Soon after we overcome the anxiety of needing spiritual quick-fixes—thus setting our sights on a long-term journey of growth, depth and maturity—the difficult, and at times, demoralizing reality of such a journey becomes apparent. If I will bear much fruit over a long and steady process of growth, it means that I will not “arrive” [...]
Shortcuts in the spiritual life tend to have a detrimental payoff in the long run. Foundations laid with anxiety and haste become the bane of feigned maturity built on an insecure base of imminent collapse. Why do people feel the need to so quickly “build up the tower,” or at least give such an impression, [...]
The person who is wise, therefore, will see their life as more like a reservoir than a canal. The canal simultaneously pours out what it receives; the reservoir retains the water till it is filled, then discharges the overflow without loss to itself. He knows that a curse is on the person who allows their own [...]
“Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” (Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline)
I read these lines when I was a freshman in college. They set [...]
In this series I am attempting to describe central principles for the spiritual life as well as practices that directly and strategically implement them. Thus far we have been discussing the principle:
A life poured out in love is the starting point of all true Christianity, the source and summit of all true humanity.
with [...]
There are two general postures toward life: open or closed. The former is characterized by the risk, passion, wonder and joy of giving one’s self in a whole and undivided way. We reach beyond the encroachment of our self-contained shell by engaging with the people and experiences of life. In these experiences, we necessarily give [...]
On Sunday morning you worship at church, on Tuesday attend a Buddhist meditation session, on Thursday, a Muslim recitation of the Qu’ran and Friday a Jewish Sabbath Eve service. Of course to modern ears this sounds like stretching the bounds of sanity. In the ancient world, the phenomenon of combining religions, sometimes fusing them, at [...]
A life poured out in love is the starting point of all true Christianity, the source and summit of all true humanity. God in Christ has invited us as His people to live as redeemed and redemptive truly human beings by loving God and neighbor with the totality of our being. The full and unreserved [...]
This is the beginning of a series in which I hope to distill a synthesis of my learning and experience with respect to the manner in which one cultivates a deep spiritual life. My intention is to combine both an understanding of how the spiritual life works along with what practically to do to experience [...]
