"How is my Spiritual Life???"

A few days ago a friend asked me a few personal questions.

“How is your family?”

“Feeling like you’re getting on top of financial things?”

“How are things at the church?”

“What are you dreaming about these days?”

“Where is Connor going to college?”

“How are that grandbaby and the kids in Seattle?”

These questions, and some others were the fodder for an hour-long conversation. Then he threw me for a loop and asked a question I didn’t really know how to answer . . .

“How is your spiritual life?”

It’s not that I didn’t have an answer. It’s that I thought I HAD been answering that question for the whole hour we had been talking.

He was really asking about my spiritual disciplines—prayer, bible reading, etc. But he didn’t say that. He asked about my spiritual life. This is partly bothersome, curious, intriguing, thought provoking, and a teachable moment.

Random thoughts . . .

1. I believe the spiritual life has more to do with inviting the Holy Spirit to guide, counsel, partner, and speak into my every day situations than it has to do with the things spiritual people do. Or, the things people believe spiritual people “should” do.
2. I believe the way I treat my family, friends, and co-workers is a better indication of how my “spiritual life” is going than the number of days I have spent reading my bible.
3. Recognizing everyday things as spiritual and listening to and sensing the movement of God in those things are an important posture for us. When I start viewing my conversation with the Starbucks guy as spiritual, new things take shape in the conversation, the Starbucks guy, and me. When dinner with the family is seen as spiritual, the conversation takes a different shape and I listen better. I engage differently.
4. Seeing everyday business as spiritual—money, job, recreation, family, etc.—energizes me and removes some of the guilt I feel put on me by other people’s idea of what is spiritual and what is not. I find myself meditating on the Word of God, praying, and inviting God into the mundane.
5. There is no secular and sacred with this posture. We don’t escape the secular to bask in the sacred. Richard Rohr points out the word “profane” comes from two words pro and funum meaning “outside the temple.” When Jesus died, the temple veil tore in two. The world was invited in to the temple at Jesus’ invitation. The temple spilled out into everything.
6. I don’t simply meet with Jesus over a cup of coffee and a bible. If that were the case, I honestly wouldn’t meet with him as often as others would like me to.
7. Inviting the Holy Spirit into the mundane has made me a pray-er. Not just before a test. Not just before a meal. Not just with other believers. All the time.
8. Romans 8 is a good picture of this posture.
9. Certainly my spiritual life is sweetened, sharpened, more intuitive, and I gain greater perspective (etc.) when I take special time out to do things like read, be silent, go on a retreat, etc. BUT it is not SIMPLY those things that define “how my spiritual life is going.”
10. Thinking through these things has been a spiritual exercise.

Just a few thoughts.

Life on the Road

Picture your spiritual life as a car—a friend once told me (The North American International Auto Show is happening right now. Exciting stuff. 700,000 people, 6,800 journalists covering it. It’s a big deal. We like our cars in the greater Detroit area).

When God changes you, gives you new life, makes you a new creation, you’re like one of those new vehicles being rolled out. Lots of potential. People notice you. You’ve got solar panels that run the gadgets and a state of the art sound system. Your dash board lights up blue—which is the coolest color for any dashboard lights. It’s a fact. It’s science.

So we take the car out for a spin. We go on a cross country trip. We take the top down and we feel the breeze. We love the road. We pick up hitchhikers. We go carpool. We get groceries. We do all the stuff a car is supposed to do.

Then, over time, some of us get caught up in the gadgets. The killer stereo. The comfortable seats. Some of us sit and read the manual. And, we forget the main purpose of the car . . . to move. To move forward.

So, we park it. And, we enjoy the gadgets. Friends come over and say, “hey, let’s go for a spin” and we say, “nah, I kinda just want to sit right here and listen to the new Westwinds CD. It’s awesome! Really gets me fired up. Know all the words.

Ridiculous. Stuck with the radio blarring, looking at your blue dashboard lights, honking the horn, playing with the buttons . . . for what? The car’s not moving. Those solar panels have just enough juice to keep that radio going. And so, you’ll sit. And, why shouldn’t you? Plenty of other cars are doing the same thing.

