Humility and Submission

Humility is the greatest virtue and the ground of all the other virtues, wrote Andrew Murray. I think the life of Mother Teresa illustrates this stunningly. We all have at least an impression of what an amazing difference she made in this world, particularly amongst the poor and destitute, whom God loves. But where did that power come from? Her personality? Training? Those probably played a small part, but she herself would trace it to something different.

At age 32, she wrote, "I made a vow to God, binding under [pain of] mortal sin, to give to God anything that He may ask, 'Not to refuse him anything.'" (Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, p.28). That may sound pretty arrogant, but at least three things show it wasn't.

First, she sought the guidance of her spiritual director, and would not make this vow without his permission. To allow her to make this, he must have felt she did not want to do this from a place of self-adulation but rather self-denial.

Her writings also attest to humility: "Why must we give ourselves fully to God? Because God gives himself fully to us. If God who owes nothing to us is ready to impart to us no less than Himself, shall we answer with just a fraction of ourselves? To give ourselves fully to God is a means of receiving God Himself....to possess God we must allow Him to possess our soul" (p. 29).

I'll write about the third evidence of humility in my next post (trying to keep these concise). I'm not entirely sure what I think of making a vow under pain of mortal sin (meaning to break it would be to condemn herself to hell). However, I cannot deny the power of God working through her. Her life over the following 55 years blazes on like a torch in human history.

I am inspired to submit myself to God, without reserve. I have such a rebellious heart: often I have a sense of conviction to do something small, or a pang of conscience that I should stop doing my current activity. Often I submit, but often--let's just say my track record has improved but I have such a long way to go? Why, oh why do I kick against the goads?

Lord, I admit I am self-centered, full of myself, and would rather go my own way. Change my heart; take out my rebellious heart and change it to a heart of flesh, both to will and to do whatever you ask.

Identity Struggles

I have been enjoying The Gift of Being Yourself by David Benner. I found these words in his preface refreshing and stimulating:

"In all of creation, identity is a challenge only for humans. A tulip knows exactly what it is. It is never tempted by false ways of being. Nor does it face complicated decisions in the process of becoming. So it is with dogs, rocks, trees, stars, amoebas, electrons, and all other things. All give glory to God by being exactly what they are. For in being what God means them to be, they are obeying him. Humans, however, encounter a more challenging existence...

"With a little reflection, most of us can become aware of masks we first adopted as strategies to avoid feelings of vulnerability but that have become parts of our social self. Tragically, we settle easily for pretense, and a truly authentic self often seems illusory.

"There is, however, a way of being for each of us that is as natural and deeply congruent as the life of the tulip.... Our true self-in-Christ is the only self that will support authenticity."

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, (and I paraphrase), "I wouldn't give a fig for simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would stake my life on simplicity on the far side of complexity." I feel that phrase "simplicity on the far side of complexity" may be something of a "life-phrase" for me, to coin a term. 

I long for the kind of simplicity Benner's talking about, a simplicity of identity--on the far side of complexity. Jesus has been discipling me through a long, sometimes arduous journey which I believe will eventually lead there--at least, that is my hope. 

A Very Important Book for the Church

Most people today agree something is seriously wrong with the church, because people in it seem little different than people outside the church. Christiandom today has some pretty major flaws. People have been leaving local churches in droves, and Christian leaders have struggled to know what to do about it. I'm oversimplifying quite a bit, of course, but I think you have an idea of what I'm getting at.

The Great Omission is not only the easiest of Willard's books I have ever read, but I believe one of his most important. That's hard to say, because all of his have been very important. But to me this book, actually a collection of lectures, gets at the heart of Willard's contribution.

He addresses what is wrong with our current understanding and practice of the Gospel, and particularly of Jesus' great commission to make disciples. I think he gives a powerful post-mortem of Christian discipleship, showing we have actually omitted the heart of that, and yet presenting a clarity that should, if we follow it, bring true Christian discipleship back to life.

I think Willard presents some of the clearest teaching on discipleship, what it is, and what it isn't, that I've ever found. I will put it alongside Coleman's Master Plan of Evangelism as my top two books on practical ministry, and see how it holds up. Of course, being written by a philosopher, it's not exactly brimming with practicals. But he lays out the principles so clearly that I would say it's chock full of pointers with very practical implications.

I would love to hear what others of you think of this book. For now, it's going in my top 5 recent books. I think predict it will stay there for a long time...

It's more blessed to give...

“In some sense the most benevolent, generous person in the world seeks his own happiness in doing good to others; because he places his own happiness in their good. His mind is so enlarged as to take them, as it were, into himself. Thus when they are happy, he feels it; he partakes with them, and is happy in their happiness.” —Jonathan
Edwards

What is joy?

