Two Universal Truths 07-31-15

Two things stand out from Nouwen’s observations, two things that are endemic to the human condition. Number one, we all have heart hungers, deep longings that sometimes seem so hard to fill; dissatisfaction with the way things are, a restlessness that sometimes manifests itself in the form of an aching feeling inside.

These are often the hungers that either aren’t acknowledged or seem impossible to fulfill. Some people do not spend much time considering these hungers. Others use many strategies that prove ineffective. Yet these heart hungers are the most significant in terms of life fulfillment and meaning.

Number two, we all face “a mountain of obstacles,” as Nouwen put it, that tend to prevent those heart hungers from being adequately fed. Just admitting or embracing our hungers isn’t enough. Hungers automatically drive toward fulfillment. But all of us encounter obstacles needing to be overcome and dealt with in order for satisfaction to be realized. And that means work, more energy, focus, determination, tenacity; all those traits that take time to develop and insist upon extra energy to be applied.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of the best known aviator in history, Charles Lindbergh, became a well-known author and often spoke to women’s groups. Here’s how she once described this human dilemma: “The problem is not merely one of woman and career, woman and the home, woman and independence. It is more basically how to remain whole in the midst of the distractions of life; how to remain balanced, no matter what centrifugal forces tend to pull one off center; how to remain strong, no matter what shocks come in at the periphery and tend to crack the hub of the wheel.” (Lindbergh, p. 23)

Notice the heart hungers she describes: the hunger to be and to remain whole, to be and remain balanced, to be and remain strong. Those are powerful human longings. They manifest themselves in a variety of ways. And unless they are effectively addressed, those hungers not only go unfulfilled, but they create areas of brokenness, dysfunction, and disease. Consider the high level of addictions in our society, relational fragmentation like divorce, obsession and compulsions, busyness, the “workaholic” syndrome, narcissism, hedonism … and the list goes on. Our inner hungers are powerful.

Notice also how Lindbergh describes the mountain of obstacles that often keep people from feeding those hungers in meaningful ways: the distractions of life, the centrifugal forces that tend to pull us off center, the shocks that come in at the periphery and crack the hub of the wheel. She knew what she was talking about. In 1932, three years after she and Charles were married, their son was kidnapped and murdered. Talk about something that would pull a person off center and knock them off balance. Crisis is often one of those forces that reveal how centered we are, how balanced, how much ballast or inner weight we really have.

But it doesn’t need to be something that big to pull us off center. As Henri Nouwen observed, it can be busyness, loneliness, the many demands of living and trying to survive, like competition at work or in the family, the pressures of deadlines at school, work, or home, finances, physical and emotional exhaustion, screaming and demanding children, teenagers, retirement, our personal need for self-esteem and a sense of value that get battered each day, our sense of personal identity, our drive to be loved or admired and respected.

The point is, we all have these deep needs and hungers. We all face obstacles to getting them sufficiently satisfied, included misdirected and ineffective strategies. So we all experience varying degrees of dissatisfaction, lack of fulfillment and brokenness. It is the human condition.

So what do we do about it? How do we go about dealing meaningfully with our deepest hungers? Do we deny them or feed them? Is life only about survival or also about potential?

Jesus once spoke a simple but profound spiritual reality. He up-ended the traditional religious paradigm with a new perspective: “Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

The Hungers of My Life 07-30-15

What are the hungers of my life and what am I doing about them? Gordon MacDonald tells about a conversation he had with an NFL athlete, a friend of his. The football player was an all-pro pass defender, the best in the business. On a Monday, six days before the team would play against the Dallas Cowboys, the two men were having lunch together.

Gordon asked him, “So how are you going to prepare yourself for the Cowboy pass offense? What’s your schedule going to be this week?”

The player said, “Well, the mornings will all be practice at the stadium. And then I’ll go home to my den and watch game films. I’ll study the Cowboy receivers until I know all of them better than their wives do. I’ll check every movement they make when they come out of the huddles to see if they reveal what sort of play it’s going to be, what pattern they’re going to run, or whether or not they’re going to stay back and block.” “So what about your evenings?” Gordon asked.

“Oh, I’ll keep watching those films straight through until midnight every night.” “Ten hours a day? All week? Nothing else?” Gordon was incredulous.

“Yep!” the player said. “Hey, I want to beat those guys. I want to hit them so hard if they come into my zone that when they’re lying on the ground, they’ll look up to the sky with glassy eyes and pray that there won’t have to be another play in the game! I want to totally dominate their spirits!”

Now that’s what you call passion. The guy is hungry! He wants to win so badly that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get there. One might deny the validity or value of the object of his hunger. But the spirit of it is undeniable; deep, passionate hunger.

The truth is, we all feel hungers inside us that motivate us and drive us to action. Passion is a powerful motivational force. It pushes us to excel in sports, business, academia, arts, relationships and most areas of life. It moves us to go beyond the ordinary and the status quo. Hunger.

