Spiritual Disciplines
Written by Logan Gutwein, published January 2022
Spiritual disciplines. That phrase in and of itself is something I still feel new to. “A Christian should read their bible, pray, and go to church” was the extent of my understanding on the topic in the early years of my christian walk. However, through the impact of faithful men in college, and now the Paradox Church, I can say that I’ve moved from uniformed acceptance to reverant appreciation for the various disciplines of the faith that have proven many times over to be an anchoring point and a launching pad for the soul. And yet I can also say, I am flooded not only with the times of refuge but also of apathy that I’ve experienced in my pursuit of these spiritual disciplines. So it’s from that place that I’m typing up this reflection. For those not aware, the Paradox Church has an online spiritual disciplines class. The rest of this is a reflection on my experience taking that class.
“Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did.”
1 John 2:6
So to start off, what is a spiritual discipline? The spiritual disciplines are defined in this class as the habits and rhythms that are designed to form our hearts more into the image of Christ. And the cool part is that Jesus either modeled them directly or taught about them! In our world, mind is king and intellect is ruler. Each of us goes through the day with a buffet of information, some of it half cooked, some of it rotting, most of it unhealthy… and if we aren’t careful we could approach our relationship with God much the same, consuming information with the end result being little more than a bloated stomach and a food coma. Yet, the spiritual disciplines are meant to be different. They inform the mind, but they mold the heart and body as well. They aren’t just meant to make you think like Jesus, but to walk like Him, talk like Him, speak like Him, and even do as 1 John 2:6 says and live like Him. If your experience turns out anything like mine, this journey will show you a new depth of sin in your heart, and a new depth of joy in Christ.
Well, since I talked about the depth of sin, why don’t I just start there hah! To take this course, I think that you should prepare yourself for moments of painful pruning. The heart of the spiritual disciplines is a desire to be conformed into the image of Christ, however we must look no further than scripture to see that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. In a recent lunch with Pastor Seth, I was talking about my feelings of despair in my overwhelming sinfulness. I was feeling like the more I grew in my faith the more I seemed to lament my sin. He offered me encouragement that I think I first began to learn in this class and want to pass on to you. That is, the more we seem to know and love God the more we seem to know and lament our sin. Pastor Seth walked me through the life of Paul the apostle. As he got older, his tone and verbiage towards his sin seemed to increase in intensity until finally he granted himself the title “Chief of Sinners”. So my first reflection is this: great are the depths of both God’s holiness and our transgressions. In the light of these things, a chasm forms before us.
Now, that seems like a depressing place to land… and apart from the finished work of Jesus, it is. However, in light of the cross it becomes a place of true refuge! This is where that depth of joy I talked about comes in. You see as the chasm grows wider, greater is the bridge that is needed to cross that chasm. And that bridge is Jesus, who spanned the chasm to rescue us! And so despair turns to joy and fear into worship. I believe that this was the meat of what I learned through this class. I saw that my heart was far from God. But practicing genuine and intimate prayer, breaking down limits to generosity, learning to find rest in the Lord, and all the other disciplines began to draw my heart closer and closer to the Lord and form my habits to look more like Jesus. It’s in that place that the chasm was widest, and the joy sweetest. It’s for that reason that I want to challenge you to take this course, and I want to finish by challenging you to do it in two ways.
These two ways are in community and slowly. Why in community? For me this was essential. I did this course with two of my closest friends. Men who know me well; lots of the good, lots of the ugly. They were able to call out sin in me that I never noticed and to challenge me in areas of weakness I didn’t know I had. On top of that, they encouraged me and ran with me as we all chased an ever present Jesus who was beckoning us forward. And then do it slowly. This course is online and I can’t tell you how much of a gift that is. I’m not sure how many times I rewatched the sabbath video before my heart even acknowledged the idea of habitual rest in the Lord (something I still struggle with a lot). This course let’s you take things at your own pace and to sit in things. Research shows that it takes around 2 months to form new habits, and even longer to break bad ones. So the fact that this course is online allows you to go slow and really dive in. Use that!
To wrap things up I want to encourage you with this.
“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.”
1 John 4:16-17
I pray that you take the time to work through the spiritual disciplines, and that as you do you gaze more deeply upon the Lord finding a new joy in knowing that, against all odds, we are His and truly He loves us.
Your Brother in Christ,
Logan Gutwein