I especially like the second line of this quote, which I've put in bold: 

"We do well to note, however, that love is the foundation of the spiritual life and joy is a key component in the Christ life. Joy is not pleasure, a mere sensation, but a pervasive and constant sense of well-being. Hope in the goodness of God is joy's indispensible support."

--Dallas Willard, The Great Omission

The Great Omission

I find these comments by Willard deeply insightful and challenging:

"The overshadowing event of the past two centuries of Christian life has been the struggle between orthodoxy and modernism. In this struggle the primary issue has, as a matter of fact, not been discipleship to Christ and a transformation of soul that expresses itself in pervasive, routine obedience to his "all that I have commanded you." Instead, both sides of the controversy have focused almost entirely upon what is to be explicitly assered or rejected as essential Christian doctrine. In the process of battles over views of Christ the Savior, Christ the Teacher was lost on all sides.

"Discipleship as an essential issue disappeared from the church and with it there also disappeared realistic plans and programs for the transformation of the inmost self into Christ-likeness. One could now be a Christian forever without actually changing in heart and life. Right profession, positive or negative, was all that was required. This has now produced generations of professing Christians who, as a whole, do not differ in character, but only in ritual, from their nonprofessing neighbors; in addition, a massive population has now arisen in America who believe in God, even self-identify as spiritual, but will have nothing to do with churches . . ."  --The Great Omission, pp.109-110. 

I highly recommend this book! Strikingly, I read a couple days ago in Mother Teresa's writings that in founding the new Missionaries of Charity, her plan was for all new members of her order to go through a two-year orientation process. The second year would be active service among the poor, but--listen to this--the first year was devoted to formation: almost complete solitude, spiritual direction, much prayer and meditation. She understood that without this kind of personal transformation, no one could sustain the kind of ministry envisioned. To this day Missionaries of Charity spend hours in prayer daily, take communion daily, and take retreats after every several weeks in active ministry. 

Striking that one of the few places in our world where the character of Jesus has shone like a light in the darkness has been where formation of people as disciples--students--of Jesus has been taken seriously. 

Calm and Joyful Noncompliance with Evil

"Vision of God secures humility. Seeing God for who He is enables us to see ourselves for what we are. This makes us bold, for we see clearly what great good and evil are at issue, and we see that it is not up to us to accomplish it, but up to God--who is more than able. We are delivered from pretending, from being presumptuous about ourselves, and from pushing as if the outcome depended on us. We persist without frustration, and we practice calm and joyful noncompliance with evil of every kind."  --Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's Essential Teachings on Discipleship

Amen! I love that--delivered from pretending, and from pushing as if the outcome depended on us. May that be so more and more in our lives. May Your Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven!

Passion

My friend Derek used to quote someone (I think it was Martyn Lloyd-Jones) who said, "Read a little biography every morning to humble you, and a little theology at night to build you up." I recently started reading Mother Teresa * Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the "Saint of Calcutta", and wow, has it been humbling. I'll post some of the most striking quotes.

At age 18, she left her family in Albania and moved to Calcutta to follow what she felt was Jesus' calling to love and serve people there. Shortly after arriving, she wrote:

"The heat of India is simply burning. When I walk around, it seems to me that fire is under my feet from which even my whole body is burning. When it is hardest, I console myself with the thought that souls are saved in this way and that dear Jesus has suffered much more for them. . . . The life of a missionary is not strewn with roses, in fact more with thorns; but with it all, it is a life full of happiness and joy when she thinks that she is doing the same work which Jesus was doing when he was on earth, and that she is fulfilling Jesus' commandment: 'Go and teach all nations!'"

Her passionate, focused love of Jesus has been inspiring and challenging. Lord, cause my heart to grow in love and passion for you!

Unreality

I heard Thomas Merton quoted in a sermon, and I really like the way he puts this:

"There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality. For life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relationship with reality."

Double Your Joy

Happy Thanksgiving!

My brother pointed out to me yesterday that we don't really enjoy something unless we're able to pause and express our enjoyment, to ourselves or to someone else. In a very real way, pausing to be thankful enables us to experience fully the joy to be had. 

On the other hand, failing to thank God for all he's created and done starts the downward spiral of a society (Romans 1).

On the first hand, a shared joy is a doubled joy. I heard that my neice, Lydia, opened her birthday presents and carried each one around the room, showing it to each person in turn until they smiled. Telling someone else of a great experience or gift we've been given increases our joy. Lydia squeezed a great deal of joy out of opening those presents!

I'm thankful to Dan for telling me that story, and to God for giving us such a quick and relatively easy way to tap into joy in any circumstance.

I hope you're able to tap into more joy today, whatever your circumstances. I know I'm going to try!