When MacDonald saw his NFL friend’s hunger and passion to win something as futile and fading as a simple football game, he was inwardly embarrassed to realize that there really was no part of his life where he could say he was paying a similar price. Not in his family life, not in his work, not even in the part of life that possessed the most significance and value for him.

It’s ironic that so few people stop long enough to acknowledge some of their hungers other than the most pressing problem at the moment. And even when they do, what they do about it is not nearly as deep and all-consuming as that NFL player.

Henri Nouwen, considered by many to be one of the greatest spiritual writers, once described a deep inner hunger in our society that he called “restlessness.” When he returned from an extended stay in Latin America, he observed: “What most strikes me, being back in the United States, is the full force of restlessness, the loneliness, and the tension that holds so many people. The conversations I had today were about spiritual survival. So many of my friends feel overwhelmed by the many demands made on them; few feel the inner peace and joy they so much desire. … There seems to be a mountain of obstacles preventing people from being where their hearts want to be. It is so painful to watch and experience. The astonishing thing is that the battle for survival has become so ‘normal’ that few people really believe that it can be different.” (Nouwen, 2002).   Continued…………….

Exploring Spirituality: Why Would I Want To Be Saved? 07-29-15

So with Salvation being defined in such a variety of ways to deal with such a variety of human needs, who wouldn’t want to be saved? Who among us wouldn’t want to feel more whole, complete and at peace? Who of us wouldn’t want to experience deeper healing in all of the broken areas of our lives? Who of us wouldn’t want to truly feel at home in this world – at home with ourselves, with God, and with others? Who of us wouldn’t want to see the world become a place of greater reconciliation and harmony?

A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, “I’m drawing God.”

The teacher paused and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.” Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, “They will in a minute.”

It’s amazing the kinds of God-pictures people draw. If you were the only artist that could describe God to the world, what would the world think about God from your drawing? That’s a sobering thought, isn’t it?

No wonder God has provided so many different metaphors and stories of salvation. He wants the world to see what God’s kind of life is all about; what the problem is and what the solution is. Applying the right solution to the right problem is significant, otherwise something gets lost in the translation.

As we’ve seen, there’s so much more to salvation than simply trying to keep from sinning so we can make it to heaven in the end. That picture people have drawn is not complete. There’s more to it, for our sake and for God’s.

Salvation and Human Response— The Temple 07-28-15:

Three biblical stories or narratives provide overarching paradigms for the whole concept of salvation. And those stories suggest some significant ways for human involvement and response.

The Temple: And the third biblical story of salvation centers in the Jewish Temple where animal sacrifices were offered regularly to atone for sins. This story images the human problem as sin and impurity and the corresponding guilt. This story is centered in an institution, the temple in Jerusalem as the place of sacrifice. Sacrifices were offered because sin and impurity prevented entrance into the presence of the holy God.

This story of salvation addresses our profound sense of being stained and soiled, of being sinful and unworthy, of feeling guilty and unacceptable because of our failures and wrong behaviors that hurt ourselves and others. So the power of this salvation solution is in the story of being cleansed, forgiven, accepted, and reconciled with God, ourselves, and others.

The New Testament Jesus is presented as both the sacrificial lamb and the priest who offers the lamb. His death as the “once for all” sacrifice for sin replaces the temple and temple sacrifices. Jesus comes to tell the story about forgiveness and acceptance. Salvation is about freedom from the guilt of sin and the power of sin. Jesus’ death and resurrection point the way to a profound release of divine energy that both cleanses the guilty conscience and empowers a new and transformed way of thinking and living.  The human response in this salvation story is significant, as well. It’s one thing to be given a gift of freedom; the prison cell doors are thrown open, providing a new life of freedom and liberation. But it’s another thing to sit in the cell refusing to leave. Freedom can only be accessed by accepting it, by walking out of the cell into the light and choosing to live in the light.

Reconciliation with ourselves, God and others can only be experienced in its completeness and greatest meaning if it’s accepted and lived into. The emotional burden of guilt can only be lifted if we accept its eradication and believe it’s been taken away. Accepting forgiveness is the only way to live beyond the sense of unworthiness caused by our mistakes and failures. People can tell you they’ve truly forgiven you, God can assure you that you’re truly forgiven for your worst and “baddest” sins, but none of those declarations mean anything for you personally unless you willingly accept it, embrace it and live into it. Salvation is the work of God. Yes. And yet we must respond to it to enjoy it in all its multicolored dimensions.

Salvation and Human Response— The Exile 07-27-15:

Three biblical stories or narratives provide overarching paradigms for the whole concept of salvation. And those stories suggest some significant ways for human involvement and response.

