Earlier this week, I logged on to our regular zoom staff meeting to discuss the upcoming week. Towards the end, Mark asked a simple yet profound question, "What is God teaching you during this season?" For a while, the meeting was quiet, and I had to do some soul searching. But the more I've considered it, the more confidently I can say that this season has taught the importance of routine, structure, and discipline. Five weeks into lockdown, and working from home, it's become apparent that my family desperately needs rhythm, it will not do to stumble from project to project without structure. We need consistent practices to stay afloat.
Slowly, but surely we've built them into our day: wake up, make coffee, morning devotional, work till noon, eat lunch, go for a walk, clock back in, etc. For the first few weeks, these systems weren't in place, and very little felt as though it got done. Our home felt like a prison, the days blurred together, and we were exhausted without really knowing why. The great irony is that a day free of structure didn't feel free. It was only through routines, rituals, and discipline that the fog began to lift. With those in place, we started to get our momentum back. That is true of the Christian life as well.
Paul encourages Timothy to develop spiritual habits and disciplines in his first letter:
“Rather train yourself for Godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, Godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”
1 Timothy 4:7-8
Over the centuries, Christians have studied the Bible and the life of Christ to compile an essential list of the sort of structure and discipline we need to train ourselves in Godliness. These routines have come to be called, "Spiritual Disciplines." Many of them are practices you'll be familiar with: prayer, scripture reading, worship, and evangelism. But others, like solitude, fasting, and stewardship, will at first feel foreign to us. Some of these will be uncomfortable at first, nobody likes abstaining from eating, myself included.
Perhaps this is why Paul uses the metaphor of "Bodily training" in the passage above. Anyone who's begun the process of getting in shape knows that there are weeks of discomfort before things feel natural. It takes practice to master the forms for lifting, and even longer to see the results you'd hoped for. But as the months pass we begin to change, we no longer dread the gym but enjoy it. Those habits, in turn, change us; clothes fit looser, and we aren't as winded walking up the stairs. Spiritual disciplines work in the same way, they are uncomfortable at first, but as they become a part of our routines, we find out how indispensable they are for our spiritual health.
Over the next several weeks, we'll be unpacking these disciplines in a series of articles we're calling, "Practicing Faith." The beauty of the disciplines is that they require only three things: your body, your Bible, and your time. You won't need to pick up supplies or brave the supermarkets in order to be equipped. Ultimately, these three elements are what the Spirit uses to shape us into the image of Christ. Through the Word, He teaches us how to act in our bodies as we pass through time. These disciplines belong to all of us; they're not just for monks in monasteries or pastors in their offices with the door closed. Now, more than ever, Christians of all backgrounds need to recover them. For the sake of the lost, for the sake of the world, and for the sake of our own spiritual well being. In the words of Dallas Willard:
"Instead of a select few making religion their life, with the power and inspiration realized through the spiritual disciplines, all of us can make our daily lives and vocations be "the house of God and the gate of heaven."
Our hope for this series is to offer some biblically rich, and theologically practical help in building these structures and rhythms into you day so that you can experience the new life that they bring.