What does it take to get you going? Someone rear ending you? An emergency call that requires you to get across town? Someone walking by and catching the young hussy you have in the back seat?

What’s your killer stereo system? Westwinds? Is Westwinds your carport? Do you park it here on the weekend and let people look at it, but not get too close? Our carport can be a family member—we let them be the spiritual ones and hope it will rub off on us. Our school can be our carport—maybe we go to a Christian school or University and we feel comfortable hiding from the world for a few years and not engaging—not allowing people inside—not allowing God to convict—not participating in our world, community. Not living.

Thomas Merton said, “The spiritual life is first of all life.” It’s not something we merely talk about or think about or study . . . we live it.

Prayer Posts and Prayer Dares

Before I begin, let me say I love Jesus. I believe in prayer. I pray. I believe prayer is important. Jesus taught us to pray. Pray.

Please read all my prayer posts through that lens. Please.

I have always been somewhat of a student of prayer. I have never considered myself a “prayer warrior” and, quite frankly, the phrase makes me a little uneasy.

The topic of prayer has come up A LOT around Westwinds lately. I think it is time to blog a few of my thoughts and maybe you can process with me.

I have been a follower of Jesus for 30 years.

I have read more books and had more conversations on prayer than you could possibly imagine.

And, honestly, I don’t feel much further down the line with my understanding of prayer than I did 30 years ago.

Sometimes, I think I understood it better back then—when I didn’t know anything. And that very statement may actually be more profound than I originally intended.

I have changed my mind about how to pray, when to pray, how often to pray, and what prayer accomplishes more than you can imagine.

And, I'll be honest . . .

I have strong opinions about what bothers me when it comes to prayer. I have strong opinions about what bothers me about certain kinds of prayer agendas. I have strong opinions about prayer words and phrases—i.e., “get on your knees and fight like a man,” “we must align our hearts with God,” “lift your request up to him” . . .

I have strong opinions about definitions of prayer that somehow “require” God to respond in certain ways based on where my heart is or how often I pray or how many people pray with me, etc.

I will have some scattered thoughts and posts about prayer over the next few days. Comment please. Converse.

Sometimes, I'm a prayer mess.

I have shown some of my cards already.

Honestly, a lot of my prayer baggage is out of a concern for those who are just beginning to follow Jesus and are watching and listening. To us. To me. I am scared to death sometimes at the garbage that some people are fed about prayer that I believe is --at best-- silly and shallow and --at worst-- unbiblical. So, it is more than pet peeves that I will be sharing.

This first post is simple. No deep theology. No big questions.

Just a simple challenge.

This challenge is for the “seasoned” pray-er. This challenge is for the professional Christian pray-er. This challenge is for the student of prayer. It is not meant to belittle or demean anyone.

If we are going to have this conversation, I dare you to pray for one day like this:

• Without using the word “just” i.e. “Lord, we just want to just thank you for just . . .

• Address God differently than your normal go-to name i.e. “most gracious heavenly Father, etc.

• If you pray out loud this week, talk like you normally talk—normal inflections. Normal words.

• If you pray out loud this week, do not sigh

• Without using words you never use in any other context (most of the “tion” words like propitiation are out)

• Try ending your prayer with something other than, “in Jesus’ name” as a form of “sincerely”. Maybe try putting the “in Jesus’ name” at the front of the prayer. Or leave it off the prayer.

• Try praying “after” a meal once.

• Try praying in the middle of a meal once.

• Try praying with your eyes open.

• If you stand, try it on your knees. If you kneel, try standing.

• Do not use the phrase “we lift up” while praying
  

The next part of the challenge is tough. Kinda weird.

Make mental notes of how many times you hear other people praying around you in light of the above list. God will not be angry at you for doing a prayer experiment—He is bigger than that. I happen to believe God is a big fan of learning through observation.

After you try it for a day, discuss it here. This is food for conversation.