outside is better

What I learned about spiritual formation from Harley Davidson motorcycles and Guns N' Roses

Many of you know I bought a motorcycle earlier this spring. For the last few years I have been dreaming about buying my first Harley. In many ways, this was the fulfillment of about 10 years.

I love my bike. One of the best things about motorcycles is the ability to really customize them and tweak things to your liking. On my short list has been a new saddle seat, custom exhaust and a few other additions. After a few weeks of all the parts sitting in my garage I decided to get started. On Monday night I broke down and took off the old exhaust, air cleaner and a few other necessary things. I was set up to get the new stuff on.

The only problem was I didn't have all the right tools. I had planned on buying a few of them, but I couldn't find them in my price range anywhere around town. I was able to secure a few and last night decided to just go ahead and do it. One of the crucial pieces was a torque wrench and the necessary bits. I didn't have them. Some advice from a friend said I could probably get by without it. I decided to go in that direction. After I had a few bolts in, secure with lock-tite and brute force I was making great headway.

But I realized I wasn't being patient. Like so many other things in life I was rushing and making do. I was making semi-permanent decisions hastily (like how well a bolt will sit in a shaking motorcycle!!!) because I wanted a quick reward. Soon one of my favorite Guns N' Roses songs, Patience, was playing through my head. While I realize what Axl was thinking about wasn't the most holy moment, the realization I had sitting cross legged on my garage was!

When we value things, we do them right. A life lived quickly and without intention is a life barely lived. The ultimate vision for things that exists for a time in our head can only be actualized by taking the necessary time to do them the way they should. Our decision making process gives investment in how we are willing to sometimes be patient about process. If we want to the best results in anything we must be willing to take the best steps. Last night it meant putting things aside and waiting a few days.

As I started undoing bolts and re-stripping down the bike I thought about how many times spiritually we want tremendous things and don't see them. How can we try to power through what we believe are the proper steps and don't see results. In frustration we begin to think God doesn't want to be an actual presence in our life because our own impatience failed to provide the proper spiritual environment for what we wanted. Looking backward in those moments I can see how I failed to properly prepare myself to be with God, and not the other way around.

At the time it might feel trite, but Psalm 46:10 tells us to simply be still and willing to wait on God.

Eugene Peterson calls it a long obedience in the same direction.

Baby steps are at times the path to the Kingdom of God. We will have those moments of mighty transition when we feel catapulted forward. But in the long run, patience with the journey will be much more fruitful.

We need a little patience. Just some more patience.

Beatles or Stones? Asking ourselves the hard questions....

Beatles or Stones?

Earlier this year I asked this question on Facebook and got around 200 comments. I love the question. It tells me so much about a person and their musical taste and preferences.

Good questions tell us so much more than a simple answer.

Earlier this year I wrote a piece on Why I became a Methodist. In the article, I mentioned one of the primary decision points being my belief in the effectiveness and necessity of Wesleyan discipleship.

Part of  historic discipleship and formation (growing closer to Christ) in the Methodist tradition is the act of asking questions. We ask them to ourselves in our own personal devotion. We ask them to others we are in accountability with.  This was important in the Methodist movement and I feel a recovery of the asking of questions will be a key thing to any spiritual development in our world now.

A little history...

Wesley organized his folks (you couldn't really call them a formal church yet) into 3 groups. From largest to smallest; the Societies, The Classes and The Bands. Part of the fundamental design of the two smallest (classes and bands) was a series of questions designed to keep each person in forward motion towards Jesus Christ. The Class met as a mixed group of sexes and ages. When they met, these questions formed the main conversation points. They got SERIOUS!

When the Bands met, the questions got even more in depth. They also centered on this small group (usually no more than 5-6 and same sex) really keeping each other on track. You gave the others the permission to get into your business.

Here are another set of questions Wesley and his original small group, called The Holy Club, asked themselves in their lives and meetings.

Our life now

These questions matter. They help us to be real and honest with each other. One of the best small group experiences I have ever had focused on asking a few of these questions every week. This isn't casual discipleship. It is changing and transformational discipleship. It is the kind of spiritual relationships each Christian needs to have in their life.

Several groups have done a great job trying to incorporate these classic notions of discipleship into current life. Most of them are going really well. What I really appreciate are the attempts to quickly get the emotive qualities of these HUGE lists into a few simple questions. You can answer them openly, in front of people you know and don't know. You can be asked them by people who know you really well. The most important quality is these questions are approachable. It is frightening allowing others into what most modern Christians consider to be pretty private.  Here is a listing of the ones I have found, liked and used.

