Service

    Practicing service is a difficult thing to do willfully. Marriage is good at forcing you to do it no matter what, every minute of the day. I believe it was designed this way; and for this reason it is very important to know that before going into it. But I digress, service is an integral part of the Christian life. It is what binds us together; showing humility and care to one another through the one whom we strive to serve and become: Jesus Christ. But this, as with all things, is easier said than done.
    The best way to start serving another is to simply ask what they need. For many people, myself included, even this step is difficult. Asking to serve someone is, in actuality, putting yourself literally at a lower position than you usually see yourself, and raising that person above you in order to humbly help them. Pride is a big proponent of serving others, because serving others requires humility. I have learned this the long, hard way.
    So, the best way to begin serving is to, first, have a humble heart. Truly see yourself as lesser for Christ’s sake, so that nothing may hinder the level of servant hood you portray to that person. Second, ask! Everyone has needs, and most are too prideful to admit to it. Humility and servant-based questions can weed that out and help further advance the Kingdom in amazing ways. Serving is the number one way to show humility and, ultimately, Christ likeness.

Your Will, or His?

Do you know what it is to be a Christian? In essence, it means giving yourself up completely to Christ. In more ways than one: your belief, your worldview, your actions, your thoughts, ambitions, plans, hopes, goals, and very character must be a willing living sacrifice. You must die to yourself in order to live. Sounds completely logical right? Bear with me. It is said that Christians die to themselves. I believe we do, but so do non-Christians. But how can this be? This is how: we each die according to our will. Christians die to their natural selves, their sinful flesh and selfishness. This is because they want God’s will to be done. Non-Christians do the opposite, they want their will to be done. They die to their spiritual selves instead, never realizing what they have done. They feel no remorse. God graciously gives us this freedom of choice. Missing the mark is called sin.
    As Singh explained, “For instance, a thief who is stealing and hoarding things as a means of happiness is not only missing his happiness, but by his acts of theft is destroying the very capacity for it. That capacity is deadened by his sinful conduct. And if he loses the sense of the sinfulness of theft and his consience does not feel remorse, he has already committed spiritual suicide. He has not only killed the capacity but has killed the soul which had the capacity.” The thief died to his other self, the wrong self. This is a tragic thing, and too often they realize it too late, if at all.
    So, we may desire the will of God, but how do we find out what it is? Isn’t it hard enough to figure out our own? Well the will, the plan, of God is not something to be figured out. Wrong question. Singh elaborates eloquently, “A scientist had a bird in his hand. He saw that it had life, and, wanting to find out in what part of the bird’s body the life was, he began dissecting the bird…those who try to understand the inner life merely intellectually will meet with a similar failure.” In other words, don’t kill the bird. Don’t dissect God. You can’t do it an yield the results you desire. Trust in Him, will His will, and love His love.

Studying God

    There is a difference between Bible study and Bible devotionals. This may seem obvious to you; but to me it is something I seem to either miss entirely, or somehow try to combine the two. I do no think it is necessarily a bad thing to getting both at once; however, they are both unique and should be practiced as such. Bible study deals primarily with learning about God through His Word, whereas devotionals focus on cultivating a personal relationship to God through His Word. Unfortunately, I tend to gravitate more towards Bible study than devotionals. Why is this? I think it has something to do with my mostly intellectual nature; being a man of proof and thought, rather than of faith and deep relation. I wish I was not like this. Yet, this is how I was made. And that is good.
    I believe what I need to work on is not literally study God’s word, as I usually do, but to migrate away from that into simply a study of God. I need to probe not his words to find meaning and thought and evidence in them; I need to probe those words as He were speaking directly to me, revealing his very nature, conversing with me on a deeper level than that of mere education. But how can this be done? It is difficult to focus on your heart purposely, almost impossibly for me. So how can someone like me do this?
    I think that maybe the best way to focus on devotional reading, a study of God’s nature and relationship to me, is to plainly stop thinking so much. There is only so much my mind can understand; therefore, quite logically, there is only so much more that my heart may understand! Because where the mind drops off, the heart picks up; and it is there where I need to be. I need to step out of the realm of mere academics and theology of God and cross into the threshold of His presence, conversation, and love.

Reading the Bible

    Why is it so hard for people to read the Holy Bible; worse yet, why is it so difficult for some people to take the Scriptures seriously? Well, first of all, it is just a book. Right? Besides, there are plenty of divine writings out there that we have all heard of; and fiction does a good job of making them seem common and fantastical. Yet these stories, and certainly actual self-proclaimed ‘holy’ books, all stem from a source. That source is a true, real, and living divine word of God. The Bible. The Bible is so hard to read because we look at it merely as a book with human words; extremely old, human words, for that matter. Well, obviously! This is how God made himself known to us, and certainly the most understandable way he could become revealed in our insignificant, naïve minds! Is not the paradox apparent? What is worse, is that it did not work, and He actually had to send His Son; to put the Word into flesh, to help understand the love and wrath, and presence of God. The Bible is crucially important to a Christian.
    In order to stay in the word, we must read the word. Habitually. The best way to do that is…do it. There is no way around it. Just read it! A lot. Practice being in the word a lot. As often and as long as you possibly can. It is the word of God. How could you not become engrossed in it at all times; confused by the mysteries of his love, humbled by the depth of his grace, or dumbstruck by the immensity of His presence? Do not be proud-hearted.  As E. Stanley Jones said about the Bible, “It is God interpreting himself to us.” And, as Dr. Howard Atwood Kelly put it, “The Bible vindicates itself because it is such excellent medicine. It has never failed to cure a single patient if only he took his prescription honestly” (italics added for emphasis). The Bible is not merely a book, it is not even a religious book; and it is most certainly not an ancient fairytale. Its truths are universal; its language, convicting; its message, loving; its very existence, revelation!
    So, when you read the Bible, your Bible, sit down and pour yourself into it. But not as you were pouring all your despair, hate, insecurity, or sin into a pitcher to be pitched away. When you pour yourself into scripture, it is more like a well, and it pours back. It is a refiner, it can help you produce the good fruit required of us. E. Stanley Jones suggests we “sit down every day and go over these seven things and ask yourself if you are adding them to your basic faith -- virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.” Indeed, how can we possibly even know what these things really are, let alone learn how to practice them, if we do not consult the rule book on creation, the very word of God?

