06.15.09
spiritual discipline..
A student approached a spiritual master with a question.
“Master, what can I do to become enlightened?”
The Master replied, “As much as you can do to make the sun rise.”
“Then of what use are all these disciplines?”
“So that when the sun begins to rise, you do not miss it.”
This past Friday I was looking toward Sunday and speaking out of Acts 2. My focus would be the close of the chapter – 42-47 – and my main point seemed to be that this is a short ecclesiology (42) and then the following verses fill out the details.
Well, that may be accurate but what’s the life-changing application for a community on mission? In part, it may help us better stay on track by understanding the key elements of the frame. If we have community alone, we are a social club. If we have mission alone, we are a social project. If we have communion alone, we are a collection of mystics. But when communion, community and mission intersect the kingdom of God appears.
Yeah.. I rather liked that point. But if left me feeling a little empty, and I wasn’t sure where to go with it. So.. I asked the Lord. I didn’t get an answer except to pray.
As a result I spent Friday fasting. Two things came out of this, and maybe three.
1. I felt that focusing on communion – God’s call to intimacy with godself – was the right application.
2. I came into a deeper awareness of my own need for renewed dependence on the Holy Spirit.
3. As I taught on Sunday morning, and since Saturday really, I have been walking with my eyes a bit wider open..
One of the things that has been suggested to us as we plan to create a missional order (spiritual community) at the center of the life of the FORGE hubs, is that we embrace the discipline of fasting. Twice a month, the FORGE community will fast and pray. I can’t think of a more critical piece for a group of people journeying together on mission.