1. Are you growing closer or further away from God since the last time we met?
2. How do you see God moving in your life right now?
3. How is your life in God?

Lately, I have a new one I have been thinking about, asking myself and asking others. It comes from my own personal conviction and values.

How have you allowed God to change you lately?

This question tells much more than a simple yes or no. In my own examination it causes me to think about my openness to Christ, my expectation of his presence and activity, how my false self is being broken down, etc, etc. It is great and broad.

Self-examination has long been part of Christian tradition. It helps us to make the points in which we have grown closer to God, progressed in our sanctification, won victory over things controlling us or simply mark our maturation in Christ.

So friends, How have you allowed God to change you lately?

 

 

Beginning Prayer: The Jesus Prayer

Throughout my ups and downs of a life of prayer I have had no greater companion than the "Jesus Prayer". Just a few simple words, an ancient attempt at practicing what Paul told us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 when he said "Don't stop praying" (NLT).

I first discovered the Jesus Prayer when reading a book on Eastern Orthodox Monasticism (A great read "The Mountain of Silence"). This really got me going. I was a newlywed at the time and the last thing any bride wants to hear about is her new husband getting into monasticism.

The Jesus Prayer became a close friend. I even started adopting the EO practice of a prayer rope. Different fromt the Roman Catholic rosary, the Orthodox (and Anglican) tradition of a prayer rope focuses on counting how many times you pray short little prayers. The amount of times doesn't bring you to greater holiness but trains your instincts. Making a decision to pray 100x a day starts to teach you to pray without knowing it. I rarely leave the house without my rope in my pocket. Everytime I touch it I am reminded to prayer and the power I have through Jesus Christ.

So for almost 8 years part of my waking and preparing each day is a recitation of these words...

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

I have had plenty of conversations with people about this. It sometimes makes people uncomfortable. The awareness of the sinful state of the human heart reminds us at times what our true stance without Christ is. Many times we don't want to acknowledge this. But the prayer begins with a confession of who this person named Jesus is; the lord at the center of all our world, the human representation of God come to us and the anointed Messiah who redeems us from our sin.

If you are just beginning a life of prayer or are looking for new practices, I would highly recommend a season with the Jesus Prayer.

Related Posts:
3 Steps to Beginning Prayer
Beginning Prayer: Wesley and his Covenant Prayer

CT Studd on Holiness

Often times, the dead guys say it best. C. T. Studd was an English missionary around the turn of the 20th century. My best bud Joshua Toepper at TrinitarianMission.com shared it with me in a phone conversation last night.

Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is declared! In God's Holy Name let us arise and build! 'The God of Heaven, He will fight for us', as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.

The dead guys say it best. Especially in current conversations regarding a false sense of masculinity being worked out through power, opression and sexism...Studd reminds us that any sense of a mature Christianity, filled with authority, derives itself from the change wrought in the heart filled with Holy Love and a desire to see Christ's name lifted up.

Men and Women can get behind that.

Beginning Prayer: Wesley and His covenant prayer

When anyone intentionally decides to start building a life of prayer the first honest question is "How?." Through my life, I have had moments where these decisions have to be made. Prayer, like any other part of the Christian life, means constantly pushing forward...going deeper and deeper. What counts is finding moments and different practices which continue to push this journey forward.

At this years meeting of the Louisiana Annual Conference of the UMC, Rev. Adam Hamilton lead several sessions and discussions on church vision and vitality. At several moments along the way he either pointed to or lead us through Wesley's Covenant Prayer. Traditionally this prayer is used at the beginning of the year as congregations recommit towards holy relationships and mission. What Rev. Hamilton illustrated was this prayers place in the everyday life of individuals and congregations.

For anyone looking for a new way point in the life of prayer, either beginning or reinvigorating, the covenant prayer is an excellent addition.

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

I have found by making multiple copies and placing them in both intended and surprise location, I pray the prayer several times during the day. I have a copy in my bathroom and I pray it almost first thing in the morning. I pray it when I transition tasks during the day or when I start a time of devotion or study. It provides a wonderful embedded space in my life.

Yes, the language might be old fashioned, but I decided to not update it. It marks things as "special" for me.

I encourage you to practice this prayer. Make it part of your day at least once. Find the best place to put it into your devotional life. Trust me, it will be a blessing.

As a side note, I want to resource you in using this prayer. For the first 72 hours of this posts life, I want to run a contest. If you link to this post, through either Facebook or Twitter, and include my handle (@chaddbrooks on twitter or THIS account on Facebook), I will enter your name into a drawing. The winner gets a swag package from me, with multiple of my laminated copies of this prayer along with a few other goodies.

