I’ve been able to watch a bit of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics this week. It is always amazing to watch the world’s top athletes perform. The training programs these athletes undergo for just a few minutes of Olympic competition is inspiring.
As an Olympic athlete trains for the games, Paul instructions us to train for godliness: “Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7-8).
Training makes it possible for us to do things that would otherwise have been impossible.
What would a training program for godliness look like?
We would practice focus—removing those things that distract from our goal.
These are disciplines of abstinence like fasting, silence, solitude, simplicity, and rest.
We would practice action—adding things to our lives that help us reach our goal.
There are disciplines of growth like worship, bible study, journaling, confession, prayer
We would join a team—working together with others who bring out the best in us.
These are disciplines of community like hospitality, authenticity, encouragement, and submission.
We would find a coach—a wise mentor who can lead us toward the goal.
This is the discipline of spiritual direction through a pastor, counselor, mentor, or friend.
We would train for a purpose—eventually an athlete must enter the competition.
These are disciplines of mission like forgiveness, praying for others, working for justice, giving, serving, and proclaiming the good news in word and deed.
What about your training? Which of these disciplines have been helpful? What would you add to the program?
"My God, here I am all devoted to Thee. Lord, make me according to Thy heart."
— Brother Lawrence
I recently attended the Summer Institute of Campus Ministry (SICM) on Whidbey Island north of Seattle. I always love my time spent with others in campus ministry. My heart is encouraged and my ministry strengthened whenever I gather with these friends.
Whidbey Island is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. Look in any direction; you have a view of both ocean and mountains. Amazing! It is a perfect location to do soul work: beautiful, peaceful, great coffee.
During SICM I was reminded of the importance of creating space for both life and ministry. We live in a world where our lives easily become filled with to-dos and worries. In the midst of our busy schedules we must learn to create space.
Create Space for God
Have you ever attended a conference where you are repeatedly told about the importance of creating space for God in your life as you are herded from one session to the next? SICM takes a very different approach, balancing deep content sessions with space to reflect and connect with God. We were not merely reminded of the importance of creating space for God in our lives; we practiced what this looks like.
Practicing Sabbath is one way we can each create space for God in our busyness. There needs to be a rhythm to our lives that includes both work and Sabbath rest, reflection, and recreation (re-creation).
Create Space for Friends
Have you ever attended a conference where the people sitting next to you have as much of value to say as the people leading the conference? Too often, though, there is limited time to hear from your fellow attendees. SICM takes a different approach. Yes, there are nationally recognized authors/speakers who share, but the heart of the institute comes from large segments of time when the attendees converse and share with one another. This happens in discussions as part of scheduled sessions, at lengthy meals, on ferry rides, and in browsing used book stores.
We were not created to do life or ministry alone. We need to share ministry in relationship with those who understand what we do and why we do it. In the sharing of these relationships we challenge one another to grow as people and as people in ministry.
Create Space for Beauty
Whidbey Island is one of the most beautiful places I have every visited. It is often described as a liminal or between place—a place where heaven and earth meet. Of course, Jesus tells us that the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom is happening everywhere. But the amazing beauty of Whidbey Island makes it an easy place to connect with God.
I had an interesting lunch conversation with Keith Anderson and Bob Henry about the role of beauty in our lives. Our ability to appreciate beauty is one of the marks that set us apart from the rest of creation and grows out of our creation in the image of God.
A few days on Whidbey Island are a great reminder of the need to create space for beauty in our own lives. Where are the places of beauty that you take in where you live?
Create Space for Catastrophe
During dinner at Keith Anderson’s house, Bill Fisher reminded us that we must leave room for catastrophe in our ministry. As ministers, when a catastrophe occurs among our community we will be the ones called on to respond. We need to make sure that there is space in our schedule as well as our spiritual and emotional lives to be able to respond to catastrophe when it occurs.
This reminds me of a passage in The Contemplative Pastor
where Eugene Peterson compares the life of ministry to the life of the harpooner in Moby Dick.
In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, there is a turbulent scene in which a whaleboat scuds across a frothing ocean in pursuit of the great, white whale, Moby Dick. The sailors are laboring fiercely, every muscle taut, all attention and energy concentrated on the task. The cosmic conflict between good and evil is joined; chaotic sea and demonic sea monster verses the morally outraged man, Captain Ahab. In this boat, however, there is one man who does nothing. He doesn’t hold an oar; he doesn’t perspire; he doesn’t shout. He is languid in the crash and the cursing. This man is the harpooner, quiet and poised, waiting. And then this sentence: “To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil.”
Create Space for Unexpected Encounters
While boarding the ferry, Bob and I were discussing the role spiritual retreats can play on our campuses. We noticed two ladies, a couple generations older than us, paying close attention to us. “Did you just say ‘Ignation silent retreats’,” one of them asked. “Why, Yes.”
At this point we had a decision to make. Do we invite these two strangers into our conversation? We invited. They responded. And we had a fascination discussion with two former nuns for the duration of the ferry ride.
We never know when God might show up in an unexpected encounter. Do you have space in your life to engage these encounters when they come?
Journaling has been an important spiritual discpiline in my life. Knowing how this discipline can form the lives of our students, I regularly encourage them to practice the discipline of journaling. I recently received this email testimony about journaling from one of our students and share it here with permission.
Hi Pastor Pat,
Your message about trusting God when you have a cliff in your life really spoke to me. I just began to journal prayers last September…so the beginning of this September. I have a couple cliffs in my life right now. I guess many people would not consider them to be big cliffs….but to me they are very important decisions. I realized after you spoke that I was not trusting God enough to fully place these decisions in his hands. So, I decided that it would be a good idea to review old prayers that I had typed up and look at how many times God has carried me through situations that I have prayed for in the past.
It really amazed me at the number of times that he has carried me through difficult decisions and situations. I counted a MINIMUM of 72 times since last September! And….this doesn’t count all of those nursing tests and assignments—who knows how many times that I have prayed to make it through the semester! :) Or any of the times that I have prayed without journaling which I’m sure provided many more answers to prayer. I did not realize how much God answers prayer! :) Journaling my prayers helped me to see that God is helping me all the time…even in little situations. (Without journaling I just noticed God with big situations in my life, but now I see how much he helps me with little decisions each day!)
In November, I had made this comment in one of my prayers, “I realized from the sermon that I am not trusting enough in your power. I pray that you would take this situation fully into your hands and that you would help me to forget that this situation ever existed! I know that you can do it, all I need to do is let you have the whole situation under your control and take my hands off of it.” A few weeks later, in another prayer, the entire situation was resolved—and not in a way that I was expecting…but it worked out better that way! :) I realized by reading this statement that this is something that I will continuously have to remind myself to do…and right now it is something that I need to do.
So thank you so much for your message on Friday! It is such a good idea to journal! It, honestly, sounded boring when I first heard about doing it…and since I looked back on it after chapel…I am so thankful that I decided to journal down those prayers!
If God helped me through a minimum of 72 little things since September….why would I not trust him to guide me and give me wisdom through a big life decision right now? …..
So, what about you. Have you tried journaling yet?
"Consumer culture is one of the most powerful systems of formation in the contemporary world, arguably more powerful than Christianity. While a Christian may spend an hour per week in church, she may spend twenty-five hours per week watching television, to say nothing of the hours spent on the Internet, listening to the radio, shopping, looking at junk mail and other advertisements. Nearly everywhere we lay our eyes — gas-pump handles, T-shirts, public restroom walls, bank receipts, church bulletins, sports uniforms, and so on — we are confronted by advertising. Such a powerful formative system is not morally neutral: it trains us to see the world in certain ways."
, p.47