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STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Here are some of the spiritual disciplines (SDs) the church has used for 2000 years: meditation, prayer, accountability, forgiveness, fasting, fellowship, frugality, (Bible) study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, selflessness, social mercy, silence, secrecy, suffering, sacrifice, shepherd-centeredness, Spirit-filled surrender, solitude, silence, simplicity, Sabbath, sleep, spiritual community, servanthood, (biblical) stress management, spiritual direction (mentoring), waiting, witnessing, worship, guidance, celebration, chastity, contentment, confession, persecution, mourning, overcoming hyperactivity, embracing liturgy, retrieving a monastic spirituality, restoring the centrality of the Eucharist, integrating tradition and contemporary culture, discipleship, rest.
2. List the ones that might benefit you on your true mission, but need to know more about. How will you find out more? When will you start?
3. Come up with your own illustration (from your life?) of focusing on the means vs. the goal.
4. What might your “shadow mission” be?
5. What will it take for you to slow down and see your shadow mission for what it is and the true mission God has for you? To see Him?
I. The SDs provide one of the greatest means to accomplish our true purpose in life. But they also provide one of the greatest dangers. That danger is when we focus on them; the means vs. the end, the goal, which is love relationship w/ Jesus. Jesus lasered in on that temptation in (John 5:39-40).
A. The problem: if we focus on means, they become the goal, the end, then that is one definition of “legalism,” which leads to death (2 Cor 3:6 P ). This is the polar opposite of the true life Christ has for us (Jn 10:10).
B. That’s not “the life we prize,” to borrow Elton Trueblood’s classic title. That’s not, to borrow John Ortberg’s book title The Life You’ve Always Wanted, which is to know Christ and power of His resurrection in our lives (Phil 3:10-11).
C. Both of these books talk about the MEANS that Christians have used to know Christ for 2000 years, the SDs.
II. What are they?
A. Richard Foster, a well-known Friends author, made popular in 1978 with the first book on SDs that had been written for over a century. Those are inward: meditation, prayer, fasting, (Bible) study. The outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission and service. The corporate disciplines are: confession, worship, guidance, and celebration. Dallas Willard, likely the second best-known for author on the SDs, lists these categories: abstinence: solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, and sacrifice. The engagement ones of study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession and submission.
B. There’s Gary Thomas’ authentic disciplines of selflessness, waiting, suffering, persecution, social mercy, forgiveness, mourning, contentment, and sacrifice.
C. Gibbs and Bolger list overcoming hyperactivity, embracing liturgy, retrieving a monastic spirituality, restoring the centrality of the Eucharist, integrating tradition and contemporary culture.
D. Let’s not forget Rick Warren’s big 5 listed in his mega-seller Purpose Driven Life of: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism.
E. Fuller’s Dr. Siang Young Tang has written a book simply called Rest. Sounds good to most of you right now, eh? His SDs are shepherd-centeredness, Spirit-filled surrender, solitude, silence, simplicity, Sabbath, sleep, spiritual community, servanthood, and biblical stress management.
F. There’s mentoring (accountability, spiritual direction) which is emphasized at AFC in a big way.
G. I don’t even know what some of these mean, but I list them in case any of them could be of benefit or bless you navigate the 4Cs. They are the “how.”
III. To come back to one of the things that makes you seasick as you navigate the 4Cs is focusing on the means vs. goal (which is Christ).
A. It’s like focusing on the ship (means) makes you seasick/dizzy instead of keeping your eyes on the horizon (goal. I know by experience from feeding lots of fish).
B. It would be like me focusing on dribbling (in basketball). I became an excellent dribbler, but I never rebound, pass or shoot the ball. That used to be my game, wear ‘em down. Guys would take coffeebreaks (stretching 10 min/decade too J ) waiting for me to quit dribbling. You may read other reports on how the shot clock was invented. It was invented by a couple of guys that played basketball with me. Means vs. goals.
C. Remember the (FORMER) railroad companies who focused on trains (means) vs. (the goal) transporting people. After the turn of the century the auto, then the airplane, started cutting in big time to the monopoly railroads had on transporting of people. They failed to realize they were in the transportation business, NOT the railroad business, and their portion of the transportation market shrunk.
D. This is the wife focusing on reading cookbooks instead of actually putting nutritious food on the table (thin ice here). Let me hasten to say she’s a great cook. I do wish she’d not try a recipe for the first time when company comes. ADD to that; she won’t taste while she’s cooking. (So I HAVE to force myself to stop whatever I’m doing while she’s cooking a meal for company and taste every item she’s making…sometimes 5-6 times. Hey, I do it all for YOU!)
E. Means over goal. This is the provider who works day and night earning a living, but not providing a life for his family. To do the latter the provider has to be around to share and give life to his family.
