Where do you feed? I spent a few hours in a class at my church discussing the concept of spiritual formation. It wasn’t new news to me but still a great reminder to look again at my inner life. Spiritual formation could easily be called, spiritual feeding. Before we talk about how to feed on good things, we really need to take stock of the “food” we actually eat.
My counselees come in to try to find how to fix their problems. Part of my job with them (and with myself) is to evaluate their meditational/imaginal life. I need to know what they feed on in order to understand their world and what they care for.
So, what do you feed on? Your wounds? Others’ sins/failures against you? Your successes? Your goals/desires? Your identity (from work, family, gender, race, etc.)? Your weaknesses/deficiencies? Your right to self-determination? Pleasure? Financial security? Escapism? Carefully controlled spiritual behaviors? (It is possible to look at external measures to see how we are doing in our spiritual life. Have I read enough? Prayed enough? Served enough? Sacrificed enough?)
So, where do you feed? One of my colleagues, Charles Zimmerman, once said that what you think about in the shower can give you a bit a sense as to the nature of your god. I suspect that kind of “mindless” time does reveal our feeding habits.
Category Archives: Meditations
Spiritual formation: What do you eat?
Filed under Insight, Meditations
Confessing your brother’s sins as your own?
“What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have deserved and have given us a remnant like this.” Ezra 9:13
When is the last time you confessed someone else’s sin as if they were your own, as if the consequences of that sin would fall on you? The closest I have come to that is confessing (I mean, gossiping) the sin of a friend who had wronged me so that I am vindicated.
The book of Ezra records how God is at work in the hearts of foreign kings to do his bidding and honor the covenant promises made to Abraham and David—to establish a people in the land of Israel. Read quickly, it is a book of triumph in the face of adversity and enemies. But leaving it there would miss Ezra’s response to the sin of his people. He hears that 111 Jewish men who remained in Israel during the exile had married foreign women. These men were found from every tribe, including the consecrated priests and Levites. Continue reading
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Filed under Meditations, sin, Uncategorized
Ponder this: Brooks on the responsibility of readers
Pondering this at the beginning of the semester when we have much to read:
He that hath a good book in his hand, but not a lesson of it in his heart or life, is like that ass that carrieth burdens and feeds upon thistles…Profession without practice will but make a man twice told a child of darkness….He that makes not conscience of praying over what he reads, will find little sweetness or profit in his reading.
Thomas Brooks, Works, vol. 1, p. 291-2
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Filed under Meditations, self-deception
Pondering This…
In clear idea stealing from Cavman’s Pensees, I’m going to include a few of my favorite quotes from time to time. These help me remember something important and keep me thinking on good things:
The problem is we want to sleep with God but not get married. We want intimacy [the blessings from God] without obedience.
From a sermon preached by Manuel Ortiz, pastor of Spirit and Truth Church and professor emeritus of Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.
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Filed under Meditations, Uncategorized
Musings on Faith and Psychology 