Habits that Foster Spiritual Life

Notes for Friday evening, November 4, 2011

One in a series titled, Spirituality for Thinkers and Seekers

A couple of years ago, a friend talked me into running a marathon. It was something I had long dreamed of doing. I guess you could say it was on my bucket list. Being on my bucket list didn't do me a lot of good. You cannot wake up in the morning and decide, today, I'm going to run a marathon, then carry out your intention successfully.

Typical marathon races have the course open for 6 hours and most people cannot run for 26.2 miles in under six hours without some serious preparation.

When I first decided I was going to run a marathon, the first thing I did was get on line and see what kind of training program was recommended. According to what I read, a person should not get serious about running a marathon until he or she had been running two or three miles several days a week. Once you got to that level of fitness, you could then realistically begin a training program that would prepare you for the challenge of running the whole thing.

It's the same in spiritual life. It is not likely that you are going to be successful living like a saint, if you're present spiritual practice consists of getting up in time to make it to work, coming home and eating dinner and watching TV until you fall asleep.

This kind of program does not build your physical stamina. It doesn't increase your spiritual sensibilities. Sometimes when a person is living like this, God blasts his way into their life. But these kinds of interventions are extremely rare. Living like a saint is not all that different from running a marathon. Success in the venture requires participation in a training program. And if you will engage in the training program you are very likely to make decent progress toward your goal.

Healthy, wise maturity is like doing a marathon. The only way to get there successfully is to train—wisely and over time. You can't rush it. Some approaches to training for sainthood are more effective than others. Here are some training methods that I believe will be effective if your goal is a peaceful, compassionate, righteous life.

Keep Sabbath

The Ten Commandments

Mark 2:28

A couple of benefits of Sabbath-keeping: 1. The deliberate, willful ordering of your life in pursuit of the most important things—relationships with God and people.

2. The weekly punctuation of life: it helps us be aware of the passing of time and encourages us to use time wisely.

Pray

Matthew 6:5-14; 7:7-12

Samuel. 1 Samuel 12:19-25

Praying is the most essential of all spiritual activities. Over time our praying will generally move from begging to communing, from nail-biting to yielding. Our begging will become increasingly focused on the needs of others.

The Bible

I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11

Your word is a lamp. Psalm 119:105

Great peace have those who love your law. Psalm 119:165

Matthew 4. The temptations

Regular interaction with the words of the Bible is one of the most common habits of good and godly people.

Meditate

Psalm 1. Like a tree. In his law he meditates day and night.

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. Psalm 119:18

Meditation is valuable as a habit. Its value is dramatically increased by choosing the best spiritual context and content for our meditation.

Eat well

Exercise

Creation. The physical world is God's idea. His best idea.

The ministry of Jesus. Human well-being was the first focus of Jesus' ministry.

Caring for our own physical well-being and the well-being of others is one way to cooperate with God.

Practice forgiveness

If you do not forgive, you won't be forgiven. Matthew 6:15

Jesus stance of non-condemnation. John 8

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving Ephesians 4:32-5-2.

So start doing it already! When the wounds and wrongs we are forgiving are grievous forgiveness may well be as much a goal we aim at as “state” we arrive at. Whether we think of forgiveness as something “done” or something we “working on” is not nearly as important as embracing it as the ultimate ideal in responding to evil done to us.

Impute the best of motives.

The most dramatic Bible story on imputing motives is a negative one. The Ammonites misinterpreted a goodwill embassy from King David as a spy mission. The Ammonites shamed the emissaries which sparked a war that devastated their nation. 2 Samuel 10.

Genesis 50. Joseph said about his brothers' betrayal: You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. When we impute to others good intentions, we defang many of the vipers that bite at us. If we imagine the harms that others send our way as bumbling rather than malice, it diminishes the potency of the attacks. As we become less threatened and less wounded, we are freer to pour good things into the lives of others. Which leads to increased happiness for ourselves and others and ultimately to a more vital communion and partnership with God.