"Our salvation does not arise out of the murky human depths... Jesus moves into and through those very depths, whatever they contain, to bring us home to God."
-This makes me wonder why I feel like I need to put so much effort into acting well, obsessing over my decision, or striving so much. When in all reality I simply need to surrender my strivings and invite God into my murky depths. Why do I think it is a good idea to keep him out of that? Is my "murk" too dark for him? Do I fear him in there stirring things up? No, I just am reluctant to think he wants any part of that. Silly me, because that is exactly what he wants - access to our mess and murk, because there he can do the most good. This is such a beautiful picture to me, of resting my anxious soul and simply inviting him into my mess - allowing him to swim through all the murk so he can bring me up out of it. I love love this.
"We are thankful for whatever truly helps human beings in their desperate life upon the earth. Nothing else would be compatible with the spirit of Jesus. The constant love of God is extended to every human being who ever lives, sometimes in places and postures that God himself would not prefer, but still with some good effect."
-This is a wonderful reminder to me that God's goodness is everywhere and in anything inherently good. God's grace and active love is not limited to just "Christians" or the church or "spiritual" acts of goodness. Any time that goodness is sewn into the heart of another human, it is God's grace, even in (and perhaps especially in) the unbeliever, the unaware, and in the places we mistakenly think God is not fully present. I was awakened to the reality this year that God had been acting in and through my life before I even knew him. That simple reality - that I could look back on my life before I knew the handprint of God and see how he was loving me - just utterly humbled me and left me unglued with tearful gratitude. For so many years he has loved me and not only did I not acknowledge him, I took credit for his goodness in my life. 'Look at what my wise decisions and caring actions have brought forth in my life!' And that whole time God was just smiling and blessing me and letting me take the credit... Oh, please forgive my blindness, precious Trinity, for every good and perfect gift comes from above and every act of love stems from the heart of God, even in places that God would not prefer (because he has better intentions for us) and not in postures he prefers (because he knows we would so brillianty thrive elsewhere), but still he actively enters every place, uses every icky situation - always present, always forgiving, and always abundantly giving, never demanding or asking for credit, just patiently working and watching to see if we notice. And, oh, when we notice how humble our hearts are to see all the goodness we were so blind to.
And finally, as I delve into this book about intentional spiritual formation, it helps that Dallas Willard begins with the definition of what spiritual formation actually is.
spiritual formation - the process by which the human spirit or will is given a definite "form" or character
It is a process that happens to everyone.
We each become a certain kind of person in the depths of our being, gaining a specific type of character.Every human being has been "spiritually formed" by their life experiences, the decisions they make, and the life they have lived. Essentially we all have a "character" that has formed through conscious and unconscious effects on our spirit (the nonphysical part of our human being). We talk about "character" a lot when we talk to children about making good choices or being a good person. We all have a "character" that is formed and we, as parents and adults, hope and pray that our children are forming "good characters." Everyone has been spiritually formed to have a character though, with a wide range of "good" or "evil" aspects - from Mother Theresa to the serial killer. Dallas Willard's writing dwells on what intentional Christian spiritual formation is.
spiritual formation for the Christian - the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ himself
I am super excited to read more about how I can understand the "character" and the inner world of the incarnate Christ and then use that to intentionally reform or transform (spiritual transformation) the character that has been forming inside my heart for the past 38 1/2 years (today is my half birthday, so that 38 1/2 years is exactly right on). Really my spirit has been forming mostly unconsciously my whole life, as I just make decisions without really "thinking about my thinking." The idea that we find joy and peace and contentment when we are intentional about forming our spirits to God (because we were made in the image of God) simply makes sense because it is the exact fulfilment of what we were created for. God is loving goodness. And he created us to for goodness and love, we were created for beauty - our souls deep inside need it and crave it. So many longings and anxieties and the emptiness we often feel are simply due to the fact that we are not being intentional (or did not know we could be intentional!) about fulfilling the inner cravings for goodness and love that our spirits were created to need. Spiritual formation is really about just easing the tension we feel from our separation from God's love - it is bringing our inner self back to the state it was made in, whether we know it or not, believe it or not, trust it or not.
A few ideas that Dallas Willard throws out there that will be addressed in this book that really intrigue me:
Spiritual formation done by the Spirit of God AND the spiritual riches of Christ's continuing incarnation in his people including... the amazing personalities of those in whom he has most fully lived.
I love the idea that God uses community and the uniqueness of each of us to touch the hearts of each other. We are not all becoming little "Christian robots" that think and act the same, nor should we ever strive for that. How boring and dull that would be! Instead, we are given unique and amazing personalities and God actually wants us to become more fully ourselves, embracing the unique personality we have. As I am "transformed" in my inner character, I get to become more fully and uniquely me, embracing the unique ways my mind and heart were created to function.
The perpetual world revolution through character transformation...
And, again, I love the idea behind this. The world is full of mess and murk and misery. We do not have to look very far to see it. But the world does not need an external clean-up - we do not need someone to come along and paint a smile on each person's face or urge them to strive to "do good." We need heart renovations. We need humans to want to invite God into their murk, so God can transform the yuck. From that all goodness and acts of love will naturally flow. But our job is not to do the cleaning and the striving, nor is it to tell others how to clean and strive, our job is simply to encourage others to sit still and invite God's love into the mess. We love others best when we sit with them in their murky messes and invite God into that together. It is a life of peace and hope, sitting together, holding the hand of the person who is in such despair, whispering that they do not have to strive. Let's all just sit still, stop striving, and invite God to full access of the character messes that have formed inside of our broken hearts. Let's stop trying to ignore or cover up the painful and murky messes, but instead open up the horrendous messes to each other and to God - and then we can watch with awe at the revolution that emerges. This is the gospel my friends - this is the inner world of Jesus' heart.
 |
| Sunday's gorgeous sunset |
No comments:
Post a Comment