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Neal Windham has been a dear friend to me for such a long time. He's an expert in Spiritual Direction and Formation. You'll love his "devotional directive" for us! Listen carefully and follow closely to our highly esteemed brother's encouragement... A Spiritual 4 x 4
Not long ago, my wife and I spent the weekend celebrating our 47th wedding anniversary in Eastern Kentucky, where we walked the grounds of Asbury University in Wilmore and later heard two musical performances in an old tobacco barn in Pleasant Hill, once home to a thriving Shaker community of some 500 people. Both experiences in these religious communities gave me the chills, though for different reasons. Please allow me to explain. Perhaps you are aware that one year ago this past February, some 50,000 people converged on Asbury University as revival broke out. A preacher had delivered what he deemed a so-so sermon, but God had greater things in mind, and people began to repent and worship wholeheartedly as the Holy Spirit swept over the area. Word spread. Folks came from as far away as South Korea. The tiny winding roads leading to and from Wilmore (pop. 5,000) were choked with believers who’d come for as direct an experience of God as a person can hope to find this side of eternity. The revival lasted some three weeks. Just a few miles down the road from Wilmore, though many years removed from this revival, a now extinct religious group, the Shakers of Pleasant Hill (descended from Quakers), worked hard in a flourishing community of like-minded believers doing their best to create a better world in the early 1800s. Their simple yet innovative furniture, architecture, farming, food, music, worship, and dance have enormous appeal for modern people who aren’t accustomed to building their own houses and furniture, tend to buy most or all of their food rather than raising their own, are searching high and low for deep spiritual roots, and get their music from smartphone apps. Oddities aside (and there were many among the Shakers), I was taken by their homespun ingenuity, deep sense of community, creative thinking, and joyful embrace of life. So why the chills? As I reflected on the weekend, two realities gradually came to mind. First, there is absolutely nothing casual about holiness. Asbury University was born in the fertile soil of John Wesley’s rich teaching on sanctification, or holiness, teaching which would eventually affect Methodists and Pentecostals and whole hosts of other Christians with a strong desire for purity of life, thought, and deed. Wesley was himself highly intentional about becoming increasingly holy over the course of his own life. Because God is holy, we should be too. Second, at the Shaker Village I learned there is nothing casual about greatness. Miriam and I took in some of the finest string music ever written, performed by musicians from the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. These are people who’ve studied virtually all their lives, many of them child prodigies, practicing their craft day and night, in order to achieve a level of playing placing them in the top 1% of musicians anywhere in the world. And here they were, performing in what remains a monument to yet another kind of greatness, the greatness born of constant attention to the complete welfare of the community, Shaker community, as attested by the incredible durability, functionality, and acoustics of these grand old buildings from the early 19th century. No better place for these modern concerts than the old Shaker Village! The powerful effects of these experiences left me thinking hard about the spiritual life and how we have to keep working at it, much like devoted musicians practicing hours a day, or Shaker farmers tending their crops for the benefit of their people, or Wesleyan Christians working hard at holiness. Nothing casual about anything that’s really worthwhile, I thought to myself. Careful planning and disciplined execution always precede the kind of change we long to see in ourselves, in our families, in our churches, in society. MONDAY Over the last year or so I’ve worked at the spiritual life along the lines of Paul’s teaching in Philippians 4: “Rejoice in the Lord always … Don’t be anxious about anything, but offer your prayers to God with thanksgiving … Continually dwell on what is true and honorable and just and pure and lovely, what is excellent and praiseworthy … Whatever you’ve learned or received or heard from me, put it into practice” (Philippians 4:4-9). In short, Paul is saying: (1) Rejoice always, (2) Don’t worry; be praying, (3) Think about the right things, and (4) Do the right things. I have come to think of this quartet of spiritual practices as a Spiritual 4 x 4, portable and practical, giving us deep spiritual traction whenever and wherever we need it most, pulling us out of sloppy spiritual ruts. I invite you to spend some time reading and reflecting on Philippians 4:2-9 today. Soak in these words. Meditate on them. Pray them. Rest in them. Practice the 4 x 4. Get familiar with it, so that you can take it with you throughout this week, throughout your life. TUESDAY Today, let’s focus on the first of the 4 x 4 practices: “Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I will say, Rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4) When as a young, melancholic kid, Mom would often say to me, “Cheer up!” I found it hard to respond positively. I mean, how do you command someone to rejoice? Maybe the problem is that I had not taken time to consider all there is to rejoice over. Consider these scriptural precedents for rejoicing: • Rejoice that your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). • Rejoice when healings take place (Luke 13:17). • Rejoice when the lost sheep is found (Luke 15:6). • Rejoice in the knowledge of the risen Jesus (John 20:20). • Rejoice over your baptism (Acts 8:39). • Rejoice in the Gospel going to all the nations (Acts 13:48). • Rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15). • Rejoice in the Truth (1 Cor. 13:6). • Rejoice when fellow believers come alongside you in the midst of