Making God's Presence Habitual

    I hope, in all certainty, that we can agree that there is indeed a God who is omnipresent, everywhere at all times. Well, as it turns out, that’s the easy part. The harder part is actually realizing it and living it out as he were consistently behind you and within you; watching every action you make, listening to every word you speak, guiding your every step, reading into your very deepest thoughts. Nowhere is safe, not even the darkest recesses of your past sin. They cannot be hidden; they must be taken away, because God can surely see them.
    But how can we practice the presence of God? We are merely humans. We can hardly grasp the concept of such a big being; but God did give us an imagination. As Brother Lawrence practiced, “Sometimes I imagined myself standing before him as a poor criminal at the feet of the judge. At other times I beheld him in my heart as my Father and as my God. I worshipped him as often as I could, keeping my mind in his holy presence and recalling it back to God as often as I found it had wandered from him.” This is indeed quite a feat to accomplish for a day, let alone a habit to maintain for a lifetime.
    What I often attempt to do is picture Jesus, God in the form of man (to better make his presence realistic to such a rationalistic and skeptical mind such as mine), like a parent behind my shoulder, spying on my every move. Is this the right way to go about it? It might stop me from saying that hurtful joke, or stop me from making a silly mistake, but is it really practicing God’s presence? “I have found in many books different ways of going to God and many different practices in living the spiritual life. I began to see that this was only confusing me…Thus, I resolved to give my all for God’s all.” I think Brother Lawrence got it right here. To practice God’s presence, we must discipline ourselves into a mind set of an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient God who loves us and deeply longs for us to return it.

Fasting

  What is fasting, anyway? It may seem a strange and foreign practice to anyone looking at it from an outside perspective. And I dare say, it is quite a strange occurrence; practicing the purposeful non-consumption of food? Why in the world would anyone do that? We need it to survive! Ironically, people who ask that question don’t realize the answer actually doesn’t even lie in this world. When we fast it is not for any purpose or goal that is in this world. No, fasting is gauged upwards.
    So why do it? Fasting is a purposeful act, a physical declaration, stating that the adherent does not actually need what he is abstaining from to survive; in other words, something is more important to them than food. Moreover, it does not have to be food every time. When we fast it must be for something that pains us to be rid of for a period of time, to shock us into reality the instability of our human bodies and inexorable dependence on God. Fasting is an act of humility and surrender.
    But what is the true purpose of fasting? When we are to fast, we are to hide it. This might seem strange as well, but it is also a sign of humility that causes us not to boast in the trial we are going through. The fast is not for the sake of the fast; if you make it that way, you will certainly have your reward paid in full. No, the fast is not for the sake of the fast, it is for the sake of Christ. Fasting can bring you closer to God, and that is the purpose of any spiritual discipline.

The Life of a Monk

Can you imagine, right now, what it would be like to live a day in the life of a medieval monk? Perhaps a small vision of what it might be like? Let me assist you in your imagining. Picture this. Living in a monastery, completely apart from the outside world; wrapped in silence, work, and prayer. Day after day. Harsh discipline for any action or word not within the bounds of priory rules. Not to mention toiling all day, hard physical labor in order to provide for yourself, community, and poor; in between long periods of intense prayer. Where every couple of hours you were required to pray, as it was your job; because for them, work and prayer were virtually synonymous.

            I found this quite daunting, almost impossible actually. Especially with the way my life is currently structured. Marriage, work, school, there seems to be little time left over for prayer. Let alone fixed-hour prayer, where at the same time every day, to the minute, I must stop to pray. To be quite honest, I failed horribly this week. In an attempt to explain without seeming too excuse-seeking, I feel like I have a lot more on my proverbial plate than the average medieval (or present day, for that matter) monk.

            Being a monk is totally voluntary. I tried my hand at it for a time, but ultimately I have chosen a different path in my Christian maturity: marriage (among other things, of course). Fixed-hour prayer takes lots of discipline, hard work, and time. Yes, it would be nice to leave this busy world and hide away in monastery in complete silence with God. However, this is not me. And the world changes. I tried my hand at it for a week, and have developed a deep respect for it. I intend to revisit the practice often. It had taught me self-control and humility, and has more well-rounded my view of Christian practices. What’s more, it taught me that not only was I not wasting my time; its that it was never mine to begin with.