Some time ago, I had the opportunity to speak to a youth group — something that creates more anxiety than speaking to the smartest, most distinguished adults in the world! Whenever I talk to kids, I try to latch on to the one thing (hopefully there’s one!) that grabbed their interest.
They could care less about my discipleship and spiritual formation interests; news that I had pastored for nearly two decades almost put them to sleep. Eventually, when someone else was talking about obstacle course races, I mentioned that we did those in boot camp all the time. I said something like, “Before the Spartan and Tough Mudder were a thing, we did that in boot camp a couple times a week!”
“You were a Marine?!” they said, with emphasis placed on the “You…”
After alleviating their doubts by telling them it was a long time ago, their questions shifted to how hard boot camp was, how many people quit, if I shot anybody, and so on.
One who was considering a career in the military asked how I made it and if I had advice. I told him that the thing that kept me going when I wanted to quit was thinking about seeing my parents at boot camp graduation.
It sounds cheesy, but the thought of their beaming faces really helped me endure the especially grueling moments of training. So, I encouraged the young man to discover the thing — Simon Sinek would call it the “the Why” — that would keep him going.
This is true for life in general, and we typically apply it to other arenas of life that we consider more “practical.” But it’s especially important to remember the importance of vision or purpose when it comes to our lives as disciples of Jesus.
Too often, our commitment to God is based on oughts, shoulds, and guilt — catholic or otherwise. And this keeps us going, but often aimlessly. Like Forrest Gump, running… just because.
This makes for a great scene in a movie, but in real life it’s not cute or funny.
Instead, we need a vision so powerful that it will pull us through even the valley of the shadow of death.
John Ortberg understood this. He wrote:
The right vision of the kingdom isn’t just theologically accurate, it will awaken tremendous desire within you. It can’t be forced or manipulated, it simply has to be a vision of what is true that evokes a desire in me that is stronger than my desire for anything else, because I know that to have it would be better than to have anything else.
One of my main pastoral concerns around Christian Spiritual Formation (CSF), is that it is often visionless. Too often, it is directly associated with things to do, like fasting, praying, spending time alone. And these disciplines do play an important role in any CSF, but when thoughts of formation immediately turn to what we should do, it may be a sign that we’re running aimlessly.
Instead, we need to focus on the goal of CSF. Which is not to form us into people who are good at fasting, anymore than practicing piano is for the purpose of getting good at practicing piano. The goal is to become like Jesus; therefore, he must also be the governing vision.
To see him — his power, grace, beauty, wisdom and love — clearly is what either evokes strong desire or revulsion. Revulsion from those comfortable in the darkness (see the demonized man in Mark 5:7); positive desire from those desirous of the light (see the delivered man in Mark 5:18).
The New Testament writers understood this from experience. As far as we know, all of them were drawn by a vision of Christ, whether in-person, a vision, or hearing stories of him. Therefore, when they wrote their letters and Gospels, they didn’t give their readers a program, they sought to present the person — Jesus Christ the righteous one. They held him up through life, his words, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension. And trusted that that vision would do what talk of duty cannot.
When that vision takes hold, disciplines will stop feeling like homework assigned on a sunny weekend and start feeling the way Olympic athletes feel about training (1 Timothy 4:7-8). It will no longer be, “I have to” but “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
The goal was never to become good at the practices. The goal was always Christ. And people who have genuinely seen him don’t need to be talked into the work.
Northminster Church Update
Aside from preaching at different churches, the bulk of my work has been with the good people at Northminster Presbyterian Church. Last month I taught a 4 session course called Formation Lab: The Kingdom of God for Everyday Disciples.
The goal of these “labs” was to move beyond informational knowledge (gnosis), towards a more practical/relational knowledge (epignosis). We covered:
If you’d like to tune in, but prefer video, start here:
Nigerian Greenhouse Update
Harvest time in Nigeria. I’ll let the picture and video speak for themselves, but we are incredibly thankful for the financial support that has made this possible.
Quick Hitters
Shameless Do-Gooders
As you all know, the economy is in the tank! I beseech you, therefore, sisters and brothers, look for opportunities to do good! I guarantee you you won’t have to look too long.
Recall what it says in Psalm 41. “Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land…”
That’s how it works. Because God is our deliverer, it frees us to be intentionally considerate of others.
Let’s make somebody's day. Click this if you’d like to help us do so.
Liked the first class of the Formation Lab! Jesus was telling us all along but we were taught to focus on so many other aspects of theology, all kinds of interpretations of salvation, etc.Your kingdom inside God's kingdom is such a practical way to look at it. You're very good at making hard concepts simple. I may have to tune in to clas 2 now....!