So share this prayer. Make it part of your life. Above all, pursue a deep life of prayer.

Related Posts: 3 Steps To Beginning Prayer

Saturdays in Scripture: Sin, Harshness and Christian Perfection

This summer I led a short Bible study on 1 John. I decided to not teach it as a formal study but instead teach a few strategies to help folks learn to read and study their Bible better. During one of our lessons, my good friend Jeff mentioned how harsh some of the injunctions to not sin seemed to be.

Jeff was right! If anyone was in the wrong mood or spiritual state, these verses could seem to be pretty heavy.

1 John 3:4-10

Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. ⁵ And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. ⁶ Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.

⁷ Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. ⁸ But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. ¹⁰ So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.

Part of the design of the class was to teach using larger portions of the Bible to begin study and learn to interpret based on a more holistic approach to reading scripture...ie; do certain observations still have the same validity when we put them as part of the entire book of 1st John?

Knowing 1st John was one of John Wesley's favorite books and he preached a sermon on this passage, I had my class read sermon 19, The Great Privilege of Those That Are Born of God. What we found most helpful was Wesley's idea of "outward" sin, especially the person who has latched themselves to God cannot sin, not out of command but out of operation. If a person has placed themself in the Holy Spirit, outward (willing) sin is not part of the persons life. Wesley's own definition of sin according to this passage was a "willing transgression of a known law of God."

Wesley then gives a pattern from grace to sin, to help people understand the path to willful sin. You can find this in section 2.

You see the unquestionable progress from grace to sin: Thus it goes on, from step to step. (1.) The divine seed of loving, conquering faith, remains in him that is born of God. "He keepeth himself," by the grace of God, and "cannot commit sin." (2.) A temptation arises; whether from the world, the flesh, or the devil, it matters not. (3.) The Spirit of God gives him warning that sin is near, and bids him more abundantly watch unto prayer. (4.) He gives way, in some degree, to the temptation, which now begins to grow pleasing to him. (5.) The Holy Spirit is grieved; his faith is weakened; and his love of God grows cold. (6.) The Spirit reproves him more sharply, and saith, "This is the way; walk thou in it." (7.) He turns away from the painful voice of God, and listens to the pleasing voice of the tempter. (8.) Evil desire begins and spreads in his soul, till faith and love vanish away: He is then capable of committing outward sin, the power of the Lord being departed from him.

In our discussion, we did note the complexity of understanding a "known law of God", and the weight of grey area in our culture.  The call to "not sin" was actually a call to the deep life with Christ that keeps us away from such practices. It is about trusting Jesus! Those who are focusing on and are close to God are kept from sin by the power of the Holy Spirit! 

It was a great discussion and a great time helping folks realize how important our heritage was in sorting out tough issues. The call to Christian Perfection is one we as a people called Methodist should hold close. In so many ways, our forgotten knowledge of this principle should be lamented. What would our lives and the lives of those around us look like if we all banded together and made this the focus of our lives once again?

How Hollywood teaches Wesleyan Grace

Earlier this year I was asked to speak to St. Paul's confirmation class about the Wesleyan/Methodist understanding of grace.

Methodists understand grace as acting in three major moves, in a progressive (we are Wesleyans after all!!) manner. The goal was to get 6th graders to engage a concept I have been asked about in almost every oral examination on the process to ordination. A tall task indeed! I used this analogy of Hollywood and the film industry to help them understand more about their faith.

Prevenient grace...
is often like a movie trailer. It exists before the real thing and gives experience, making us familar with the story and hoping to excite us about the actualization in an encounterable manner. Trailers make us want to see the movie.

Prevenient grace is the free gift of God to all men and women tugging their hearts towards a saving relationship with him.

Justifying grace...
brings us to the moment in the movie theater. You can call it an opening night gala. What can be known beforehand is known. The trailer worked and drew us into the physical event. A person is now truly experiencing the story for the first time. Where it once existed only in brief and broken ways, the full story is made known.

Justifying grace marks the awareness of sin and the need for a recognition of Jesus Christ. In justifying grace, each of us truly experience the depth of Christ and His love for the first time.

Sanctifying Grace...
seats the DVD in our permanent collection. It is the special collecters edition with all of the extras (But not those horrible Star Wars editions that change the whole thing...those DVD's totally blow the illustration). It doesn't change the story, but presents the permanent and ongoing fulfillment of both the trailer and the original theater viewing. The DVD purchase brings the movie into the home, where we own it and are able to continuing experiencing the story in new ways.