The Exile: The second biblical story of salvation is the story of Jewish exile in the foreign empire of Babylon. This images the human problem as exile, living under an alien empire, a separation from our homeland and a longing for home. It’s marked by yearning, grief, loneliness, anger and

despair. Psychologically and spiritually, exile is a condition of alienation, a sense of being cut off from a center of meaning and energy, even the sense of being separated from God and others. We live in fragmentation and isolation.

The solution—salvation—is a journey of return, one that God both invites and energizes. This story of salvation is a story of reconciliation, reconnection with the highest Value and deepest Meaning in life. It’s about the ending of estrangement and the new beginning of relationship, whether with God or significant others or our place in the world of human family.

Here, too, the New Testament Jesus is introduced as the Way out of exile. The story of his death, burial and resurrection both symbolizes and embodies the way of return and reconciliation. It’s the story of homecoming. Salvation, in this metaphor, is homecoming, coming back to our true selves in the midst of alien places and people claiming to give us our identity, coming back to a personal peace with God, and coming back to experience others as Home again, a place we had run from out of fear, hurt, discouragement, distraction, a false sense of satisfaction.

In this salvation story of release from exile, if the exiles in Babylon had not set foot on their journey of return and had chosen to remain, they would be there still. Even so, our human response encompassed by this picture of salvation is to turn our faces back Home again and begin the journey of reconciliation and restoration. It’s to be willing to accept our true lineage as sons and daughters of God and the human family. It’s to take up our place as people of value and worth and acknowledge that same value in all others. It’s to join with God in bringing peace, harmony and shalom to the world so all living things can return Home and live in reconciliation.

Salvation and Human Response— The Exodus: 07-24-15

Three biblical stories or narratives provide overarching paradigms for the whole concept of salvation. And those stories suggest some significant ways for human involvement and response.

The Exodus: The first is the story of the Jewish exodus from their bondage in Egypt. Our human predicament or problem in this story is shown as bondage and slavery. Though Pharoah was a historical despot in Egypt during those years, Pharoah is also a metaphor for what holds human beings hostage and in bondage, internally and externally. We, too, live in the “land of Egypt”, a place of slavery and bondage marked by hard labor and the sense of being trapped, incapable of personal deliverance and freedom, a position of helplessness and victimization.

Salvation, in this story (the solution to the predicament), is an “exodus,” liberation, a way out of bondage. In the New Testament, Jesus is viewed as the second Moses who comes to deliver people from their bondage in an evil empire, whether personal or social bondage. Jesus is the liberator in our exodus story, the one who has come to set the captives free.

As in the original exodus from Egypt, the human response that encompasses the salvation story is twofold: recognize one’s state of bondage and slavery, one’s need for liberation and deliverance into a life of freedom and wholeness and maturity (symbolized in the original story by God’s goal of taking the people to the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey, a place of abundance and flourishing life); and second, the willingness to accept God’s act of deliverance, the means of liberation and freedom.

In this story metaphor for salvation, the Gospel is about liberation. Salvation is liberation into a life of wholeness, completeness and peace. We recognize our need, the truth about ourselves that we have places of brokenness and bondage that keep us from living in complete freedom. And we willingly accept our journey into deliverance through the means God offers. The point is, without our response (as Alcoholics Anonymous, for example, calls our admitting our need for a power greater than ourselves to free us), we remain in bondage, little or nothing will change in our lives or in the life of the world.

Social Dimensions of Salvation 07-23-15

Ancient Israel’s story is a story of the creation of a new people, a nation, a community. Salvation is about life together. Salvation is about peace and justice within community and beyond a specific community. It is about “shalom” which is a word connoting not simply peace as the absence of war, but peace as the wholeness of a community living together in peace and justice in harmony with God’s dream for the whole world. In the Hebrew Bible, salvation is never only an individual affair.

Significantly, the Christian Scriptures of the New Testament continue that social emphasis relative to salvation. Notice the teachings of Jesus. The Magna Charta of Jesus’ proclamation about God’s Kingdom (the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7) emphasized a higher dimension of communal life motivated by a radical and transforming paradigm, “the kingdom of God is within you.” External behavior isn’t enough. Internal motivations either heal or hurt. Our responsibility to those who suffer (like the poor, the ostracized, the “sinners,” the sick, the guilty, the hungry and homeless, the widows and orphans) is God-given and to be taken as seriously as if we were relating to Jesus Himself. This new kingdom of God is not to manifest the qualities and characteristics of the domination empire; ruling through power, control and fear. It is to exhibit the compassion and unselfish service of Jesus who ended up being killed by the social sin of the domination systems of His day.

The rest of the New Testament describes the creation of new communities “in Christ” whose life together embodied an alternative vision to that of empire. These were inclusive communities centered around the life of Jesus manifested by the sharing of necessities, loving and forgiving, serving, healing brokenness and fragmentation, transcending conventional boundaries of their worlds because of an allegiance to an alternative Lord. As one of the primary leaders of this new community, Paul, would put it: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28, NIV)

Salvation is not simply about saving individuals for heaven. It’s about a new social and personal reality in the midst of this life. It’s about God’s transforming intervention into our worlds of brokenness and bondage, bringing wholeness and reconciliation and peace. It’s about our willingness to be involved in God’s work to restore life wherever it is needed.