great need (1 Cor. 16:17). • And even, Rejoice when you suffer for Christ’s sake, because your reward is great in heaven (Matt. 5:12). In other words, as Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS, and again I will say it: Rejoice! (Phil 4:4). Time now to count your own blessings. Why not create a personalized inventory of joy. For what are you rejoicing today? Write it down for safe keeping. Offer continuing prayers of thanksgiving for these gifts of joy. WEDNESDAY Our focus today is on the second Spiritual 4 x 4 practice: “Don’t worry; be praying!” Perhaps you recall Bobby McPheron’s hit song, “Don’t worry; be happy.” I like that song, that sentiment. But parts of it are tricky: “Landlord says the rent is late. He might have to litigate. Don’t worry. Be happy.” Really?! I think Paul had a better idea. His prescription for all of us chronic worriers was to turn our worries into prayers, moving from problem to petition, regularly giving it to God. Otherwise, the worries get trapped in our heads, bouncing around, never landing, keeping us unsettled and up all night. I have long loved the early church’s prayer in Acts 4:29. When Peter and John were miraculously released from jail, the church gathered, and their very first petition in the wake of threats from the ruling religious authorities was this: “Consider their threats.” Not “deliver us” or “protect us,” great as these prayers are. But “Consider their threats.” In other words, “God, you handle this for us.” Far from a relinquishment of duty, this is a profound prayer of settled trust in the God who is singularly capable of granting His children the kind of peace which alone transcends both what we do and especially what we don’t know about a given situation. I invite you to list your worries on paper today. Write them out as plainly and honestly as you can. Next, reframe every single one of them in the form of a prayer, a direct request to the God who is capable of doing all that we can ask or imagine - and then some! As you frame each prayer, cross out the corresponding worry. Tell yourself, “Let it go. Let it go.” And turn your attention to the prayer which addresses that specific worry, saying, “Please, take this, Father. I can’t handle this alone.” THURSDAY Today, we’re going to “Think the right things,” the third of our four Spiritual 4 x 4’s. A few weeks ago, I dropped the news apps from my phone. For an entire week, I remained blissfully ignorant of world and domestic news. I fasted from the news. (We can fast from all kinds of things, you know.) It had such a purging effect on my soul! Not that I want to live in ignorance of world events, mind you. I just needed some distance. In a similar way, last week I contracted Covid, so I holed up in the guest bed and bath for nine days in order to protect Miriam (who didn’t get Covid!), and though I was very sick for many days, that little room became my friend. I kept thinking of the ancient monk, Evagrius, who said, “Your cell will teach you everything.” Rather than doing lots of stuff, as we Americans are really good at, I just spent those days resting and praying and recuperating (though, I confess, I did restore one news app). It was a painfully refreshing week or so. What if we were to focus on thinking the right things as a spiritual discipline? In a world filled with violence, hatred, war, and contempt, what if we were to put these aside in order to dwell on what is true, honorable, right, excellent, and praiseworthy? I invite you to consider these specific questions today: • How have the things you’ve been thinking about a lot lately affected you emotionally, psychologically, physically, spiritually? • What is your regular news intake, and how does it affect your relationships with God and people? • What are you currently reading? Watching? How is it affecting your thought patterns? • Is there a song or a story or a memory that is commendable, excellent, or worthy of praise, something you could share in order to encourage friends and family to ponder the right things? FRIDAY And finally, the last of our Spiritual 4 x 4s: “Do the right things.” When Paul tells the Philippians to put into practice the same things they’d learned and received and heard from him, I get nervous. I mean we’re talking about Paul here! I’ve often thought him obsessive-compulsive, how about you? I stop short of calling this a disorder because if you’re going to be obsessive and compulsive, then be obsessive and compulsive about Jesus the way Paul was! Just what had the Philippians learned and received and heard from him? Acts 16 offers clues. There, Luke tells us Paul converted Lydia’s household, cast a demon out of a slave girl, and baptized the Philippian jailor’s family. And here’s the thing: in every one of these instances, Paul was in some way freeing people from what held them back by introducing them to Jesus. Lydia, a dealer in purple dye and therefore quite probably rich, may have been held in the grip of riches (though we don’t know this), the slave girl was certainly in the grip of Satan, as well as her exploitative business owners, and the jailor was held in the firm grip of empire. Paul freed them all! He did the right thing. To do the right thing is to be a force for healing in the name of Jesus, and every believer can have a part in this work. Who in your circle of friendship and influence is held back by forces of addiction, abuse, marginalization, broken relationship, fear, or shame? How can you be used by God to “do the right thing” on their behalf? What have you heard or seen or learned from fellow believers that you could put into practice today on their behalf? A visit? A letter? A phone call? A gift? Or even just an encouraging text? CONCLUSION There are spiritual disciplines everywhere in Holy Scripture, practices waiting for our participation. I encourage you to commit these four to heart and mind, to practice them. You can implement them anywhere and everywhere. Every time. These four practices are a positive force for good in this world, a communal summons to life with God. Blessings on you in the Journey we share!
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