Sanctifying grace brings us closer to holiness. It is the constant move of God in our lives as we pursue Jesus Christ more and more. Through sanctifying grace we are continuing to experience the transformative power of God in our lives.

I find this threefold expression of saving grace helpful because it is hopeful.

God moves in each of our hearts, edging us towards saving and justifying grace. If and when a person makes the decision, they are not abandoned. Grace continues, always changing us. May God be changing each of us as we read these words.

Related Posts:
Thoughts on Christian Perfection
Hymnaling (and Being Methodist)

Thomas Merton on Ambition and the Self

I love Thomas Merton. I became a fan years ago and spent several years of regular sojourns to the monastary he called home. One of the best places I know to take a Sabbath is at the Abbey of Gethsemane. I few months back I found this quote and decided it needed to be saved. I read it almost every day and think about it.

Finally, I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself and, if I accept myselfy fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself. For it is the unaccepted self that stands in my way and will continue to do so as long as it is not accepted.

Good words for those who struggle with ambition and acceptatance. We will only be satisfied when we dwell fully in the person that God has made and God is perfecting in Holy Love.

Re-envisioning 2012

Earlier this year I began the year off with some pretty high goals. I thought I would launch back into another cycle of a heavy systematic read through the bible and reflect on each of John Wesley's sermons, once a week. I even went to the trouble of enlisting a bunch of people and starting a couple of blogs on the project.

It lasted about three weeks.

The pace of 2012 caught up to me really quick. Each of us has these moments in time where we realize we might have bitten off more than we can chew. I did that. I hadn't really taken the time to see where I felt my heart would be this year and I fell off the wagon pretty quick.

 

For those comitted to a life of devotion, as each Christian should, we need to realize how the seasons of life might change. At times we have to change the oil and at other times we need to put a new transmission in. For the last few years of my seminary season I benefited from a different devotional style than I need now. So I changed things out.

We all have to do this at times.

How have you had to change your devotional life in the past?

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This is also the break from my blogging silence. I am looking forward to sharing things with you again.

The Advent Highway

I'm Expecting

My use of this phrase might sound odd. Usually, it is reserved for the fairer sex to announce the anticipation of a new child. It can be made plural, as in “we are expecting” as well, with the same connotation. But for me, a male, to say “I’m Expecting”...you probably think I have lost my mind.

But expectation is the best way to think about the Advent season. Expectation (in the pregnant sense) entails a season of hope, anticipation and preparation. A body of emotions is wrapped up and fulfilled in a specific event. At that point, everything will render unimportant as the birth comes. The season of hope will be fulfilled in the joy that comes. The anticipation is finished and any anxiety or nervousness has past. The preparation is finished, because it has to be. The time has now come and “all hands on deck” is the order of the day.   

We are ready for the coming of the Son of God. We celebrate hope and the promises of God. We an- ticipate the season and the change it makes in our hearts. We have also prepared ourselves for it by recognizing both our own individual sin and the sins of humanity as a whole. The ancient liturgical prayer called the Rorate Coeli (based on Isaiah 45:8) expresses the hope, anticipation and expectation of the prophets and priests of the Old Testament and becomes part of our prayers;

We have gone astray; in the multitude of our sins we have been made unclean. Fallen, fallen, stricken as leaves of autumn. The storm wind carries us away, the tempest of our evil deeds. You have turned us from the face of your mercy, and our iniquity has crushed us like a potter's vessel. O Lord our God, look upon your people in their affliction; be mindful of your promises. Send us the lamb who will set up his dominion from the rock of the wilderness to Zion, enthroned on her mountain. There is no other whose power can break our chains and set us free.

 As somber as this might seem, as Christians we understand the hope and glory contained in the glorious thing called The Incarnation. Christ and his passion brings us to a new place. Isaiah 40:1-5 (NLT) gives words to that sense of expectation;

    “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned. Yes, the LORD has punished her twice over for all her sins.” Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the LORD! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The LORD has spoken!”

This is a highway of expectation. It is a highway that leads us home. Christ, in his life, death and resurrection leads us along the straight path into the loving arms of the Father. Advent is an active celebration of the church. Let us prayerfully go through the range of emotions which are part of expecting. On Christmas day, we can welcome our savior in the fullest way, because our hearts have hoped, anticipated and prepared for him to come!

Come Lord Jesus!

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This was my article in our Churches Advent Devotion. If you want to see the entire piece, cruise over to our Issuu page and read it.