Other Salvation Metaphors 07-22-15

Dr. Borg makes this observation: “The language of ‘wholeness’ suggests movement beyond fragmentation, and the language of ‘healing’ suggests being healed of the wounds of existence.”

In other words, the problem is multi-dimensional so the solution must be, too. That’s why Scripture uses many different metaphors to describe the experience of salvation. The point of salvation is to bring resolution to the correlative problems of the human condition. Salvation is the remedy for those deep human needs.

In the Bible, salvation is: light in our darkness, sight to the blind, enlightenment to the ignorant, liberation for the captives, return from exile, healing for infirmities, food and drink for the hungry and thirsty, resurrection for the dead, new birth from an old life, reconciliation for the estranged, and forgiveness for the guilty. That’s quite a list!

All these metaphors are used in Scripture to describe the word “salvation.” And when you look at the comprehensive nature of these descriptions and metaphors for the human condition, no wonder the Bible stories are called the stories of Salvation history, multiple ways God intervenes in the midst of human brokenness, fragmentation and self-absorption in order to bring wholeness, peace and harmony again.

Salvation, put simply, means to be saved from our predicament. And let’s face it, our human predicament involves far more than simply being guilty of doing wrong deeds, of “sinning.” Our lives have multiple layers and nuances to them. We need transformation on multiple levels and in multiple ways. Salvation is a hugely rich and diverse experience. And what’s more, it’s not just personal, it’s also social.

A New Testament Story 07-21-15

Notice how in the following New Testament story both aspects of the word are brought together. The story involves an older woman who had been experiencing bleeding and hemorrhaging for twelve years. She had gone to multiple doctors and consumed all of her finances on treatments that never worked. And to compound her predicament, her religious leaders, according to their beliefs and policy, had declared her spiritually unclean, which meant that she was banned from the synagogue and spiritual community. She could not access those meaningful religious rituals that would give her a sense of God’s acceptance. So not only was she physically debilitated, she was also emotionally, spiritually and relationally hampered, feeling both the judgment of God and community. A sorry case.

Hearing that Jesus of Nazareth, the rabbi who was whispered to be the Messiah, was healing people and was going to be passing by, she determined to at least get close enough to Him to touch His garment. “Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.’ Jesus turned and saw her. ‘Take heart, daughter,’ he said, ‘your faith has healed you.’ And the woman was healed from that moment.” (Matthew 9:20-22, NIV)

Jesus deals with this broken woman on two levels. The word “healed” is used three times and is actually translated in two different ways. In the first instance, the woman wants to touch Jesus’ robe in order to get “healed” physically. In the second instance, when Jesus speaks to her, He says that her faith has “saved” her. And from that moment, says the story, she is “healed” and “saved.” Not only has her body been restored, so has her faith, her psyche and heart. Her physical healing has brought her into reconciliation with herself, with God and with others.

Her need is on three levels: physical health, spiritual health, and relational health. She’s not only broken and incomplete physically, she’s also broken emotionally, spiritually and relationally from a sense of rejection, judgment, failure and unworthiness. She’s in need of wholeness.

So Jesus “heals” her. He heals her body. But He also heals her heart by speaking to her (a woman!) in public, proclaiming her “shameful” problem out loud in front of that same public, and then publicly affirming her faith and new wholeness. Jesus “saves” her. And her life takes on completeness and wholeness and health in new and transforming ways. There’s never any mention of Jesus “saving” her in order to give her confidence in an afterlife. Her “salvation” on this day is all about Jesus giving her a whole new experience of life at that moment and ever after. She has been reconciled and restored. 

Salvation in This Life

The etymology of the word “salvation” (to save) is fascinating. The concept can trace its lineage clear back to the Sanskrit word sarvah. The root, sar, became sal in the Latin languages. So, for example, we have the French word “salut” and the English “salute,” to wish someone good health, as well as the words “salutary” and “salubrious,” promoting health. Later, the word “salvation” became associated with a danger from which one escapes, something that threatens the integrity of a material or physical good.

So already, looking at the roots of the word for “salvation,” we get an expanded perspective beyond simply preparing for the afterlife. It has to do with health and healing and wholeness. It involves deliverance from danger. It suggests the significance of integration and congruity whether physical, emotional, relational or spiritual. That’s why the Greek word (found in the Christian Scriptures) sozo can be translated both “to save” and “to heal.” It clearly denotes the experience of bringing someone into wholeness and greater wellness in every dimension of life.

Why Would I Want To Be Saved? 07-17-15

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human being because even though it is a very large mammal its throat is very small.

The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human being; it was physically impossible.

