Bad for Your Diet, Great for Spiritual Formation?

For a myriad of reasons, humans are not very good at imagining their future selves. For many aspects of life this creates a problem. For instance, if we indulge in the delicious double chocolate cookies everyday then we may pay the price in the future when we are diabetic. Like water dripping on a rock, we are shaping our future selves with the actions of our present selves. 

While our inability to imagine our future selves can be a burden in some aspects of our lives, it can be a benefit when it comes to spiritual formation. 

Spiritual formation is often about encouraging us to trust the future so that we can live in the present. When we are fully present then we begin to do things that affect our future selves in ways that are helpful. For instance, when we are fully present to our neighbor when they are going through difficult times, we learn how to be still and listen. When we are fully present to our own hearts, we grow more at ease with silence. When we are fully present to the economic decision we make, we will begin to get a handle on instant gratification. When we are fully present, we will appreciate the amount of work it took to get those cookies to us and we might share the cookies with others. 

While it may be frustrating for financial planning, being unable to envision our future selves can be a great gift from God if we live in the full present.

Get in the long line

In college my roommate and I engaged in a number of practices that looking back on them they were odd but I am so glad that I did them. For instance, we spent several weeks sleeping on the hard floor and not in our individual bunks. We called people from the phone book in San Antonio and introduced ourselves and just said that we would be praying for them. We gave ourselves a budget of $100 a month.

The best thing we did was stand in line. 

Wherever we went we would intentionally choose the long lines to wait in. We would go to the grocery store and then begin to look for the longest line we could find to wait in to check out. We did this time and time again for months. And over time something in us began to change. 

We saw that we were less anxious when we were in a rush because we had practice waiting. We were more thankful when we did have a shorter line and things went quickly. We were more attentive to the parents of small children who needed the shorter line in order to get their tired child home. We were able to engage in conversation with others in line and learn some great stories of people (like the guy worked as a clown in the circus for 15+ years). 

So for what it is worth, take every opportunity you can to get into the long line. Wait there and see what you see. Listen to the people around you. See God in the midst of it all. Remember that lines are less a way to order people an more a way to connect with people. 

Everything happens. Sometimes there is a reason.

You have heard it, "Things happen for a reason." 

For many this mantra is hopeful because it gives a sense of security that no matter what crap they are living with right now, there is meaning behind it. That suffering is not without purpose. This can reassure us when we feel like we are alone and broken and hopeless. If we can only believe that things happen for a reason then it dulls the pain a bit and gives us breath for another day. I do not discount the comfort this provides people in time of need.  

But it does not provide comfort for me at all. 

It can be argued that if things happen for a reason than ultimately that reason is God. It is God that caused the tsunami. It is God that gave the cancer. It is God that was behind genocides and wars. When I hear "everything happens for a reason" my mind jumps to the question, "why would God not only allow but even cause this amount of suffering?" 

I do not believe that everything happens for a reason. I do not believe that God causes, green lights or approves of the suffering in the world. 

Rather than causing the suffering, I believe God is present with us through the suffering like a friend. Rather than trying to teach a lesson of how strong God has made you ("God will not give you more than you can handle") or get you to be more faithful ("God brought you to it and God will bring you through it."), I believe God weeps and struggles with us. 

As Rev. William Sloane Coffin said at his son's funeral ten days after he died in a car accident, God provides minimum protection and maximum support.

Here is what I know. Everything happens. Sometimes there is a reason, sometimes there is not a reason. Either way, God is present with you. 

And that brings me more comfort than thinking that everything happens for a reason.