Method and Mystery

This spiritual walk is one filled with ironies, dissonance, conflicting concepts, and varied responses.
Last night at our monthly, small group meeting, I had an opportunity to visit with a friend of mine who is 20 years or so back along the trail. He asked a simple question, and received a full blown explanation of how I believe spiritual formation takes place. Several years ago I developed a five year study journey that covers what I call one of the three legs of the spiritual formation stool. We come to a point in our lives where we have to have something to rest on, to be assured of, and this common metaphor of a step stool is one of the easiest to convey. If you have only one leg it is a constant battle to stay balanced, if you have two, the battle is a little easier, but you can't fully relax or put your weight on it, with all three you can rest assured that the weight of your life and convictions will be held.

As a background, the three legs of this stool are Knowledge, Ministry (service) and Mystery. It is the different natures of these three legs that make most of us a little crazy. The spiritual tribe I grew up in had a fence post for the leg of knowledge, we could argue everyone to the ground, but had no real ministry to reach out, to develop compassion. And we shied away from anything mysterious. Spiritual disciplines were limited to study and prayer, and if you had to choose study won out. But recently, we have shifted away from the study aspect as well. Not relevant.

So I have begun trying to get folks around me to understand the credence in the balance. "knowledge puffs up" as the old book says, but ignorance is not bliss, it is dangerous. The book clearly points out that the God we worship is an orderly and disciplined God. Try reading the specs on the temple or the ark, you get the impression that an engineer is putting this together. We need to get firmly placed in peoples minds the big concepts like God's mission in this world (providence) What place Christ holds in this (Christology) The implications of the Spirit (Pneumatology) Where does the church fit in? (Ecclesiology)And finally end times (Eschatology) We should have a working knowledge of these to develop what can be referred to an a community of "informed judgment" People of discernment are in short supply, the world is looking for those people.

But knowledge alone creates ego, creates a lack of mercy. You must firmly attach knowledge to obedient service. A guy said in one of my classes years ago that his "knowledge had outgrown his obedience" How profound. I think he may have hit on something. Knowledge should drive us to service, to help, to be the ambassadors that we need to be. Service alone, however, is a small step away from the Salvation Army. Helpful, but not lending eternal help.

Finally, the spiritual, mystical disciplines have to be employed. These keep us in the presence of God, open to his nature, his will, and his mission. It turns the floodlight of God's truth inward, toward our rebellious hearts. The disciplines are meant to be mysterious. Pondered and practiced in a world of deepening understanding. All the while expanding our realization of our ignorance of things mystical.

These three legs will keep us balanced and tuned into the hand and mind of God.
My friend listened and asked questions, so he wasn't bored. The only question he asked that I couldn't answer was, "why don't churches do this?"

Why indeed.

Godspeed.
Don