The little girl said, “When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah.” The teacher asked, “What if Jonah went to hell?” The little girl replied, “Then you ask him.”

Many people grow up with a fairly defined view of life: Do good and you go to heaven, do bad and you go to hell.

So the basic human problem is trying to do good and trying to not do bad. Your outcome is all about how well you do with one or the other. Some simply give up on the exercise and throw away the whole concept.

Perhaps you’ve had the experience of being confronted by a well-meaning Christian with the blunt question, “Are you saved?” The question most often means, “Are you confident that you’ll go to heaven when you die?” The implication is that the most important thing about life now is to concern yourself with the afterlife. Getting saved means securing your future in the next life.

Theologian and scholar Marcus Borg once stated in response to a question following one of his lectures, “If I were to make a list of Christianity’s ten worst contributions to religion, on that list would be popular Christianity’s emphasis on the afterlife.” Not that the after-life is wrong. But that the almost exclusive obsession with it is one-sided and incomplete. (Borg, p. 171)

He said there are three reasons why he made that remark. First, whenever the afterlife is emphasized, the almost invariable result is that it turns spirituality into a religion of requirements. If there is a heaven, it doesn’t seem right that everybody gets to go there regardless, so there must be something that separates those who do get to go from those who don’t, namely, something that we believe or do.

Second, such an exclusive emphasis creates a distinction between an in-group and an out-group: there are those who are saved and those who aren’t. The problem with this over-emphasis is that it too often leads to judgmental and arrogant attitudes on the part of believers, those presumably on the “inside.” The whole point of life becomes convincing people to get inside with you. Nobody outside is good enough or living right. We have what they need and there’s never a give-and-take or sense of mutuality or mutual respect. Everyone needs to be like us. So labels and value judgments are put on people on the “outside.” An “us against them” mentality results.

And third, emphasizing the afterlife focuses our attention on the next world to the exclusion of transformation in this world. Our responsibility to grow and develop ourselves, furthermore make this world a better place goes unnoticed, unprioritized, unimagined or unattended to. The world can go to hell while we get ready for heaven.

None of this critique, says Borg, is to deny the reality of heaven or the afterlife or the importance of it. The point, rather, is to highlight what happens when heaven is made central and when salvation is virtually identified with going to heaven. It becomes a self-centered religion. So what is salvation in its wider context and why would I want to be saved?  Continued………

How Can I Be More Compassionate and Centered? Other Disciplines:

Richard Foster, a contemporary author, has written perhaps the most widely used book on the topic of spiritual disciplines as they relate to deepening the spiritual life, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. In this book he groups spiritual disciplines into three categories: the inward disciplines (meditation, prayer, fasting, study), the outward disciplines (simplicity, solitude, submission, service), and the corporate disciplines (confession, worship, guidance, celebration).

These three categories he refers to as three “movements of the Spirit.” In other words, the disciplines within each movement are tools that provide opportunity for us to experience the divine Spirit flowing with greater ease and power through our lives. These spiritual tools have been used by people to grow bigger hearts, to develop greater compassion in us and a deeper centeredness in the midst of life’s commotion and busyness. When we are willing to make these kinds of disciplines a part of our daily lives, when we are willing to shape the rhythm of our lives around these spiritual activities, we are empowered to shed our superficial habits and “bring the abundance of God into our lives.”

Another profound book that opens up the world of spiritual disciplines is John Ortberg’s The Life You’ve Always Wanted. He adds to the list by talking about the practice of “slowing” (learning how to live an unhurried life), the practice of servanthood (learning the art of appropriate smallness in our egos), the practice of confession (living a life beyond regrets), the practice of secrecy (launching ourselves into a life of freedom from self-centeredness and worrying about what everybody thinks of us), and the experience of suffering (learning a life of endurance in spite of obstacles).

Ortberg describes these spiritual tools as offering a road map for true transformation, compelling because it starts not with simply ourselves but with the object of our journey, God. The whole purpose is to etch into our inner and outer lives the character of the divine life. So it’s not about trying harder, it’s about training smarter, availing ourselves of time-tested tools to spiritual discovery and growth.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the famous 19th century English poet, wrote: “Earth’s crammed with Heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes. The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”

Only those who truly see God wherever they look and wherever they are and whatever they’re doing are the ones who experience God. Thankfully, we aren’t left to our own devices about how to encounter God more meaningfully and completely. We aren’t left alone to simply work harder at something we end up finding impossible. We have tools to grow bigger hearts, tools to widen the river of our lives, tools that empower us to embrace all things whether salty or sweet. Why not use them?

How Can I Be More Compassionate and Centered? Fasting:

In a culture that specializes in over-consumption of every kind, the idea of fasting from anything may carry with it distasteful feelings. Our senses are bombarded every day with messages that tell us we don’t have enough, that we need more (especially the “more” that the advertisers are trying to sell us). Our culture is caught up in consumerism, materialism, hedonism and narcissism, and all the other kinds of “isms” that carry with them having and needing more.

