Sean Johnson - Intentionally - The Education of Sean Johnson

Anyone who knows me knows how difficult it has been for me to progress as a Christian.

After college, there was a six month period of time where I experienced explosive growth - if not in deed at least in thought. Things that were once abstract and hard to comprehend were opened up in my mind like a giant door. God graced me with the ability to wrap my head around many conundrums that trip up those new in the faith - and serve as barriers to those who don’t believe. Things like the the problem of evil, the reason why we so often feel alone, or the realization that pride represents our biggest obstacle to God were blessings I feel fortunate to have received, even to this day.

But since this time I’ve largely stagnated.

I left the Bible study I was leading largely because I didn’t feel equipped to help these people or serve as an example when my own life was a wonky as it was. I have struggled mightily to overcome my biggest vices, and still fail daily.

It’s a frustrating process. You try and you work as hard as you can, and you still make no headway. You succumb to the same temptations. You face the same reluctance to draw closer to God. You feel spiritually dry.

You Can’t Do It…Never Could

If there’s one things that has become painfully clear to me over the past year, it is the fact that our own self-effort will never get us where we long to be with God. I’ve realized that this turmoil I’ve experienced isn’t the result of anything bad I’m doing per se. It’s mostly because I’ve not trained myself properly.

Paul called us to “train yourself in godliness.” Training - the greek work speaks of one participating in an athletic contest. Next week I’m heading up to Maine to attempt to summit Mt. Katadhin. I’ll likely fail miserably, in large part because I’ve not trained for the arduous task of climbing a mountain. Next week, I may work extremely hard in my attempt, but there are limits to my body - one which has begun to take on the shape of a pear due to way to much food and far too little running.

I don’t have to go out of my way to sin - it’s my mind and my body’s natural tendency. To become someone who’s natural inclination is to be humble and pure of heart and meek and kind and gentle and gracious - that requires way more work than I’d like to admit.

But there it is - work is not the same thing as training. I can work hard and get nowhere. But by training myself properly, I can make progress where self-effort falls short.

Unfortunately, our world features an absolutely abysmal ignorance of how we actually train ourselves into Christlikeness. It’s been said that we “lack a theology of growth.”

Discipline…by the Book.

Luckily, God has given us a regimen we can follow. Richard Foster calls them the “spiritual disciplines.” The concept of meditation, study, prayer, solitude and the like represent an indirect means for growth. While these disciplines may seem like little more than additional examples of self-effort, they are unique in that they start with the understanding that they don’t actually do anything.

All the disciplines are designed to do is put my mind, my body and my heart in a position where it is open to be changed. They don’t require strenuous effort - the disciplines are not tiring or hard to do. But they do require that we train ourselves. They require time and repetition and an honest desire to make them a part of our daily lives. In short, they require discipline.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to go through what appear to be the various ways we can train ourselves to grow in our relationship with God and in our lives. I’m by no means an expert in any of them - rather, I’m as much an amateur as anyone. But there’s something to be said for being accountable, and by talking about them I hope I’ll be more inclined to do them.

Stay tuned…