She said that anyone who desires to have a healthier diet must do two things simultaneously. One is to STOP eating what’s bad for you. The other is to eat MORE of what’s good for you. In a healthier lifestyle, both are important.
Many spiritual masters have maintained exactly this principle—what they call Disciplines of Abstinence and Disciplines of Engagement.
Disciplines of Abstinence help us STOP doing things that are spiritually bad for us. Disciplines of Engagement help us do MORE of what is spiritually good for us. It’s that simple.
These disciplines are the practical, concrete means by which we “put off” the old self and “put on” the new self that the apostle Paul describes in Col. 3:9-10.
A Simpler Life
Eat only fast food and eventually you will make yourself sick. The same realization might be happening to some of us spiritually. More and more of us are realizing that a consumer-oriented, materialistic life is bad for us. We’re willing to entertain simplifying our lives, because we see that our current way of life is not producing the results we want.
Our issue is that rarely do we see material things as spiritually significant. We especially think that money (and how we use it) is spiritually neutral. But as Jesus declares, money is perhaps the greatest barrier that keeps people from ever really becoming his authentic disciples.
The stranglehold money gains over our spirits is very subtle. The bonds that bind us are typically not the heavy chains that surrounded Scrooge’s partner Marley in A Christmas Carol, but rather multitudes of tiny threads. Each thread by itself is too tiny to even feel, which is why you may be scoffing at this whole idea, even as you read this.
Looking at my own life, however, my experience is the cumulative effect of hundreds of tiny threads (each in itself seemingly insignificant) can be overpowering. So it was for this man who encountered Jesus:
Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.’” He replied, “I have kept all these since my youth.”
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich.
Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:18-25)
How Do We Find the Best Possible Life?
In our society, money and material things promise the best possible life. Thus, moving toward a simpler life is indeed a spiritual discipline—it frees us from dependence on the god Jesus called “mammon” so that we can receive more of the true God. Remember my small group member and her diet analogy? If you want a healthier life, the first thing you must do is stop eating what’s bad for you.
Along the journey of becoming an authentic disciple of Jesus, all of us must take three basic propositions to heart:
2) God can be absolutely trusted to do what’s best for me.
3) The life God wants for me is the very best life possible.
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I cannot give you a formula for simplifying your life. It’s more subtle than just getting rid of things, although for some–like the rich ruler we just heard about—that may be required.
Evangelical author Tony Campolo once preached a sermon titled “Would Jesus Drive a BMW?” His answer is “No. A BMW is too ostentatious, too luxurious, too extravagant a use of resources for the one who said “birds have nests and foxes have holes but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
I agree. I cannot imagine the Jesus I meet in the gospels driving a BMW. But neither can I take the next step Campolo takes and conclude, “Therefore, NO Christian should own a BMW!”
I might quote the old cliché that “Some of my best friends drive a BMW.” But that is not the reason. The reason I cannot make a blanket statement about BMW’s is something I learned from Eugene Peterson:
“Any attempt to cultivate a spirituality copied from something grown on someone else’s soil is as misguided as planting orange groves in Minnesota. Careful and detailed attention must be given to the conditions, inner and outer, historical and current, in which I, not you, exist. Nothing comes to grief more swiftly than an imitative spirituality that disregards conditions.Spirituality cannot be imposed, it must be grown.”
The soil of someone who lived through the Great Depression (as my parents did) is different than the soil of someone coming of age in the boom years of the 80’s. Family, education, temperament—many things determine the “soil” of our lives.
Jesus’ conditions for discipleship are clear. He says: “Trust me. The life I want for you is the very best life possible. So put me and my kingdom absolutely first.”
How we weed our own soil so Jesus’ Kingdom will blossom and flourish within us? No one can decide for us. No one can do it for us. We must slow down and ponder for ourselves.
How will you answer this question: “What do I need less of in my life so I can become more open and attentive to God’s Spirit?”
