Meditation for me has always been tough. To sit quietly and to focus is not really one of my strengths. But when it comes down to it, I dont do it because I find other things as more important. Mediation can be defined as "the ability to hear God's voice and obey his word." I am quite positive that I have never heard the actual voice of God and I sometimes doubt people when they come to me saying they have. But as Foster says "God spoke to them not because they had special abilities but because they were willing to listen."
I talk about listening to God often. The problem with this is that I am talking about it, and when I am talking I am not listening. So this is a much needed discipline that I need. When Dietrich Bonhoeffer was asked why he meditated, he replied, "Because I am a Christian."
So how do we meditate? Why do we meditate?
Most people have the view of meditation as and "attempt to empty the mind, Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind." Rather than just detaching yourself from the world and your problems, what is needed is to have a richer attachment to God.
You are not going to be able to master meditation on your first attempt. This is why it is a discipline. It takes effort.
Mediation on scripture is a great place to start. Bonhoeffer recommended meditating on a text for a whole week. This allows it to take root in you. Remember we are "active participants" in the Word of God. He will be there to teach, heal and forgive along the way.
Dwell on the word and then go obey it.
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Celebration of Discipline- Ch 1
I have decided to read Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. I read it back in college, but I am a completely different person than I was. So this summer I am going to try to read a chapter a week and post thoughts about that chapter, as a form of discipline.
---Foster says "instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem." Instant satisfaction is the enemy of discipline. If I want to be disciplined with what I eat but I see a cookie and eat it because it looked good and I wanted to have it, then I am not being disciplined. I had a goal of being disciplined but I fell short to be instantly satisfied. There is nothing wrong with the cookie or even eating the cookie if I have set it in the parameters of my discipline.
---Foster adds that "disciplines are best exercised in the midst of our relationships." This can be worked through in our family, in our jobs, with friends and neighbors. We behave like we are busy and many of us are. But we make ourselves busy with what we want and shrug off the things we do not. Honestly I do not think we are that busy, we are just not disciplined.
---"Joy is the keynote of all Disciplines." Practice it, it does not mean that you cannot be real about what is going on but Joy is a result of what is going on in the inside when you experience the love of Christ. No matter what is going on their can be some joy. Joy does not have to always produce a smile. It allows you to hold onto what is important.
---"Spiritual Disciplines are not hard... All we need to do is long for God." If we do this it will come. It might not be easy at first but as you keep going and it becomes a part of you God begins to change you.
---"We do not know how to go about exploring the inward life." If this sound like you, you are not alone. Where do we start? W are called to fast, pray, worship, and celebrate. But how often do we live this out. Disciplines are meant to be personal but not always private.
---"the inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics for coming into the reality of the spiritual life."
---"Our ordinary method of dealing with ingrained sin is to launch a frontal attack. We rely on our willpower and determination." Yet this is usually on our own struggle. If we achieve it than pride sets in, but if not we go back to frustration and maybe depression. This should not lead us to "will worship" as Foster calls it.
--- Foster says we can fight this "will worship" with "disciplined grace." We all know that grace is free, but disciplined grace is the idea that there is still something for us to do. Now we still do not earn grace but we can aline ourselves to receive grace more often. Disciplined grace "places us where the change can occur." We must continue to fight by placing ourselves on the right course, choosing the better option, the more we choose this path the more grace comes into our lives. We do not only receive grace after we sin. But grace comes to us through communion, fellowship, baptism, fasting, being in God's Word, etc.
--- "Spiritual Discipline are intended for our good... but law bound disciplines breathe death." We do not always need to control. We dont always need to put our "discipline" on display. We do not need to put the burden of our chosen discipline or conviction as one that everyone must fulfill.
---Leo Tolstoy "Everyone thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself."
So this summer this is what I will be trying to do. Join me if you like in reading through this great book, choose another, Take on a fast of some sort. Whatever it is, do something.
---Foster says "instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem." Instant satisfaction is the enemy of discipline. If I want to be disciplined with what I eat but I see a cookie and eat it because it looked good and I wanted to have it, then I am not being disciplined. I had a goal of being disciplined but I fell short to be instantly satisfied. There is nothing wrong with the cookie or even eating the cookie if I have set it in the parameters of my discipline.
---Foster adds that "disciplines are best exercised in the midst of our relationships." This can be worked through in our family, in our jobs, with friends and neighbors. We behave like we are busy and many of us are. But we make ourselves busy with what we want and shrug off the things we do not. Honestly I do not think we are that busy, we are just not disciplined.
---"Joy is the keynote of all Disciplines." Practice it, it does not mean that you cannot be real about what is going on but Joy is a result of what is going on in the inside when you experience the love of Christ. No matter what is going on their can be some joy. Joy does not have to always produce a smile. It allows you to hold onto what is important.
---"Spiritual Disciplines are not hard... All we need to do is long for God." If we do this it will come. It might not be easy at first but as you keep going and it becomes a part of you God begins to change you.
---"We do not know how to go about exploring the inward life." If this sound like you, you are not alone. Where do we start? W are called to fast, pray, worship, and celebrate. But how often do we live this out. Disciplines are meant to be personal but not always private.
---"the inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics for coming into the reality of the spiritual life."
---"Our ordinary method of dealing with ingrained sin is to launch a frontal attack. We rely on our willpower and determination." Yet this is usually on our own struggle. If we achieve it than pride sets in, but if not we go back to frustration and maybe depression. This should not lead us to "will worship" as Foster calls it.
--- Foster says we can fight this "will worship" with "disciplined grace." We all know that grace is free, but disciplined grace is the idea that there is still something for us to do. Now we still do not earn grace but we can aline ourselves to receive grace more often. Disciplined grace "places us where the change can occur." We must continue to fight by placing ourselves on the right course, choosing the better option, the more we choose this path the more grace comes into our lives. We do not only receive grace after we sin. But grace comes to us through communion, fellowship, baptism, fasting, being in God's Word, etc.
--- "Spiritual Discipline are intended for our good... but law bound disciplines breathe death." We do not always need to control. We dont always need to put our "discipline" on display. We do not need to put the burden of our chosen discipline or conviction as one that everyone must fulfill.
---Leo Tolstoy "Everyone thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself."
So this summer this is what I will be trying to do. Join me if you like in reading through this great book, choose another, Take on a fast of some sort. Whatever it is, do something.
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