My operative definition of "spirituality" in this book is what gives us the strength to move on, and be creative. Understanding and cultivating spirituality must be done by understanding and cultivating it in our lives that empowers us, what is creative, hopeful, encouraging.
I have considered some kind of general-type orientation - how we perceive ourselves, how we perceive God, the problems caused by distorted views. I want now to move on to more practical things.
However, I am not comfortable with the talk of "spiritual discipline." I do not want to deny the value of such discipline (eg, time set aside for devotion, journalism, work with a spiritual director). However, they are not very appealing to me, nor do I personally find them to be a source of much encouragement or creativity.
Part of my concern is that often such discipline is extrinsic to real life. We have to get out of our way, maybe even make drastic changes to practice these disciplines. As a result, we often stay away from them from time to time, finding ourselves unable to permanently integrate them into our lives - at least, this is how it works for me.
That kind of dynamic is parallel to the exercise drills for the urban-type people. When we have to go far from our way to find space in our lives to exercise, we find it quite difficult to maintain regular practice. However, if we find any kind of exercise that is closer to being part of our daily routine, we are more likely to continue. This might mean, for example, walking or cycling to work. In my life, I subscribe to many periodicals and try to spend time each day reading them. I've found a way to combine periodic readings with practice on cross-country skiing. As I will read, this exercise does not require drastic changes in my routine but becomes part of my daily routine.
Regarding spirituality, I am very interested in the approach seen in the life we have lived. I find the idea of intrinsic spirituality more promising. This approach does not require much to change our lives. For most of us, our way of life has a general flow and direction. We may try some dramatic changes and successfully switch momentum for a while. Generally, over time, we return to the flow of a lifetime that has been formed.
Now, of course, the flow may produce despair and alienation. However, it is likely that we would better overcome difficulties by listening to our lives as they are and fostering the driving dynamics that are already there - more than looking for dramatic transformations and changes. The result of such listening might be that our life stream is adjusted - perhaps only a small amount - in a way that actually gives more vitality and creativity. If such an adjustment takes place in the general flow of our lives, chances are far greater that it will be sustainable.
In this section, then, I would like to offer some examples of elements of my life that have given a boost (ie, improving my spirituality). I offer this to stimulate your reflection on what constitutes the parallel elements in your life.
The reason for this is my thesis that identifying and cultivating present source of encouragement is the best strategy to improve our spiritual vitality. This, rather than seeking transformation by wrestling with spiritual discipline that many of us tend to leave it long ago. This strategy not only protects us from the inevitable irregularities that follow failure in spiritual discipline, but also promises to increase our true self-awareness and our sense of how God meets each of us as we are.
I cried loudly to God, in a loud voice to God, so he could hear me. . . . I seek God; . . . my soul refuses to be comforted. I thought of God, and I groaned; I meditate, and my spirit fainted. . . . I was so disturbed that I could not speak. . . . I communicate with my heart at night; I meditate and seek my soul: "Will God change forever, and never again be good? Does his steadfast love stop forever? ". . . I will remind the deeds of God; I will remember the miracles of your past. I will reflect on all your work, and contemplate your great deeds. Your path, my God, is holy. What God is so great as our Lord? You are a God who performs miracles; You have shown your strength among people. With your strong arm you redeem your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. . . . Your path is by sea, your way, through the great waters; but your footprints are not visible. You lead your people like sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron.
My focus now is encouragement for spirituality. I will elaborate on some themes, some of the pushing elements of my life experience. The theme I want to start with is the Bible as a source for spiritual encouragement.
My basic thesis about the Bible is that the Bible contains the message of life. It contains a message of vitality and creativity. It connects the "sacred," the spiritual core of life, with humans. Most importantly, the Bible presents the message of life to humans in our current experience, in history, in the midst of our ambiguity.
The message of life is certainly something we must strive for. We can use as an analogy the old story of the Old Testament patriarch Jacob wrestling with angels for a blessing. Jacob finally gets his blessing, but he also gets a dislocated hip for his problem. The insights and encouragements we may receive from the Bible also require struggle.
