Flabby Spirituality
I’ve recently come to realize that I am out of shape, spiritually speaking. The sad thing is, I may never have realized this had I not failed in a fairly public way recently. Usually, I find that I always sin the worst when I am not paying attention to what is around me. When I begin to give over to the ebb and flow of things, that’s when I am most in danger. I talk a lot about faith here on my blog because it’s important to me. I think it’s equally important to admit that I am not perfect, that I tend to fail in truly embarrassing ways, and that my spirituality is flabby.
For some time, I’ve been aware of what’s called the ‘spiritual disciplines’. A fancy term for practices that should be common. All it refers to are practices such as prayer, reading/memorization of the Scriptures, silence, etc. These are simply helpful reminders to live an intentional life.
An Intentional Life
The more I reflect, I realize that we (and by we, I really mean myself) tend to live life on automatic. Whatever happens, will happen is what most people tend to think. For me, I realize that this way of thinking does me little good. It tends to blind me, both mentally and spiritually. Before I realize what is happening, I end up in something terrible. It can be so small sometimes, I’ll find myself being far too loose with my tongue, or my thoughts will spiral in a bad way. I truly believe that, despite my desire, if I’m not living life intentionally, I will fail in genuinely bad ways.
There have been a few Church scandals that have rocked the community I grew up in. Famous pastors have been caught in awful activities. Every time I hear these sorts of stories, it scares me. It scares me because I know that I am just as capable of such activities as (fill in the blanks). Here’s something I want anyone reading to think very seriously about: I’m convinced that nearly every Pastor/teacher/whoever that has been caught in horrible activities did not start out this way. I believe that all of these people ended up in these situations accidentally. I think this happens when people start living life on autopilot, not paying attention to the subtle things around them. Before anyone realizes what is happening, all the little things build up and we are now dealing with a monster.
Not Perfect, But Getting Better
If I realize that my spirituality is flabby, that I’m living on autopilot, then what does this mean for me personally? It means that I need to get back to the spiritual disciplines. Currently, I would give myself a grade of F in just about every one. In order to build myself back into shape, I’ll have to start one discipline at a time. Especially given that this is a lifelong thing, I’m not fooling myself thinking that I will master everything in a few days.
Already, I’ve learned that the way I start my day is important. Most days I wake up, I have to move pretty quickly. The way I’m fixing this is to take just a minute or two, pray, and go over some memory passages. Even if it’s only a minute or two, I was amazed to see how this centered my thinking, sort of like getting up in the morning and doing a quick 20 push-ups, or running for a few minutes. It makes a big difference in my day.
I have a long way to go in order to become disciplined enough to become the sort of person I wish to be. Over the next few weeks I’ll be going over each discipline in detail, along with helpful ways I’m implementing them for anyone who might be curious. As I do this, please bear in mind a helpful quote from Richard Foster: ‘The disciplines are not the answer, they lead us to the Answer’. At the end of every day, my desire is to live a better life, allowing me to do good for those around me.