But it’s exactly because of this kind of incessant exposure that fasting takes on spiritual significance. Fasting is the practice of intentionally abstaining from something for a specific period of time and for a specific purpose. There are many different kinds of fasts people have found helpful: food fasts, entertainment fasts (such as fasts from TV and movies or even reading novels), sugar fasts, sexual activity fasts, and the list is endless. The purpose is to give your mind and body a break from something that you typically feel a need for in order to engage in a more intense opportunity for spiritual activities, for spiritual focus.

One of the positive side benefits is the recognition that we are not slaves to our lives. We can not only get along without some things but we can also flourish and grow deeper in some areas of our lives as a result. Fasting helps to restore the belief that we, not our appetites, are in control of our lives. Fasting helps to reinforce the truth that we believe God is the most significant life focus (so we abstain from certain activities to spend time in more specific connection with God). Fasting has been used by almost every major religion as a tool to help purify one’s desires and to increase the experience of contentment.

How Can I Be More Compassionate and Centered? Scripture Reading and Meditation:

Paul, one of the writers of the New Testament, stated this profound spiritual reality: By beholding we become changed. (2 Corinthians 3:18) It is, in fact, rooted in a significant psychological truth: we become what we think. And in his context, he was talking about beholding the glory of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. His point was that as a person spends time looking at the stories of God as revealed by Jesus’ life—the word “beholding” literally means “contemplating upon, reflecting on, thinking about”—that person is changed more and more into the likeness of God. “From one degree of glory to another,” he wrote.

Scripture reading and meditation have always been one of the central spiritual disciplines for transformation. It involves setting aside specific time to open Sacred Scripture and read it, allowing it to sink into the heart and soul, to affect the mind with its words, thoughts, concepts, stories, lessons.

Here are some helpful questions to ask when reading: What does this story, text, thought say to me right now? What is God trying to communicate to me? In what way(s) am I like the person being described in this story or section? What would it feel like to be this person in that place, at that time, and how would I respond in that person’s situation/circumstance? Where am I hearing God’s voice speaking to me in this passage/section/story? What am I learning right now?

Jesus once made the following spiritual observation: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4, KJV) In other words, as much as we need physical food to stay physically alive, so much more do we need spiritual food for our spiritual dimension to have life. Sacred Scripture reading and meditation (listening to the voice of God) help provide that necessary “food.”

How Can I Be More Compassionate and Centered? Spiritual Disciplines (Prayer and Meditation)

Someone once said that spiritual transformation is not a matter of trying harder, but of training smarter (more wisely). In other words, we become more compassionate and centered, not by putting in more and more blood, sweat and tears, but by becoming more intentional and strategic in the activities we engage in. These activities that build the spiritual life, that facilitate life transformation in regards to the divine life, are called spiritual disciplines and have been practiced for centuries by people who take godliness seriously. That’s why the most prolific writer in the New Testament, Paul, encouraged one of his young protégés (Timothy) to “train yourself in godliness.” He said, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

Paul is using an athletic metaphor to talk about the spiritual life. He knows that athletes, to compete well, don’t simply try harder at their sport. They train – they undergo strategic, thoughtful, coached-based training that lasts months and years before the competitive event.

So what are some of those strategic disciplines that empower our spiritual lives and shape our hearts to be more like the divine heart?

Prayer and Meditation: Setting aside intentional time to stop the hustle and bustle of daily activity and move into a quiet, reflective space is crucial to spiritual depth and centering. Prayer is several things: quietness; meditation in which our thoughts and minds are centered on God; reflection on God; listening to the divine spirit that speaks to our hearts and souls; and speaking to God, sharing the depth of our feelings, thoughts, and experiences with God, expressing ourselves to God.

This kind of deliberate, intentional prayer is a significant centering experience. Prayer helps to block out the loud voices and noises that surround us all day long. It facilitates our silence before God so we can hear God’s voice speak to us, prompting us, tugging at our hearts. It centers us in the very love and compassion of God’s heart. It helps to remind us who we are and to whom we belong.

For prayer to be a meaningful and effective discipline, it needs to be scheduled – a specific time and place should be set aside with as few distractions as possible. And it should be regular.

In addition, sometimes spontaneous moments of silence and focused prayer can be engaged in during any point of the day. This practice can also help to concentrate your heart and mind and soul on God and take you to a more centered place.

And there are also extended times of focused prayer that can be helpful to your spiritual depth and transformation: Retreat settings lasting a day or more during which you focus your heart, mind and spirit on God.

