Grasping gratitude . . .

This morning, Raewyn; a ministry colleague, made a Facebook-post concerning the “spiritual discipline of gratitude” . . .

Got me thinking, looking, and finding . . .

Here’s what I found; a “portable rumination into my day" – its Monday in New Zealand . . .

“Gratitude, as a discipline, takes desire, commitment and a plan. Like any good discipline, it can free us from what is bad and free us for what is better. Gratitude can help preserve us from sin and form us for holiness.”

Fr Robert McTeigue, SJ ( Jan 04, 2017)

Praying and Church

Praying is the most common human practice for communicating with the Divine . . .  

Prayer occurs through all kinds of situations, experiences, and locations; one of them is at churches.  Not just in churches, but at churches.  You can go to a church and pray, if it’s open. You can go to weekly scheduled church services and participate through the liturgy’s prayers. You don’t have to go to church to pray, but you can pray there with others.

I, and maybe you have heard a statement like “you don’t have to go to church to pray; you can pray anywhere.” True. Yet praying is both personal and communal engagement of God by humans. The possible values of prayer are both instinctive within us, and inspired beyond us; the Bible and human history abound with accounts of prayer and praying; think about it. In the stories of the bible people pray personally, collectively, constantly, and commonly.  Personally we speak to and listen for God. Collectively our prayers are made for Divine intervention, and daily wisdom in life’s many challenging situations. 

Praying constantly isn’t quitting our work and life-responsibility to “just pray,” it’s not quitting on praying as a normative practice; remember while God who is not late, from our perspective often seems to miss an opportunity to be early! Keep praying. Both the Bible and historical stories of nations and whanau say, “Prayer is commonly practiced.”

Bear in mind you can pray without going to a church, but you won’t go to a church or its services without praying. That’s the norm of Christian faith. 

Praying is a normal human practice for communicating with the Divine.  

John Douglas - March 2017

Christian spirituality’s both intentional and normative . . .

Christian spirituality is the holistic relating of one’s entire life as understood, felt, imagined, and decided upon in relation to God as Father; united through Jesus Christ, and empowered within the Spirit’s indwelling presence.*

It’s characterized as, “the quest for a fulfilled and authentic Christian existence; involving a bringing together of the fundamental ideas of Christianity into the whole experience of lifelong-living on the basis of and within one’s Christian faith.”** 

It is dynamic, living, developing, evident, and nurtured. 

It is not self-perpetuating; it’s intentionally pursued and supported engagement. 

It’s the living and nurturing of a growing faith. 

Check it out in biblical narratives, spiritual growth is (1) normative, (2) intentionally nurtured, (3) behaviourally observable, and (4) modelled and mentored.

While you’re checking biblical narratives, pick up with Saint Peter’s words . . .

 “So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books”

 - 1 Peter 1:5-9  (Message Bible)

 

*John C. Douglas, “The Effectiveness of a Rule of Life as Growth Processing Framework in the Development of New Zealand Evangelical Church Leaders’ Spiritual Discipline Behaviors”. (Denver Seminary: 2013), 29

**Alister E. McGrath, Christian Spirituality: An Introduction (Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1999), 1. 

Being alone is good; being lonely, not so good . . .

As 2016 ends, and life continues—here’s some of what I’m chewing over (ruminating) this sunny morning . . .

I know we are social and gregarious creatures, afterall we are made in the image and likeness of three persons who have been “hanging out together eternally” . . .        yet sometimes I need to not just be or feel alone, I need to participate in aloneness in my Christian spiritual journey  . . . 

The aloneness of my spiritual journey is not a synonym for loneliness.    To grasp and be refreshed by being with Jesus (and the rest of the Trinity) I have a gift of aloneness that’s really an oxymoron … “how can I be alone, when Jesus declared He would always be with me?”  

Aloneness is not isolation or insulation for I can be with others and be alone from idle or destructive social-interaction.   The key is to "give time to others and energy to them from a heart that’s attracted to Christ, not distracted by the values of this world . . ."

