I love reading biographies, the stories of men like Oswald Chambers, C.S. Lewis, John Knox, Jonathan Edwards, Augustine, Paul, and Jeremiah. As I read about their lives, I get the impression that our modern ideas about masculine maturity are a far cry from what godly men of earlier generations understood and practiced.
We talk a lot today about things like vulnerability and the courage to feel our pain. They seemed more interested in worship and witnessing.We speak of honest communication and living up to our potential. They fell to their knees in brokenness and got up to serve.
I wonder if the virtues we try to develop came naturally to those men from years ago whose toughest battles were fought against whatever kept them from knowing Christ. ...
Religious men of today too often have found a convenient God, an immediately useful God promoted by leaders who are filled more by the thrill of adoring crowds than by their opportunity for quiet communion with God....
Men from earlier generations slugged it out in intensely personal battles that lasted for years, battles that lessened only when they abandoned themselves more fully to Christ, not merely when they felt a new passion sweep through them at a big rally or when they discovered some new insight about themselves in therapy. The joy of finding Christ was released through brokenness over sin, brokenness that led to worshipful abandonment to God. Knowing Christ intimately developed through a deep work of God's Spirit that took place sometimes in big crowds but more often during long seasons of agonizing prayer in solitude.
Larry Crabb, The Silence of Adam, 30-31.
It is amazing how much sleep changes things! My daughter started sleeping for five hour stretches last week. That allowed the fog to lift in my mind. I think I gained back about 40 IQ points that I desperately needed!
Then this week, on the night of my birthday, she slept for 8 hours. It was the best birthday present I could imagine! Now that I am getting sleep, I feel like reading. I also feel like praying and listening to God. I feel like myself again.
Truly there is a close tie between our physical health and our spirituality!
What does this mean? Not all problems are spiritual problems. Sometimes, dealing with a physical problem can help take care of the spiritual deadness and dryness. In my case it was lack of sleep because of an incredible blessing. In many others I have found it to be clinical depression, chronic pain, a stroke, or some other physical ailment. All of these physical issues directly impact our spiritual awareness, openness, and ability to listen to God.
Yet, all too often the same process works in reverse. I have often seen how an individual's poor spiritual condition can greatly impact their physical life. Not only can and does a poor spiritual condition led to broken relationships, it also can lead to sloth or working too much, to anxiety or complete detachment, or to anger or apathy.
All of these conditions directly lead to physical issues!
As people, we are not merely physical entities. We are whole beings made for the spiritual and physical to work together.
Here is the rub for most of us in today's world. How do we do this? How do we work the spiritual and physical together?
No matter where you are in your spiritual journey, the starting place is always the same: repentance and faith. We never outgrow our need for repentance and faith! In fact, as we grow in our knowledge of God and ourselves, we will find ourselves growing in our awareness of our sin leading us to quicker and deeper repentance.
Mature people in Christ will constantly encourage and challenge everyone they meet to walk in such repentance and faith.
Alas, such living is now an often forgotten spiritual discipline! It is what our broken world needs the most, but it is also deeply lacking in our churches, in our community, and in everyday discussions.
Friends, let's be part of the solution. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into deeper brokenness over your sin. Ask that He not let go into you arise transformed to greater worship and witness. We have nothing to fear from such prayer. While the world might say this is "death," it is really the pathway to true life, joy, and power. We must not forget this spiritual discipline or we will not have a message to pass on to the next generation.
Possibly my favorite post of all that I’ve read, and for this money quote:
ReplyDelete“We talk a lot today about things like vulnerability and the courage to feel our pain. They seemed more interested in worship and witnessing.We speak of honest communication and living up to our potential. They fell to their knees in brokenness and got up to serve.”
One of the best things I’ve heard relative to an excess of getting in touch with ourselves was this, told to men at a couples conference: “Men, your feminine side is sitting next to you.” Your quote doesn’t refer only to men, of course. We all need to start the day in repentance and faith and hope. But unless we’re surrounded by others who are doing the same thing what’s our chance of staying faithful to that kind of morning-routine? Much less.
The last line is rather chilling. True, which makes it all the more so.
I’d enjoy hearing how a community of believers keeps this forgotten discipline.