F. You get the point. It’s easy to confuse means and goals. The means become meaningless when that happens. When we focus on means vs. the goal, Christ, in the spiritual realm, all the SDs like Bible study becomes boring. Worship is a work. Fellowship is no longer fun. Prayer becomes a program.
IV. This temptation is somewhat akin to the “shadow mission” idea we see in the Bible. It’s easier to illustrate a “shadow mission” than define it. But it’s when a much lesser mission takes priority over the true purpose/mission God has for your life. It happened to some of Israel’s greatest.
A. Moses had a calling/mission/purpose. He was created to deliver God’s people, his people, from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land.
But he got it confused with his shadow mission, which was to tend his father in law’s sheep (Ex 3:1, 10-11).
B. David’s mission/purpose was to be a man after God’s own heart, to be the gold standard for Israelite kings, second only to His greater descendent, Jesus. Since Jesus was David’s greatest descendent, God’s greatest mission for him was to build up his “house,” meaning his lineage/family.
1. But David thought his mission was to build the Lord a physical house (Temple) where the Lord could live (2 Sam 7:5-6).
2. Here the Lord tells David that building Him a Temple is a shadow mission. His true mission to build up his line, raise godly offspring. God will, through him and his greater Son, Jesus, establish a kingdom/house that will last forever (7:11-16).
3. There may be some parallels here for us as parents when we put too much energy into the physical house (and all that goes with that) that we want to establish for our children. That becomes our shadow mission. When the Lord’s true calling and mission for us is to build up our line, i.e. raise godly offspring, pouring into them to build their character and help them come to know and love Jesus. Focus on houses, things, our careers and pleasures is a shadow mission. Good news if you think you’ve blown it: focus on building who the Lord gives you. The Lord wants you to build the PEOPLE that make up your house.
D. Paul was on his shadow mission when he held the coats of the ones who stoned Stephen, the church’s first martyr. He thought his calling was to uphold pharisaic Judaism, the laws, traditions, customs of the Jews; the rules and rituals of the Temple. The Lord had to blind him on the road to Damascus to get him to see [his true mission].
1. Has that ever happened to you? He may not have really “blinded” you, but he had to stop you in your tracks so that you could see the shadow mission vs. the true mission.
2. I’ve been reading the journal of a woman about my age who was stopped in her tracks by a life-threatening illness. She says it’s made her see clearer, feel deeper, give love and experience it more from her people and her God. It’s made her realize what’s truly important in life more than anything that’s ever happened to her.
3. Why is it so hard to see our shadow mission for what it is; a distraction from the real thing? This woman said it was her pace; she was moving too fast. Her illness slowed her down. She said her prayer for us was that something other than a life-threatening illness would make us slow down so we could SEE, touch, feel, experience life as God intended it to be.
4. For Paul it was a blinding, then a seeing more clearly than he ever had before, the Person of Christ. This vision shifted him slowly to his true mission, best summarized in Phil 3:3-11).
5. Paul is saying “my true mission is simply knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings.”
V. I don’t pretend to know all that means, but I do know many of us are on shadow missions. We place way too much confidence in our flesh, including just doing through the SDs of the church that can make us think we’re doing what God really wants. We read the Bible, worship, prayer or… good things thinking that’s it. But we don’t know Christ, the power of His resurrection or the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings = our real mission. We get stuck on the means, which can be just like a shadow mission.
VI. From my friend’s online journal: “In a hospital, day and night, there are occasional announcements of emergency…code blue…assistance needed in room…I immediately begin to pray for the doctors and patient, though I don't even know them. I was struck last night when this happened, that my life has taken many turns. I have always been a person who has led a fast-paced life. The greatest change, other than my health changes, is the pace of my life. This new slow-paced life has forced me to become keenly aware of the people around me. I have time to talk to the nurses, doctors and workers and am able to learn about their lives. I am amazed at how easy it is to get caught up in the pace and cares of life and ignore everything around me. I have had so much time to think about what is important. I'm sad that it has taken something so drastic in my life to slow down. Change isn't always bad.
A. There is a tenderness I feel toward John (husband-not his real name) for his gentle love and patience through this awful time. He has never loved me more...I have never loved him more. There is no way to express through special gifts, or a dream trip, or some physical display of love how I feel...this year we are reduced to giving the simplicity of words that often go unsaid. John is bringing in a special dinner for two...I will meet him in my gown...not the beautiful one worn __ years ago [they celebrated a significant wedding anniversary in the chemo ward], but a simple bed gown and we will certainly talk about things that really matter in life. I suspect that this will be one of our more memorable anniversaries for many reasons. I'm grateful for John’s love and commitment to me. Ever faithful. Ever sure. Especially in this lowest of times for me. Happy Anniversary my love!”
B. What will it take for you to slow down and see your shadow mission for what it is and the true calling/mission God has for you? What will it take for you to see people and Christ, Himself, the way He wants you to, the way you want to?
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