• By “silence of speech” to be in the world, while not being of it.

• Being intentionally alone emphasizes being apart from others, but it does not necessarily imply unhappiness.

• The practice of being alone is commonly defined as “engaging the discipline of solitude.”

Murray Douglas - "Time alone at Haiti after the 2010 earthquake"

Have a co-ruminate with me . . .

Been getting ready for church (it's Sunday morning here in New Zealand), breakfast has happened, with nothing "pressing-to-do" I've been reading, ruminating, and summarizing my thoughts . . . I started with Psalm 90:12 . . . 

Why not read along, and have a co-ruminate with me . . . 

• Hey, you could even post (in the comments section below) your ruminating; not  merely a critique of mine, share your rumination with some of it's "meditative-voice" . . . 

Remember, "rumination is the fodder of meditation". It's thinking about our thinking, hearing what our thoughts are saying as we take listening-time in the presence of the One who said, "I will never leave you or forsake you . . . "

Cheers - JD

Life is Liveable it’s just not easy . . .

More than once in my life I’ve had folks say; “John, you would make my life easier if you only . . .” If you only is a common and almost universal saying of request.

In fact I’ve said the same words on a number of occasions to God. Like God, I don’t generally listen well to such requests.

Now, I know I can be difficult; don’t plan to be—just successful at being and doing so on “occasions”—difficult to live with and around. Also know that while at times the Divine One can be difficult, in not making my life easy. For example, “He is never late; though from my perspective He misses so many opportunities to be early.” Early would make for easy. Since we generally want easy, now is a good time; not tomorrow or one-day--now. We know “the idea of easy” wishes for a lifestyle that’s achieved without requiring great labour or effort; one presenting few difficulties.

Problem: Life is not meant to be easy; it’s designed to be liveable

• The unexamined life is not worth living - Socrates of Athens

•  My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life – Jesus of Nazareth

• For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better – Saul of Tarsus

Striving to make an easy-life-path increases frustration with self, others, things, situations, and yes-God. I can live with liveable, but easy is hard work.

Focusing on engaging one’s life as having liveability increases contentment with the journey toward one’s fulfilments. Simply we get a hold of grace.  More correctly, it gets a hold of us. Liveability requires learning to engage grace in frustrating times, and learning from the engagement.

Life is not meant to be easy; it’s designed to be liveable

Live it and love it before you leave it

Live it in ways that enhance, not limit the liveability of others

You can get money out of the bank . . . if you put it in first . . .

I recall from boyhood how my “sage father” a constant poser of questions dropped one of his inevitable, this is going somewhere questions; “Johnny, how do you get money out of a bank?” 

My young mind raced for imaginative, innovative, even a criminal response to the enquiry; but my simple comeback was, “how dad?” 

“Son, you first put it in” . . .

• Outcome requires investment. Its true there is no output without input. 

In our pursuit of spirituality capable of maintaining lifestyle marked by God’s abilities, strengths and enabling in our experience of the pressures of daily life, including hauntings of historic hurts seeking to make “re-runs” – we know we will need to make “withdrawals on banked grace”. One of the troubles with grace (there are more than one) is we know we don’t earn it, so how can we bank it? Is there any action we can undertake which enable a deposit we can make drawings against? Early Christians and those through the history of the faith have understood there is ... Christian baptism. Two summary statements (there are more) give us thought on the perspective of baptism as action we take to deposit God’s grace in our spirituality reserves.

• We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4).

• “ ... water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand--with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.” (1 Peter 3:21-22).

Sure God can “bale-us-out” ... no question, but who will really live well from a bale-out mentality? Better to have baptism in the bank. I’ve been thinking how Jesus gave his people baptism to be more than a personal milestone in spiritual pilgrimage ... been thinking over it as living grace-currency capable of bearing ongoing renewable interest. (JCD)