Spiritual Discipline: Introduction

"Superficiality is the curse of our age…. 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 spiritual life is first of all a life. It is not merely something to be known and studied, it is to be lived."           

-Thomas Merton, "Thoughts in Solitude"

"Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself."

--Leo Tolstoy

Growing up in the church, often we see that so few "long-time church members" experience the significant life-change expected from many years as students of Jesus. Why do so many of us feel like we just have not grown very much in the likeness of our Master?

The church has placed so much emphasis on making converts and has neglected the process of making disciples. Especially in evangelical circles, works has gotten a bad rap, while workless faith has grown more appealing - "cheap grace" as Bonhoeffer stated it.

This study is an invitation for you to make an intentional effort to cultivate the kind of life in which God can bring change. It is an invitation for you to train yourself in the practices for growing in the likeness of Christ. These practices have historically been referred to as the spiritual disciplines.

Richard Foster, in his classic book, Celebration of Discipline, uses two metaphors to illustrate the purpose of disciplines: a field and a path.

A farmer is helpless to grow grain; all he can do is provide the right conditions for the growing of grain. He tills the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then natural forces of the earth (the forces of life) take over and up comes the grain. This is the way it is with the Spiritual Disciplines--they are a way of cultivating the soul and sowing to the Spirit.

The spiritual disciplines are, "a means of receiving God's grace. …[They] allow us to place ourselves before God so he can transform us."

He goes on to say, that the spiritual disciplines are like a narrow ridge with a sheer drop-off on either side: there is the abyss of trust in works on one side and the abyss of faith without deeds on the other.

On the ridge there is a path, the disciplines of the spiritual life. …We must always remember that the path does not produce change; it only places us where the change can occur.

The task for us, then is to cultivate our daily lives into fertile ground in which God can bring growth and change. This is what the spiritual disciplines are all about.

Dallas Willard defines a discipline as, "any activity within our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort." Specific exercises and continuous effort will, in time, enable me to do what I cannot do now by mere effort.

The application to the spiritual life is not too difficult to understand. If your life-as-usual has not been fertile ground in which God can bring change, then, as Dallas Willard writes, "life-as-usual must go." Your practice of spiritual disciplines will require an alteration of life-as-usual. You will approach your life with these two questions:

1) What am I currently not doing that, if I were doing, would open myself up more to God's work of grace in my life?

2) What am I currently doing that, if eliminated, would open myself up more to God's work of grace in my life?

In the coming lessons, we will examine fourteen specific disciplines that you may make a part of your life; depending on what you are either neglecting or engaged in that is standing between you and spiritual growth.

Before concluding, I would like to explain one danger of the spiritual disciplines and three ways to avoid that danger.

If we approach them incorrectly, the spiritual disciplines meant to bring life may become laws that lead to death. Legalism has a nasty way of creeping in and turning the means of these practices into ends in themselves.

How do we avoid that danger?

1) Constantly remember the purpose of the spiritual disciplines. Recall Foster's image of the path: "the path does not produce change; it only places us where the change can occur."

2) Listen to Jesus. Ask God to point out where you have begun to pursue the disciplines rather than Him, and He will make it known to you. The Holy Spirit, as Jesus said, will guide us in all truth.

3) Remember that change is God's work, not yours. Again, Foster's words are helpful: The spiritual disciplines are, "a means of receiving God's grace. …[They] allow us to place ourselves before God so he can transform us."

In the 1990's, Gatorade ran a long series of commercials that sang the jingle, "I want to be like Mike" (referring to the basketball superstar, Michael Jordan). The student of Jesus Christ must have his or her own jingle, "I want to be like Jesus." In essence, that is what spiritual disciplines are all about.

As an apprentice of the Master, you watch his life, and make it your practice. You listen to his teaching, and apply it in your everyday life. As Dallas Willard puts it, the spiritual disciplines are "simply a matter of following [Jesus] into his own practices, appropriately modified to suit our own condition."

Meditation:

1. The gospels are full of examples of Jesus both teaching and practicing disciplines such as solitude, silence, fasting, worship, prayer, secrecy, simplicity, celebration, fellowship, and service. Read through Matthew and make a note of the examples you find.

2. Richard Foster said, "Superficiality is the curse of our age." John Ortberg said that our greatest enemy in the spiritual life is Hurry. How are hurry (busy-ness) and superficiality related? Are you under the curse of superficiality?