Discipline(s)
Beliefs are important,
but they are just the very, very start.
Discipline is one of the keys to transformation,
and unlike many things, it is largely under our control.
(An earlier version of this essay was posted on May 3, 2020 on the Profound Living Facebook Page.)
It is the first Sunday in May, 2020. It is beautiful outside. The Earth, as Christine Valters Paintner has written, is "our original monastery".
I won't be inside a church building this morning, as the Cathedral of the Rockies continues to honor safety, recognizing that the church is NOT a building. But I wish that I could be.
I love to go to worship at church. I rarely miss it without a good reason. I enjoy it, I like being around the people who also choose to be there, I'm touched by music. The message always reminds me and helps know how to be and to become a better person every day. This is a "thin place" where I know I will experience the intimacy of the divine.
Worship is one of the "spiritual disciplines" Richard J. Foster (Celebration of Discipline) has written about. Like all disciplines in any arena they are meant, over time, to develop our skills and abilities and the kind of people we are. They are meant to transform us over time. Without working on disciplines, again in any arena, beliefs are just words. I might believe that one of the popular diets will be helpful, but if I don't follow the diet, saying it's a great diet means nothing.
Beliefs are important, but they are just the very, very start.
Without working on something - being a better reader, learning how to fix cars, quilting, anything really - we really can't expect to be anything but all talk and no walk. And that's more typical than we might like to admit.
Foster says, "Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people" (Foster, p. 1).
Discipline is one of the keys to transformation, and unlike many things, it is largely under our control. If one wants to be able to play the guitar or piano, one pretty much has to practice. And we can choose to do that or not to do that.
If one wants to "imitate Christ" (see Thomas a Kempis), that is to become more Christ-like, it takes work. Dallas Willard, in The Spirit of the Disciplines, says "My central claim is that we can become like Christ by doing one thing--by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself" (Willard, p. ix).
"What activities did Jesus practice? Such things as solitude and silence, prayer, simple and sacrificial living, intense study and meditation upon God's Word and God's ways, and service to others" (Willard, p. ix).
What are those practices? Most of them are pretty much common - carried out differently, of course - in all the faith traditions. Foster lists the "Inward Disciplines" - meditation, prayer, fasting, and study; the "Outward Disciplines" - simplicity, solitude, submission, and service; and the "Corporate Disciplines" - confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.
Willard lists them in a different way: The Disciplines of Abstinence - solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, and sacrifice; and the Disciplines of Engagement - study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, and submission.
What is common to all of these, and what should keep people - I know it does me - humble, is that like all "practices" one never arrives. There is always room for improvement. For someone like me, who is just a baby learner in all of these, I know that so many people have dedicated their lives to these ways of living, and who still keep practicing, learning, working to improve. These folks are the loving, charitable, humble, forgiving people who have worked at this over time and are such wonderful role models.
So, improve what? "The Spirit of the Disciplines is nothing but the love of Jesus, with its resolve to be like him whom we love" (Willard, p. xii).
This is true transformation. What does it mean to "be like him whom we love"? Well, it might be to be more loving, for starters. Right? You can go down the list what being like - following - Jesus would mean.
G. K. Chesterton said "Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried" (quoted in Willard, p.1). One only has to see religious wars, Christians treating others like, well, nothing or worse, to see that this whole idea of trying has a ways to go.
And perhaps that's because it's work, to practice. To develop oneself. It's the work of a lifetime.
It takes, Willard says, exercise. "A baseball player who expects to excel in the game without adequate exercise of his body is no more ridiculous than the Christian who hopes to be able to act in the manner of Christ when put to the test without the appropriate exercise in godly living" (pp. 4-5).
If a person wants to be a sharpshooter, they practice shooting. If one wants to be a writer, they practice writing. If a person wants to be Christlike, to transform their very selves over time, they practice that too.
That's why I need to go to church every week I can, even if it's with earphones on, in my backyard, watching my iPad. I need all the practice I can get.
I'll sing along too, but not loud enough that the neighbors are likely to hear. Unless the hymn, that is, is something like "The Old Rugged Cross" or "Church In The Wildwood" ("...and we will come, come, come, come, come to the church in the wildwood...")
Peace and blessings fellow travelers.
References
à Kempis, T. (2013). The Imitation of Christ (R. Challoner, Trans.). Tan Books & Pub.
Foster, R. J. (1998). Celebration of discipline: the path to spiritual growth (20th anniversary ed.). HarperSanFrancisco.
Paintner, C. V. (2020). Earth, our original monastery: cultivating wonder and gratitude through intimacy with nature. Sorin Books.
Willard, D. (1990). The spirit of the disciplines: understanding how God changes lives. HarperSanFrancisco. Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/hc043/90038981.html
Also See Cathedral Of The Rockies
"Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people"
~Richard Foster
Celebration of discipline: the path to spiritual growth, p. 1
