Growing on the Journey

Last week, my message focused on inviting God, as the Master Potter, to reshape us. Theological literature provides many strategies as to how we can continue to grow (be reshaped) on our journey to transformation to the image of Christ. This week (Part 4 in this series on Spiritual Formation) builds on last week’s recommendations with additional actions that will guide us toward our goal.

Contemplation

In The Practice of Spiritual Formation, the authors describe the practice of contemplation. Borrowing a definition from Ignatius of Loyola, Barry and Connolly (2009) propose that we:

…look at Jesus as he appears in gospel events and let ourselves become absorbed in what he is like, what he cares about, and what he is doing. Contemplation in this sense begins when people stop being totally preoccupied with their own concerns and let another person, event, or object take their attention” (p. 49).

The Practice of Spiritual Formation

In the case of our journey of Spiritual Formation, this “other person” that “takes” our attention is Jesus. Rather than being so absorbed in our own individual needs, the practice of contemplation opens our heart and mind to Jesus, the words of scripture, and focuses our attention on living as guided by the lessons Jesus teaches us.

Contemplative prayer means paying attention to and becoming at least slightly absorbed in the person of Jesus, in God, or in biblical persons or outstanding Christians. A contemplative attitude can develop from prayer and allows one to find some ease and spontaneity in paying attention to God as revealed in Scripture, creation, one’s own life, and the life of the world, rather than seeing God as simply a background figure for one’s own concerns” (p. 49).

The Practice of Spiritual Formation

Be real to us, Lord!

When we contemplate God, we are asking Him to be real to us. We also pray for self-revelation, to know ourselves, so that we may also be real before God. This can be a tough challenge. Admitting to ourselves who we really are is part of that painful shaping. When recognizing our faults, weaknesses, and sins before God, we are putting forth our pliable clay to be reshaped by His hand.

The reassurance, of course, is that God is with us on every twist and turn of our journey—especially the most challenging aspects.

In this time of contemplation, Patricia Greene (2015) reminds us to de-clutter our minds—get rid of emotional baggage. She emphasizes that it is “our rubbish” to deal with and clean out. We should not project “it” onto others, place blame, or try to displace our rubbish elsewhere. De-cluttering may be one of those tough challenges I mention above and quiet time with God, meditation, and contemplation can help us in our soul growth. Prayer and meditation allows light to enter our souls, dispelling darkness that plagues us on our journey.

Greene quotes from St Teresa of Avila to emphasize this point:

As frail as you are now spiritually, once the soul journey begins, any effort undertaken with love—translates into commitment and diligence. All of the frailties and faults such as self loathing, guilt, disgust, and shame that offer impediments to this journey, need to be driven from the soul. They are to be replaced with love, trust, joy, peace, harmony and a desire to find goodness in one’s life” (Greene, p. 17).

The Soul’s Journey

During this journey, this process of Spiritual Formation, we are moving ever closer to being transformed into the image of Christ. C.S. Lewis refers to this process as “Putting on Christ.” Lewis reminds us, that if we say The Lord’s Prayer, we are putting ourselves in the place of Christ when we say “Our Father.” Of course, we realize that we are not yet there, because as Lewis states, we are still a “bundle of self-centered fears, hopes, greeds, jealousies, and self-conceit” (p. 75).

But remember, Jesus tells us to pray, “Our Father…”

Pretending to be something we are not can have negative consequences—can lead to broken promises or broken laws. But another type of pretending can have positive results. Lewis offers the example of being plunged into a social situation where we feel out of our depth and do not particularly want to make an effort to be friendly. But if we take the plunge, go through the actions of socially interacting and pretending to be friendly, we realize we can do it.

When taking on the pretense of “dressing up as Jesus,” Lewis says:

The Christ Himself, the Son of God, who is man (just like you) and God (just like His Father) is actually at your side and is already at that moment beginning to turn your pretense into reality. This is not merely a fancy way of saying that your conscience is telling you what to do. If you simply ask your conscience, you get one result: if you remember that you are dressing up as Christ, you get a different one. There are lots of things which your conscience might not call definitely wrong (especially things in your mind) but which you will see at once you cannot go on doing if you are seriously trying to be like Christ. For you are no longer thinking about right and wrong; you are trying to catch the good infection from a Person” (p. 76).

The Joyful Christian

Jesus is our perfect role model as we continue on our journey of Spiritual Formation. His attributes are the “good infection” to catch!

Wishing you blessings, my friends, as you “put on Jesus” and walk with Him on your journey.

References

Barry, William A. and Connolly, William J. (2009). The Practice of Spiritual Direction, Harper Collins Publishers: New York.

Greene, Patricia. (2015). The Soul’s Journey: Reflections on The Interior Castle (St. Teresa of Avila), Balboa Press: Bloomington, IN.

Lewis, C.S. (1977). The Joyful Christian. Macmillan Publishing Company: New York.

Previous blogs in this series of Spiritual Formation:

Part 1 : Choosing a pathway

Part 2: Shaped by God

Part 3: Inviting reshaping