I will mention some scriptural texts that may offer encouragement. One refers to remembering God's healing experiences in the past. Psalm 77 tells of a writer who finds himself in deep despair - "I am so anxious that I can not speak" (verse 4). In his grief, he calls "to think of the deeds of the Lord" (verse 11), and meditates on God's mighty deeds. In particular, the author reminded the release of Israeli slaves from Egypt. By doing so, the author presents a feeling that God remains the same. God is still a God who cares for people who suffer, God offers sustainable healing. The memories of God's involvement in the past reduced the despair of the perceived neglect in the present.
The second element, along with remembering past healing experiences, is a courageous hope for the healing of the future. Micah foretold the establishment of the house of God on the mountain top. People from many countries will flock there to learn the ways of God. "They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; the nation will not lift the sword against the nation. They will not learn war anymore "(4: 1-4). Revelation 21-22 repeats the same hope, the nations healed by the tree of life.
The essence of remembering and looking forward is that such consciousness tells us about God. God is God who is allied with slaves. God is God who is allied with the transformation of the sword into plowshares. God is the God who is concerned with the healing of the nations.
However, if we take the whole Bible seriously, we realize that this notion of God is only a part of what happened. Many of the Bible tell the various types of slavery. We read about war and rumors about war. Nations often experience destruction. Life is also like that. These biblical visions, I think, are of little significance to escape the destruction of life, but lead to a perspective on life. Life, broken as it is, is still best understood in terms of God, in terms of love experience. Gladiher's joy and hope for healing stand as a determinant of the meaning of life.
This expression of wholeness is not all there, but when we affirm it as true, as original - then they will form an identity. This affirmation of life instead of having our identity is shaped by fear, bitterness, and self-protection. Thus, we will find ourselves more able to live in the world of your relationship. We will be more able to be free of existence in the world of things and isolation.
I do not always approach the Bible in this way. For me to reflect on the Bible and spirituality, in many ways, to touch most of my "spiritual autobiography." Thinking back to my early years as a Christian, I would characterize my approach to the Bible as developing. I began by looking at the Bible as a book of magic, then as a source of absoluteness, and then as a problem. I moved from a naive reception to a near crisis.
I had conversion experience when I was 17 years old. Much influenced by a fundamentalist friend who "watched" me, I had a certain moment when I prayed to accept Jesus as my personal savior. Not much has changed for me. I am quite straight. I've even stopped scolding a year before because I do not like how it sounds.
However, one aspect of my life did change. I have a small New Testament, received from Gideon when I was in fifth grade. For several months, after I started talking to my friend, I tried to read it, beginning with Matthew's Gospel. I can not make head or tail from it (I think now mostly because of King James English). However, after my conversion, it started to make sense to me. I was told a little later that the difference was that something had happened inside me then. Before I was saved, I had only body and soul. After being saved, I now have a spirit - that is, the Spirit of God is now in me. My former self who is blind to God and my new self can now see. The scales fell out of my eyes.
To be honest, I can not now fully explain why I could not understand the Bible before. I thought maybe I was not really motivated to until I actually saw myself as a Christian. Matthew's Gospel is not too difficult and even atheists understand and praise Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five. However, over the years, I believe that some miracles have taken place that changed my perception. Now, I see that view as a kind of magical sight.
I also have a "magical" conviction that if I read the Bible prayerfully, God will speak directly to me through those words. It does not matter, really, what is the content of the actual text. The key element is to expect God to speak directly through every page of God's word.
For example, in those years I struggled to release my rock music. I seek freedom from the urge to listen to Elton John and Creedence Clearwater Revival. In this situation, a text like Isaiah 49: 9 might speak to me. God says "to the prisoners, 'Come out,' to those who are in darkness, 'Show yourself.'" Maybe this means, out of the darkness. Leave my bondage. Burn that note, and "show myself" to the church by standing during the time of the testimony and telling me what I have done.
I see the Bible as something separate from my being here and now as a human being. The Bible contains the exact words of God, words that will speak to me if I am spiritual enough with special messages and deep truths. I know, and care, there is nothing in the historical setting of the Bible or any other way that other Christians approach the Bible. It is the Scripture, which is meant to speak directly to my spirit.