One spiritual giant once said, “Even as the moon influences the tides of the sea, even so does prayer influence the tides of godliness.” (C. H. Spurgeon)

Tools for the Heart (pt3)

Active Willingness: If you are like most people, you’ve discovered that it’s not enough to simply desire the divine life, nor is it enough to simply change your thinking about yourself and about the divine life. Your heart cannot grow effectively bigger, your spirituality cannot grow deeper, unless you choose to act out the divine life. There must be active willingness. Action brings life to our desires and thoughts. And in an ever-strengthening cycle, it reinforces them. Without a corresponding change of behavior, our desires and thoughts remain inside us and ultimately fizzle out. So this, too, is a profound tool for the soul and heart.

Here’s how Jesus put it: “I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then obeys me. It is like a person who builds a house on a strong foundation laid upon the underlying rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who listens and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will crumble into a heap of ruins.” (Luke 6:47-49, NLT)

Acting in harmony with the divine life, choosing to walk through life within the Energy and Spirit of God, manifesting the qualities of a godly life, help build the strong foundation that stands firm. It’s one thing to say what we think is important. It’s another thing to live it out. The truth is, we are most strong and fulfilled when we’re living in alignment with our beliefs and values.

So what are some behaviors you can practice acting out that will strengthen and build your desire and thoughts of the divine life? What are actions you can take to deepen your compassion and help you live a more centered, peaceful life? Fortunately, you don’t have to guess. There have been spiritual practices used as regular disciplines to engage the spirit, heart and body more deeply for centuries by people serious about shaping the divine life within their lives.

Tools for the Heart (pt2)

Thoughts: There’s an ancient proverb that says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”  (Proverbs 23:7, KJV) It’s amazing how powerful our thoughts really are. They actually shape our reality. What we often say about ourselves creates the narrative of our lives.

Have you ever sat down and written out all the limiting beliefs you tend to say to yourself from time to time, those self-statements that keep you from trying things or moving forward in your life or keep you paralyzed from action? This is a profound spiritual tool for your heart.

Develop a chart called, “My Beliefs and My Stakes.” In the first column, describe carefully your limiting beliefs. List each one of them with as much detail as you want. What is the statement you tell yourself that keeps you from doing something important in your life? What is a negative belief you have about yourself? Write it down in the first column.

In the middle column write the corresponding empowering belief. Turn the limiting belief around and make it positive. Make sure you are describing the correspondingly accurate, matching, motivating belief, the true flip side of the coin. For example, if your limiting belief is, “No one wants to hear what I have to say,” your empowering belief might be, “What I have to say is valuable and important and worth listening to.”

You will be amazed at how strengthening it is to articulate your empowering belief. Stating it will actually make you feel strong. In fact, affirming, positive statements and thoughts that are true have been scientifically proven to strengthen our body muscles. So state these new empowering beliefs out loud regularly. Make these self-statements, the new thoughts and beliefs about yourself. Make them your new default!

But just new thoughts aren’t enough. In the third column, write down two or three actions you will take that drive the stake of your new empowering belief into the ground, proving to yourself that you’re serious about living out this new belief. Strong living is all about thinking clearly and acting strongly. When our thoughts and actions come into alignment, we are living in integrity and we develop a much higher level of trust in ourselves – and so do others as they react to us. So make sure you fill in this third column boldly, creatively, and intentionally.

There’s a saying in the New Testament that, “God did not give us a spirit of fear and timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7, NCV) The Greek word for “power” here is dunamis from which we get our word “dynamite.” The divine spirit is dynamite power in our lives. It is the opposite of fear, timidity and intimidation. It’s a power that revolves around boldness and courage. God doesn’t want us to disintegrate into our limitations. God wants our lives to explode with creative energy and synergy in connection with Him, the resurrection power that creates life out of death, radical transformation and newness.

And when this divine dunamis is coupled with divine love and redirected energy (“self-control,” the word used for the bit in the horse’s mouth that directs the horse’s flow and energy to where the rider desires; in this case it’s referring to redirecting human energy to correspond to the divine Energy), all things are possible. New life emerges. Confidence and courage spring into reality.

Tools for the Heart (pt 1)

There’s an ancient saying, “What you sow you will reap.” It’s all about cause and effect.  The analogy is from agriculture. The farmer operates by this principle. He plants the grain. He provides the right conditions for the growing of the grain seeds. He cultivates the ground, plants the seeds, waters the plants, fertilizes as necessary, and then the natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain. And in the end, he harvests the plants.

The farmer never enjoys a harvest without first sowing the seeds. And if he sows rice seeds, he gets a rice harvest. If he sows wheat, he gets wheat. He never sows corn and harvests apple trees. What he sows, he reaps.

That’s a profound principle when it comes to spiritual growth and development. We have to take responsibility for sowing the seeds of the qualities we want to see grow and be harvested. If we want more love, we have to “plant” love. If we want peace, we must “plant” peace. As Gandhi famously said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” And then we have to cultivate the conditions most conducive to growing what we truly want to experience and manifest.

