Intentional Living: Crafting Your Spiritual Journey

"And for us, one way we practice, we participate in the miracle of our formation is through our faith. And that's through following these practices of Jesus, like finding a daily prayer rhythm and spending time in the word, Sabbath, generosity, service, mission, communion, community, fasting. These practices, what do they do? They slow our lives down. They open our lives up to God and they create time. They create space for God to do this transformational work in us. Again, as we do what we can do, God does in us what we can't do. He makes us more like Jesus." [00:33:52] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Most of us plan for every important thing in our lives, except our spiritual formation. And that, that one thing. For some reason, we just kind of, I guess it'll be fine, right? I guess it'll be okay. I guess it'll take care of itself. Your spiritual formation is way more important than your education or your career or your money or your time or whether or not your kid becomes a pro athlete. It's way more important. Nothing is more important than becoming like Jesus because becoming like Jesus means that we're going to flourish. It means that we're going to be what humans were created to be. We're going to thrive. We're going to matter." [00:39:09] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Formation is slow, and it might seem like monotonous work sometimes. It might seem like it's not, I mean, it's just not, is it even happening? You know, I keep doing this thing. Is it even working? I planted an oak tree. in my backyard a couple of weeks ago and I was sitting on my back porch like I guess three days after I planted and I thought, what the heck? You know, I've been watering it. How long is this going to take? It looks the same now as it looked two days ago. It's an oak tree. It's got 500 years from now it'll look different but this is the kind of work that we're doing. Sometimes it feels like it's not happening. Sometimes it feels like it's not going to happen but it is happening and it is going to happen. It's just slow." [01:04:58] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Historically, a rule of life was designed to hold the Jesus community together around these shared rhythms and around these shared practices of spiritual formation. So following a rule in community can change everything. We were, this is what we're made for. You guys get that, right? God created us to be certain ways, right? He created us to be together. He created us to do life together. We're like herd animals, right? We're creatures. We're created to be together. And so following a rule in community can make it better. So imagine like praying is cool, but praying together is amazing, right? Worshiping by yourself is awesome. If you're singing worship in the shower, I'm sure it sounds fine." [01:09:55] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"God intentionally created these practices. He could have made them anything. He could have made them anything. Jesus intentionally modeled specific activities for our formation. That's why we say he's our model, right? If we do them, they work. Even if we don't see it. Even if we don't feel anything. So just don't give up. Don't give up. Just ask for help from the Holy Spirit. That's what I do with the solitude thing. Jesus, help me be still. Help me not look at my watch. Help me not talk. Help me just be still for a minute. And just, we have to practice. That's what their practice is, right? We have to practice the practices that..." [01:09:02] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Let's just craft our own rule of life, and we can tweak it and work on it and refine it as we go, but we have to start. We have to start. So this week, we've been having like a spiritual practice every week, right? This week, let's write what will be the first draft. How about that? It'll be the first draft of our own personal rule of life. So John Mark Homer gives some great... tips on that. I'm going to give you some quick tips. If you're going to write your rule of life this week, they're going to come pretty fast. Number one, start small." [00:55:11] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Tip number two, think subtraction, not addition. Think subtraction, not addition. You have to take out, it's like a budget, right? You got to take out more than you put in. And it's really tempting to write out your rule as a list of a thousand things that you're going to do. And that's, it's not, that's not terrible, but for most of us, it would be at least as helpful to write out a list of things that we would want to increase your time. So if you're not going to do so that we can create space for these healthy practices, so that we can create space for the things that do transform us. So this isn't about adding stuff to your calendar." [00:57:18] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Tip number five. There is no formation without repetition. There is no formation without repetition. If you've tried to learn a sport, if you've tried to learn an instrument, you know this. There is no formation without repetition. And I'm telling you, the hard cold fact is Christ-like practices become habits that transform us into the likeness of Jesus, but not overnight." [01:04:35] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"And as you're drafting yours, as much as possible, and when it is possible, do it in community. And that can be with one friend. That can be with your family or your group or your Bible study. Someday we will work through this as a whole church. Someday we'll write a rule of life for our church and that's gonna be really fun and really messy and take a really long time. But that's okay. I mean, it's worth it. It's worth the trouble and the effort and the messiness and the time to know that through these practices of Jesus, through crafting a rule of life and being intentional about our spiritual formation, we're partnering with God." [01:11:26] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)