I remember after I went back to school after a few months with a new Bible, which looked like any other book. Someone has recommended it to me, and I just bought it. The print size is normal; there is only one printed column. The text is in a paragraph with some footnotes or cross references. I showed it to a friend and she was a little surprised. "It looks like another book!" I kinda put that aside for a while. It seems too ordinary, not quite different.
For several years, I pretty much approached the Bible in this way. Then I started getting more "intellectuals." I have switched churches and been involved in study groups that read some heavy theology. Our "teacher" was an evangelical writer named Francis Schaeffer, who sold hundreds of thousands of books in the late sixties and early seventies. He has been called "evangelist for intellectuals." I look back now and see Schaeffer as a very narrow and shallow figure. However, at that time he offered me an exit from the very narrow limits of fundamentalism. He encouraged me to see thoughts and explore and question as valuable Christian activities.
One of the problems Schaeffer ultimately became very hard was the inerrancy of the Bible. He became one of the central spokesmen in various controversies because of the rigorous views that assert that the Bible contains no errors. He established his system on what he called "absolute." The Bible reveals the absolute truth upon which we can really depend entirely on every challenge. This truth never changes.
A friend of mine, deeply influenced by Schaeffer, once told me once that his faith depended on the Bible to be perfect. If he believes that the Bible contains mistakes, then he ultimately has nothing reliable. He will give up his faith. Last I heard, years later, he was a pastor. I assume he never found fault. Others have not been so lucky. I know of some who hold firm to their commitments. When they became convinced of the biblical error, they ceased to be Christians. Some call this pin-stitch theology. If your non-printable balloon from the Bible gets one small pin hole in it, all the air rushes out and the entire building collapses.
A critical moment came when I read a book called The Battle for the Bible that revealed inerrancy. Moreover, very critical evangelical theologians have criticized what the authors claim to have implied in the doctrine. I started the book with the assumption that I would agree and that inerrancy is a major issue related to the Bible. I finished the book converted to a non-romantic view! As I read the book, I found the calling of names and the severity of attacks against the attacking opponents of the author. It opened my eyes then, to the silliness of many arguments of unbelievers. For example, according to this book, to harmonize gospel stories, the rooster actually crowed several moments before Peter's denial of Jesus. Different gospels place the crows in different places. However, none of them had more than three crows. So to make sure the account inconsistency matches each other, the rooster actually crows six times.
The meaning of the Bible changed for me. My focus is moving more towards the story and the various perspectives in the Bible. I am searching for a little more for a unified idea of absolute truth and eternal principles. I also no longer expect to find the kind of personal direct communication from God I was looking for before.
During this time I began the study of the Old Testament, where I read some comments and research that helped me see the elements of the Bible story much better. This is also when I started studying the book of Revelation. I find Revelation to be a more human source than I have taught - in my former church with its futuristic prophecy. About a year later I started attending a seminary in Indiana. Some of my teachers there helped me continue to take a positive view of the Bible.
I went through the process of releasing my old view of the Bible without losing all my interest in it and respecting it. I find in biblical sources for spirituality that does not require it to be the very other kind of Book I initially taught. The positive focus of the Bible overwhelms me even as I reject my previous views. I really like this positive focus so negative does not burden me.
I believe that the power that the Bible has as a resource for our spirituality comes from human nature. The Bible is a document written by man, written at a certain time and place, written about human experience and human perception of God. Just as a human document, the Bible mediates the divine.
The reality of what the Bible is, is part of the reality of human life. Human life is tentative, ambiguous, mixed, fragile. We find greatness, beauty, wisdom, joy in human experience. We also find violence, selfishness, vice, bitterness, anger. To see the truth, grow in wholeness, experience love takes perspective, insight, faith, and trust. That is how we benefit from the Bible. The Bible is not something out of human experience. Instead, it is a record of human experience. With insight, we find in story notes, drawings, images that can bring our growth. These stories, pictures, pictures help us understand the truth here and now in our world about human ambiguity.
