Monday, August 25, 2008
Foster, R. (2008). Life with God: Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation. New York: Harperone.
We need a balanced approach to our intake of Scripture: heart, soul, mind. 73
The reason the Spiritual Disciplines do not make us spiritual is because there is nothing inherently spiritual in them. We do not acquire godliness the way bodybuilders build muscle in a solitary regimen. We pray in order to engage in relationship, not to count how many minutes we spend as if tracking the number of repetitions in a set or the number of sets in a workout, We immerse ourselves in Scripture to engage with the living Word, not to measure our biblical knowledge the way weight lifters monitor how many pounds they can bench press. 156
Say we are having difficulty in the area of sexual temptation. Sexuality is an enormously powerful and fundamental dimension of being human, and I do not mean to reduce it to channeling urges. For our purpose here, however, I will simply focus on those everyday choices we make within the particular contexts, opportunities, and challeges unique to our individual lives and sexual experience.
Without prior preparation, trying harder to restrain sexual expression by mustering willpower at the brink of temptation is nearly akin to attempting to hold an inflatable beach ball under water. That is repression, which will simply come back at from another angle, trapping us in a cycle of failure, self-punishment and anger. Indirection establishes a pattern of discipling the body's desires long before we face the moment of decision. Our human cravings and desires are like rivers-if ~not properly channelled, they tend to overflow their banks. The original monastic idea of chastity did not primarily focus on sexual sin, but on the right control of desire. "Chastity" meant the right control of all desires by the grace of God. This is where fasting is helpful, because it dethrones the body as master and gives us authority over our body. We learn that cravings need not control us. 159
"If I were to define Christian perfection, I should not say that it is a perfection of striving but specifically that it i5 the deep recognition of the imperfection of one's striving, and precisely because of this a deeper and deeper consciousness of the need for grace, 190 Kierkegaard
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The reason the Spiritual Disciplines do not make us spiritual is because there is nothing inherently spiritual in them. We do not acquire godliness the way bodybuilders build muscle in a solitary regimen. We pray in order to engage in relationship, not to count how many minutes we spend as if tracking the number of repetitions in a set or the number of sets in a workout, We immerse ourselves in Scripture to engage with the living Word, not to measure our biblical knowledge the way weight lifters monitor how many pounds they can bench press. 156
Say we are having difficulty in the area of sexual temptation. Sexuality is an enormously powerful and fundamental dimension of being human, and I do not mean to reduce it to channeling urges. For our purpose here, however, I will simply focus on those everyday choices we make within the particular contexts, opportunities, and challeges unique to our individual lives and sexual experience.
Without prior preparation, trying harder to restrain sexual expression by mustering willpower at the brink of temptation is nearly akin to attempting to hold an inflatable beach ball under water. That is repression, which will simply come back at from another angle, trapping us in a cycle of failure, self-punishment and anger. Indirection establishes a pattern of discipling the body's desires long before we face the moment of decision. Our human cravings and desires are like rivers-if ~not properly channelled, they tend to overflow their banks. The original monastic idea of chastity did not primarily focus on sexual sin, but on the right control of desire. "Chastity" meant the right control of all desires by the grace of God. This is where fasting is helpful, because it dethrones the body as master and gives us authority over our body. We learn that cravings need not control us. 159
"If I were to define Christian perfection, I should not say that it is a perfection of striving but specifically that it i5 the deep recognition of the imperfection of one's striving, and precisely because of this a deeper and deeper consciousness of the need for grace, 190 Kierkegaard
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