We will find fulfillment and the life we long to lead only as we move progressively, and collectively, toward three deep and meaningful connections:
- with the Deity who designed us,
- with the people of every color who share this planet with us, and
- with the unique self God has fashioned of us.
This “triunion” is experienced and expressed as we engage in specific spiritual disciplines that reduce the roadblocks standing in the way of our three-corded-communion. They are the training we enter into which slowly increases our capacity to know and be known by our Savior, our society and ourselves.
Trying hard will never achieve the closeness our souls ache for when it comes to our standing with God, with our fellow humans and with ourselves. But training hard will. I was reminded of this last weekend when friends invited me to try wake-boarding for the first time at their favorite lake. A wake board is like a surfboard you stand on while a fast boat pulls you across the water’s surface. I consider myself pretty fit and pretty coordinated. But in attempt after attempt I could not even get successfully up on the board as the boat pulled me, much less actually ski for a distance on the wakeboard. No matter how hard I tried, each time the boat took off to propel me on my journey, I slapped flat on my butt or my face. What I needed was training. Over time. To develop greater capacity for that task. Similarly, we will never experience the communion for which we were created just by trying hard. But we can by training hard, through intentional and targeted spiritual disciplines.
Two caveats are important to hold as we engage in spiritual disciplines. First, while many spiritual disciplines are personal and private they do not preclude the urgent nature of other practices that are corporate and public. That is to say, soul change is not a replacement for social change. It is not either-or. It is both-and. This is especially vital as we explore the walls dividing us from each other and the practices that break down those barriers. One reason so many evangelical Christians and churches remain racist and sexist and engage in homophobic and xenophobic behavior is that they foolishly embrace an unbiblical gospel that only deals with “private” sin between “me and God” and neglect the biblical gospel that addresses the public, social and systemic sin that demeans, dehumanizes and destroys other people. In truth there is no such thing as “private” sin. Any sin cultivated in the heart and tolerated in the church becomes public sin that eventually terrorizes and traumatizes others. Contemplative spiritual disciplines practiced in the privacy of our home will be the roots from which the fruit of justice and compassion must also be borne in the public square and marketplaces we inhabit.
We see this in the Jesuits. They are known for being “contemplatives in action.” They don’t just value solitude–they also value service. They don’t just pray–they change public policy. They won’t just magnify God–they will march in protest against injustices suffered by the creations of God.
When practicing spiritual disciplines, we hold two-fold focus of Jesus:
“And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. (Matt. 4:23 ESV)
Jesus taught and proclaimed (the soul stuff). And he healed every disease and affliction (the social stuff). He was the first contemplative in action. We must follow his lead.
Second, spiritual disciplines are not the only way we are reshaped so we can experience restoration and reconciliation with God, with others and with ourselves. In his book The Great Omission, Dallas Willard writes about “the golden triangle.” This image describes three “golden” ways God remakes us and removes the obstacles obstructing our union.
- There is the Spirit, God’s direct and decisive work within us and our world. Sometimes a whisper, sometimes a hurricane, the Spirit rips apart roadblocks in radical ways. As we engage in disciplines, we must also call upon God’s Spirit to fill us and the world and to do what only He can do.
- Then there is suffering, misery that matures us in peculiar and painful ways. Though often the result of the unkind and unjust actions of others, God redeems our suffering to remake us into people better able to experience the connections for which we were created. Suffering often leads us into solidarity with Christ crucified and his crucified followers in ways that are unique.
- And, there are spiritual disciplines. Even as we engage in sacred rituals and routines, we remain ready for the ways Spirit and suffering will also speed us further down the road toward triunion.
Intentionality, one my mentors used to tell me, is the first spiritual discipline. More than ever I believe this truth. Disconnection from God, prejudice and bias toward others, and self-hatred will not disappear on their own. They will only be dismantled as the people of God radically and intentionally begin to illuminate these walls and practice the disciplines necessary to remove them.
