If you’re like me, you want to know life—to enjoy a fullness in our living that accounts for the joys and heartbreaks of this world. A Christian is convinced that such a life is found in Jesus. To be a Christian is to follow Jesus, to apprentice oneself to the ways of the Master.
The invitation of Jesus to this life is compelling for busy people: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill – fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” (Matthew 11:28 – 30, The Message).
For thousands of years, followers of Jesus have learned the way of Jesus that is free and light, have kept company with Jesus through the practices commonly known as the spiritual disciplines—tools by which we co – operate with God in His work of life – change.
Let’s deal first with the foreboding sense of the word, discipline. It sounds so boot camp, with too many connotations of sergeant – barking, spirit – spanking commands. While I don’t want to jettison discipline (with its connections to disciple), many find it helpful to talk about spiritual disciplines as practices.
Why does a piano student practise? It’s a labour of love so that one day she can perform soul – stirring music. The practice frees her to enjoy and enter the music more deeply so that one day her disciplined virtuosity seems effortless.
Similarly, spiritual disciplines are practices by which we pursue the God who has found us, catching the rhythm of the Christian life. We train ourselves to be godly (1 Timothy 4:7) because knowing God and living the gospel don’t come naturally. We practice so that on a good day our life resonates with grace and resembles that of Jesus himself.
The spiritual practices are the way for disciples to grow in grace. When Jesus taught, he assumed them: “When you give … When you pray … When you fast” (Matthew 6).
The spiritual practices are the way Christians live out the paradox of growing in the gospel. Some believe we get saved by grace but then figure spiritual growth is up to us—it’s the try hard program. Others believe we are saved by grace and then we do or add nothing—the La – Z – Boy version where we mistakenly believe grace is opposed to effort because we do not earn our salvation.
Spiritual practices, however, are the regular habits by which Christians intentionally participate in and enjoy grace. They are activities that open ourselves to God, practices that reorient us to what Christ has done and allow God to do what we cannot.
Some mistakenly think these are only for spiritual giants when, in fact, they are ways ordinary people regularly practise the gospel. Practising the spiritual disciplines is not a sign of my heroic spiritual maturity; rather, it is a badge of my deep need for God amidst current spiritual poverty.
If you or I loved God and our neighbours in a moment – by – moment way, I’d say forget the disciplines. But the truth is, we don’t. These practices allow us to demonstrate our spiritual need and experience God’s grace at the same moment.
One of the great gifts of these practices is they take our cluttered, busy, distracted lives and they make space for God. In this series, I hope to help busy people get in touch with the everywhere God who is available to be known and experienced in our everything. We’ll do that by exploring some of the classic Christian spiritual practices, figuring out how we might work these into a way of following Jesus that brings life.