In many ways, the belief we get from the Bible is similar to the belief we get from a friend. It grows gradually when we experience friends to be trusted. Sometimes friends are not always trustworthy; then we gradually let the trust grow again. These are all part of human relationships. Ultimately, this growth of trust is also a problem of a range of choices. We decided, yes we would trust at least a little more, believing that this trust is worth doing. Our approach to the Bible is similar. So is our approach to God and Life itself. We believe little, we find the trust given - but we also have to choose, take risks, to test. To back off a bit and then rebuild.
Professor Gabriel Josipovici's literary book, The Book of God: The response to the Bible, helped me immensely. He writes, "We agree with [the Bible], as we do to the people, to the extent that we grow to feel able to believe it. In [the Bible], it is a common moment, when a person realizes he is hungry and takes food from others, which builds the foundation of our belief. These are moments of vulnerability, moments when the protagonist can no longer find words to understand [someone's] life, and is reduced to tears or the cries of despair, which make us experience the body of [the person] as our own. "[1] At this moment, we find that the Bible is authentic to life. We find that we can trust that it offers insight and empathy - and spiritual food and encouragement.
The Bible facilitates "spirituality for who we are." The Bible meets us in our ambiguity with its own ambiguity. We get the most out of the Bible not by placing its perfection. Doing so leads us to bend before it with a closed mind or reject it when we realize that it does not meet our ideal perfection. Both boxes cut off the conversation before it starts. Instead, we have the greatest benefit of receiving the Bible as it comes to us.
The Bible reflects the realism of everyday life. It contains a contradictory voice. It blessed the position of the king and the politics of power and condemned them. It portrays Jesus as a superhuman man, a flawless stranger from heaven and as the flesh and blood of Jewish carpenters sweating and crying and doubting God. It promises wealth and happiness to the faithful and promises the cross for the faithful. We can not read the Bible with the attitude that we can now turn off our critical abilities and only be told what is right. We have to keep thinking. We still have to make choices and interpret and weigh. Just as we do in life.
However, most importantly, the Bible gives us the story of man. Limited, sometimes broken, human, with very realistic strengths and weaknesses. This is a man who fails, grows, makes bad decisions, is weak and has not been able to do great things.
We read about sneering Sarah's childbirth in old age. We read about the stuttering of Moses against the mighty kings of Pharaoh. We read the arrogant David, given power and wealth because of his wisdom, his courage, and his belief in God, and squandered everything by acting on his will against the wives of others. We read about the crumbling Jeremiah, speaking profound sorrows, and insight and hope, during the darkest days of Israel. We read about the trembling Mary, accepting her fate even at great cost, nurturing the greatest prophet of all. We read of the pious Paul, who was brought to the end of his godly rope with his devastating encounter with God on the road to Damascus. He was later restored to proclaim the most radical mercy.
These people meet God and get a measure of healing. However, the healing is always partial. Moses did not make it to the promised land. Jeremiah died in exile. Paul never escaped the struggle with the thorn in his flesh. Nonetheless, this is the measure of healing we should expect - partial at best, but still original.
Listening to the Bible is better to listen to life. The Bible speaks of the heartbeat of real life - ordinary people wrestle with God, grapple with disappointment, wrestle with destruction. From this ongoing wrestling process, they know some healing, growth, and joy. They also cast a voice of hope for more.
To know there will be healing is part of what we must get from the world of the Bible. The Bible witnesses the healing power of the workplace in creating the good of the chaos. This healing power works in the liberation of slaves from Egypt and in defending faith amid the ruins of the ruined ancient Jerusalem temple. This healing power works to preserve life and love even after the crucifixion. This is the healing power witnessed by the Bible. The witness was trying to find a listener, even today.To know there will be healing is part of what we must get from the world of the Bible. The Bible witnesses the healing power of the workplace in creating the good of the chaos. This healing power works in the liberation of slaves from Egypt and in defending faith amid the ruins of the ruined ancient Jerusalem temple. This healing power works to preserve life and love even after the crucifixion. This is the healing power witnessed by the Bible. The witness was trying to find a listener, even today.