Spiritual Journey? Not for me.

Perhaps the most common metaphor to discuss the idea of faith or life is the metaphor of a journey.

In the church we use this metaphor a lot. We discuss how your "walk with Christ is going" or express we are on the "spiritual journey" or the "journey of faith". Even sermons are critiqued on if the preacher "got somewhere" in their sermon. You may have "arrived on a mountain top" in your life as you were "marching to Zion" or "walked in the valley of the shadow of death."

It is a rich metaphor which makes it difficult for me to abandon. But it seems like the church must put this metaphor down and learn to embrace other metaphors.

Why?

Because the underlying assumption in the journey metaphor is that there is a destination. We walk by faith toward some goal or until we arrive at a destination. When we use the journey metaphor there is an unspoken assumption that we would not be on the journey without the destination. No one likes the idea of "meandering" or "wondering" - even thought these are words that fit the journey metaphor they are rarely invoked in a positive light.

We want to reach for the "highest goal" that we "might receive the prize." Because "when we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be".

The journey metaphor gives us a built in excuse to avoid religion all together if our lives are not moving toward the goal we feel we should be meeting. If our lives are not becoming better or if I "don't get anything out of it" then we are free, under the faith as a journey metaphor, to abandon religion and/or faith. Journey metaphor means that when we are not reaching the goal in a timely manner we have a crisis of faith and then we turn to the metaphor for some help in understanding only to find that everyone else seems to be suggesting that you are in fact being carried by Christ on your walk.

Finally, the metaphor of a journey is the fact that the primary actor in the metaphor is the individual. Not God or even the community, but the individual. We can be on a spiritual journey and not have room for God, which is fine for other religions but not Christianity.

To some the walk metaphor is comforting and I am glad that it is. However, for many people (this author included) this metaphor has too many problems to be held on to for much longer.

Do you have any suggestions?

The greatest expression of freedom

From the Declaration of Independence to the libertarian movement to the spirit of Ayn Rand that is invoked each election cycle Americans love to talk about freedom.

We like to think that the greatest expression of freedom is to do what we are allowed to do. This is often the case when I talk with some people who carry guns.

"I carry a gun because it it my constitutional right! The 2nd amendment says..."

Or when I talk with people about free speech...

"This is America and I can say whatever I want. Or have you not read the 1st amendment..."

Or even when talking with people who buy things that just do not make sense...

"Why did I buy this leopard printed toilet seat? Because I can."

Christians have long understood that these silly examples are not expressions of total freedom. When we say that we are free in Christ or that Christ has set us free for the sake of freedom, we are not talking about being able to do whatever we want "just because we can."

True freedom comes in choosing to be limited.

There is no greater expression of freedom then being able to do then choosing to not do it.

When people are taken into slavery, they are forced to work and work hard. They are not free to refrain from working nor are they free to choose when they will work and for how long. Freedom is not in what you can do but what you choose not to do.

This is what makes the spiritual practices an expression of freedom. We do not have to, lets say, fast from eating. God does not require fasting, we are free from the mandate to fast. And since we are free from this mandate, when we choose to fast, we are actually expressing the fullest extent of this freedom.

Freedom comes not in the ability to choose "to do" but in the ability to choose "not to do."

Why passion is not enough for faith

Recently I finished reading Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. While this book is a little different than I expected and I almost did not finish reading it, I made the commitment to read it and so I finished it. 

The author quoted Jorge Luis Borges who noted, “Art is fire plus algebra.”

That got me thinking about spiritual formation.

I listen to a number of people talk about how they feel they should read the Bible more or have a better devotional life. Words like "I should want to want to do this" come up a lot.

For instance I heard a Christian say the other day, "We should want to read our Bible every day!" 

The underlying issue in these comments and sentiments is that we are under the false impression that if we just had the right amount of passion for something then we would want to want to do it. If we just had a change of heart and a passion for God then we would want to read the Bible everyday.

This is a false impression because passion (fire) is not enough! The thing that the saints of the church and those who are deeply grounded is that they too have figured out that passion is not enough to spiritually mature. The saints have all figured out the systems (algebra) to fuel the fire of passion.

You know the secret to wanting to want to spiritually mature? Set up systems in place that you cannot make an excuse for not doing it. We don't like the idea of having bad breath so we brush our teeth. Even if you do not have a fire about dental health, you have a system in place to ensure your teeth will remain healthy.

Want to mature in your spiritually? Discover the algebra, because fire is not enough.