Trip to HQ

Last Sunday afternoon and evening approximately twenty Asbury Seminary students from the Wesleyan Church headed north to Fisher, Indiana. The reason for this trip was to visit The World Headquarters of the Wesleyan Church. Every two years the Department of Education and the Ministry hosts the seniors to Seminary Day. This is a day that is designed to help graduating students to connect with different church leaders and exposes them to the ministries that HQ has to offer students graduating from seminary.

Secrecy . . .

This past week our group studied the spiritual discipline of secrecy. Author Coach D says, “the discipline of secrecy is abstaining from taking credit for the good deeds we do. When we practice secrecy, we arrange to do good things in such a way that others can’t even find out who did them.” He goes on to say that like other disciplines secrecy really calls us to explore and focus on our relationship with God through the light of total dependency.

I found myself even today as I write these comments asking some hard questions about “Whom I seek affirmation or recognition from?” There are times over the years I have stayed late after church or event to talk with people and I think I wanted the pastor or leader to take notices. One of the hardest parts of practicing the discipline of secrecy is to examine our motivations. Coach reminds his readers, “It is our motivation that makes the deed either praiseworthy or hypocritical.” Paul takes about this in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing our of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interests of others.”

After reading the chapter and Philippians I am left thinking about my own personal motivates and propose this question to us all, have you checked your motivations this week? And what will you do to being practicing secrecy this week?

Thoughts on Resting

After reading this week’s chapter I was left pondering the “Protestant Work Ethic.” Especially growing up in America where the mindset of laziness and being a couch potato is bad. We are told that we must be doing something, anything. Busyness is lifted up as the best life; today parents’ status is linked with that amount of activities their kids are in. We have become a culture of workaholics.

The church has not escape this vain of workaholic-ism, the “Protestant Work Ethic” calls some churches to provide activities every night of the week, all day Saturday and Sunday. The Church can add to the busyness of life, but it can also offer rest. Coach D says in the discipline of rest “God restores the body, mind, and soul – all three of which are interrelated.”

Rest is holistic and as we enter into times of rest we are able to affect our whole being. Getting a good night’s sleep not only helps us physically, but emotionally. We wake up in a better mode with restored energy, and spiritual life is also impacted.

Do you need a rest?

February 5

While reading today for my small group, I looked at the spiritual discipline of simplicity. I find myself thinking about a wood carving my boss has in her kitchen, it is just the word simplicity carved out of cherry wood. In a cultural that has some many choices and options has simplicity been replaced never to be heard from again? According to Wikipedia simplicity, “is the property, condition or quality of being simple or un-combined. It often denotes beauty, purity or clarity. Simple things are usually easier to explain and understand than complicated ones. Simplicity can mean freedom from hardship, effort or confusion.” Sounds like a lifestyle I wish and want to live, but wikipedia’s definition appears to be lacking something. Keith Drury says simplicity is “intentionally paring down our lifestyle toward the essentials to free ourselves from the tyranny of things and focus more on spiritual life.” Simplicity is still alive and is calling all Christians to a lifestyle that allows one to focus on God and less on the material.

That’s a life I want to have and one I seek.

Solitude . . .

Being an introvert you would think solitude would be the easiest spiritual discipline for myself. But your wrong, being an introvert or extrovert really has nothing to do with solitude. True an introvert may find it easier to sit alone quietly process through the days events at dinner or read a book and ponder the deeper meaning of the text. Solitude has those elements, but it has much more and requires much more. According to Coach D “solitude is abstaining from people contact in order to be alone with God and get closer to Him. It is fasting from social contact in order to remove others form the God/me equation.”

Solitude is not just about getting alone; it is about moving closer to God and refocusing all our relationship with God being number one. Drury says, “Solitude reminds us of the order we should maintain in our relationships – God first, others second. A Christian who does not practice solitude is likely to be over reliant on friends and under reliant on God. Solitude corrects this imbalance.” Solitude may call us to leave all other relationships and focus on God, but it is for the encouragement of the community. When solitude is build in regularly in to one’s life, they return to community with new passion and focus that allows them to invest into the community.

Have to being getting alone to process your own thoughts or have you really entered solitude?

What has your experience of solitude thought you about yourself, God and the community?

When is your next time of solitude?