Here’s the way one New Testament passage describes this reality: “People harvest only what they plant. If they plant to satisfy their egos and self-centeredness, their egos will bring them ruin. But if they plant to please the Spirit, they will experience the divine eternal life from the Spirit. We must not become tired of doing good. We will receive our harvest of the divine eternal life at the right time if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:7, NCV) Notice this is about our willingness to “step into” the flow of the divine Spirit and Life. If we want to experience the realities of God we need to place ourselves in that environment, in those activities and places that nurture the qualities of God. We grow our hearts bigger by placing our hearts in God. It’s the law of agriculture and spirituality: you reap what you sow.

And even as the farmer uses specialized tools to do his work more effectively, we also have tools that grow our hearts, tools that when used place our hearts in God’s Flow of Life. Let’s look at a few.

Desire: Jesus described a significant tool for the heart: “Whatever is in your heart determines what you say.” (Luke 6:45, NLT) What is the tool? Desire. Passion. Longing. He said it another way, too: “Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.” (Matthew 6:21, NLT)

The point is, the object of our desire, passion and longing (what we truly treasure and value) radically impacts our experience of life. So a very effective spiritual tool is to evaluate our desires. What do you long for often? Where is your deepest passion invested? What would you say your desires during the course of any given day say about you as a person? What you want out of life, what you truly value and think is important? We are wired to follow after our passion, desires and longings. That’s the power of the heart. So if you want a life characterized by depth, compassion, joy, peace—if you want more of these divine qualities in your life—than spend time desiring them. Place your focus on those qualities every day. Think about them. Read stories about people who manifest them. Talk about them. Allow your heart to feel them.

Here’s an interesting idea next time you have the remote control in your hand. If you’re watching a movie and you come to a scene that stimulates in your heart the qualities you desire, rewind that scene and play it again. Watch it carefully. Allow yourself to feel the desire, longing, passion for the divine qualities being manifested. Rewind it again and play it. Watch it. Feel it. Reflect on it. Talk about it with your partner or friend watching with you. Consider doing this throughout the whole movie, spending time focusing on the divine qualities being shown.

The point is, we must redirect our desires, passions, and longings to those qualities we truly want manifested in our lives, those divine characteristics that deepen and grow our hearts. So we have to practice feeling them, exposing ourselves to them, letting our hearts grow into them over and over again.

Perhaps this is why Jesus made the statement, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6) Passion, desire and longing are being affirmed and blessed here. But not just any kind of desire. Jesus says the desire and passion for justice and right are what will be filled and blessed. He specifies the object of desire because he knows that we are wired to follow after what we long for. So make sure you’re longing for the best and the most good in life.

Growing a Bigger Heart

Let’s first unpack this metaphor to suggest some dynamics to growing bigger hearts. One, contrast the containers for water: bowl versus river. Both hold water but the bowl is smaller than the river. Its boundaries limit the amount of water it can hold. And therefore, salt affects the taste more easily in the bowl than in the river. It often seems true that the smaller, more narrow a person’s view and experience of life, the more critical and judgmental that person is, making it quite difficult to embrace change, diversity or difference.

Two, contrast the movement of the water in the two containers. In a bowl, the water is still. In a river, the water is moving. The result is that “salt” is less invasive, less harmful in the river than in the bowl.

When we see life as a journey, a movement, a developmental process, we have more patience with difficulties and difficult people. We are able to cut some slack for ourselves and for others, recognizing that no one is a finished product. We are all still growing and maturing. We are people “under construction.”

Three, moving water in a river can expand the river boundaries because that water has an ever flowing source that keeps the river continually filled and running. Water in a bowl is finite and cannot move the boundaries of the container.

Several principles are implied with this third point from the bowl vs. river metaphor. If we want to grow bigger hearts we must recognize and acknowledge the Source of compassion and peace. The divine source of life flows constantly. God’s presence is everywhere. Our task is to be willing to “step” into that flow and join the current of life. The more we submerge ourselves in God’s presence, the more we expose ourselves to this divine life, the greater our capacity to live the divine life.

For a river to flow full and free, all impediments and potential obstacles must be removed. The reality is that in life there are various obstructions that minimize the impact of God’s presence in our hearts and minds. Just like a human artery gets clogged with plaque which lessens the flow of life-giving blood to the heart and other significant organs, producing a condition called arteriosclerosis or “hardening of the arteries.” The effect can sometimes lead to heart attacks and other severe, potentially life-damaging conditions.

Even so the human heart and mind get plugged or blocked, disrupting the full and free flow of the divine power and life-giving presence into our lives. Egotism and self-centeredness, narcissism, ignorance and delusion, unresolved guilt, paralyzing fear, addictions, distractions; all these tend to minimize the true compassion and inner peace that come from the flow of God’s Spirit.

So what needs to happen? How does one remove these impediments? Are there specific steps and strategies that effectively unblock our hearts and minds so we can experience God’s Life in fullness and wholeness, so we can live with a deep centeredness that remains in a state of peace and contentment regardless of external circumstances?