them without killing the people?

It would be easy if the lies caused real pain and discomfort, like a bad tooth. Then the lies could be removed, like a tooth, and comfort would be restored.

But, the lies are comforting.

There is security in the lies.

There is prosperity in the lies.

Destroying them will be painful.

I don’t want to be vindictive toward those who protect and defend the lies.

Besides, who am I to decide what a lie even is?

Am I not committing the Sin of Certainty?

Yet, that too, is a lie.

There is no Certainty.

Not for us, anyway.

Maybe for God.

No, my dilemma grows.

So I cry out, “Avi! People are being crushed and killed by the Lies! Can we not rescue them without destroying the foundations of their lives?”

Avi replied, “If the foundation is a lie, how can truth be built upon it?”

 

So, I write. I dig. I confront. I can do nothing else.

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Spiritual Discipline, or Disciplined Spirit?

Published by mhelbert on June 14, 2017

I recently read a devotional written by Christian philosopher Dallas Willard. I’ve read Willard’s other works on Christian prayer and have found it to be insightful and quite helpful. The excerpt that I read was from a collection of devotional readings produced by Richard Foster entitled, “Devotional Classics.” This particular reading was taken from Willard’s, “The Spirit of the Disciplines.” While I appreciate where he is coming from, I have some reservations. For those Pentecostal type folks out there, I had a ‘check in my spirit.’

I wondered why those feelings were present. It was a simple reading. No big doctrinal discussion. Something to contemplate. Then it hit me. The term ‘disciple’ smacked me upside the head. Why, though? That word is used throughout the New Testament to describe the followers of Jesus. Hey! I’m one of those! Then I realized what triggered me. Willard coupled the word ‘disciple’ with the word ‘obedience.’

Now, many in the Evangelical traditions may ask, “So what? Disciples are obedient to there Master.” Nothing out of the ordinary with that. That’s true. Regardless of the tradition, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, fill in the blank, disciples follow a Master. Christians are followers of their Master, Christ. Or, so the saying goes. The last time I checked Jesus was nowhere to be found. At least not so we can see Him on T.V., or something. And that presents a problem. Who decides what Jesus would say or do in the 21st century?

Back in the early 1970’s I was part of what has become known as the ‘Jesus Movement.’ We were for all intents and purposes a rag-tag bunch of hippies who professed faith in Christ. I believe to this day that God was active during this period. It was exciting! We thought that we had somehow been called by God to reclaim and rebuild the original spirit of the Church that existed in the 1st century. We believed that what had happened in the book of Acts was happening again in our time.

We gathered together to worship and sing and hear brothers teach about the scriptures. Some of us moved into common households so that we could ‘hold all things in common.’ There were a few men who assumed positions of leadership. We believed that they were anointed in the same way that Timothy and Titus and the elders of the early church had been. And, we were taught that we were to be obedient to these men as ‘unto God.’

Now, I want to make it clear that there was no subterfuge involved. We, all of us, were truly trying our best to follow the words of the Bible as faithfully as we could. The only thing was, we were NOT the Church of the first century. We were not wrestling with what it meant to follow a dead Messiah in a pagan culture. We had 2,000 years of developed theology to follow. And, we lived in a culture unlike anything that the first church would have understood. Basically, we were privileged white kids trying to emulate a movement that began as an oppressed minority.

To return to the devotional, we were taught that discipleship has as its root the idea of ‘discipline.’ Physical, spiritual, and emotional discipline. We began to see the Bible as a User’s Manual. It had all of the answers on how to live a vibrant and successful life. That is, if one would follow all of the rules faithfully. And, the elders were there to make sure that we did follow them. In effect, we became disciples of those elders, who we trusted were disciples of Christ.

Alas, experience has taught me something else entirely. The Christian Bible is a collection of writings by many, many people from many, many different time periods. It has inconsistencies and contradictions and holes in it. For instance, there’s nothing in the Bible about water on Mars. The fact that our Sun is actually a star somehow got past the Biblical writers. What to do about global climate change isn’t addressed. Shoot! Global climate change itself missed the writers’ cut. The fact is that the Christian Bible does not, it CANNOT, have all of the answers for people to live vibrant and successful lives. And, it truly was never meant to fill that role.

So what? What does any of this have to do with my devotional? Willard made the statement that obedience, by  itself, was sufficient for a person to live the so-called ‘abundant life’ promised in the Gospel of John. In a way, that may be accurate. But, because of the manner in which it is taught to so many poor, unsuspecting people, it is not. In so many fundagelical churches people are taught that they must grit their teeth and press forward in order to reap the benefits of discipleship. They even have a saying, “Fake it til you make it.” Pretty cool, huh? No! It’s not. This is another link in a long chain that binds people. They try. They fail. So, they try again. They fail…again. All the time feeling inept, unloved, strange, or an anomaly. After all, didn’t their spiritual elders tell them that this would work? But, it didn’t. They think, ‘It must be my fault, my lack…my sin.’ So, the link is forged. From my perspective the link is forged in the fires of Hell.

The Psalmist wrote, “Be still and know that I am God.” I think that is pretty good advice. Truthfully, until we can rest and be still we cannot be transformed. No amount of sweat and grit will suffice. We can batter and bruise our bodies. Yet, we will still be lacking. In more than one place the writers of Scripture mention a ‘still small voice,’ or that God isn’t in the tempest and flame, but in the gentle breeze.

As I have walked, (maybe, crawled is a better word), along this spiritual path, I’ve found that the more I work and strive, the less I progress. It has only been in the last 6-10 years that I have learned that the Spirit of God doesn’t need our outward help. The Spirit needs us to shut up and listen. In the quietude of silent contemplation the Spirit, Ruach Elohim, chips and sands and refinishes. It is ALL grace and ALL God!

Perhaps, the most important insight for me is that I no longer have the shame and guilt that comes from FAILING to keep all of the rules. There truly is ‘no condemnation’ in following this path.

Please, if you’ve been troubled or weighed down by trying to follow all of those damnable rules; trying to force obedience; faking it hoping that you’ll make it; Take heart! Sit back! Relax! And, turn your heart toward the true lover of your soul. You’ll not be disappointed.

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