the long, slow, boring and often painful route

When it comes to our development, when it comes to real change, the long, slow, boring and often painful route is quite reliably, the most direct.

Read More

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." 

 

 

- Margaret Meade, was an American cultural anthropologist.

Read More

Rule of Life is an intentional pattern of spiritual disciplines that provides structure and direction for growth

Rule of Life is an intentional pattern of spiritual disciplines that provides structure and 

direction for growth in holiness.  A Rule establishes a rhythm for life in which is helpful for 

being formed by the Spirit, a rhythm that reflects a love for God and respect for how he has made 

us.  The disciplines which we build into our rhythm of life help us to shed the “old self” and 

allow our “new self” in Christ to be formed.  Spiritual disciplines are means of grace by which 

God can nourish us.  Ultimately a Rule should help you to love God more, so if it becomes a 

legalistic way of earning points with God or impressing others, it should be scrapped.  If the 

traditional, ancient term “rule” concerns you because it sounds legalistic, think of “rule” as a 

“rhythm of life” or as a “Curriculum in Christlikeness” (Dallas Willard), or as a “Game Plan for 

Morphing” (John Ortberg). 

In order to be life-giving, a Rule must be realistic!   It is not an ideal toward which you are 

striving to soar.  Instead, your initial Rule should be a minimum standard for your life that you 

do not want to drop below.  It’s a realistic level of engaging in the spiritual disciplines for which 

you can honestly and truly be held accountable.

Read More

Practicing a Rule of Life with others moves us against the grain of our individualistic culture.

Practicing a Rule of Life with others moves us against the grain of our individualistic culture. However, I believe that a Rule should grow from the positive aspects of our life, not what we perceive to be our failings.  We should discern it in conversation with God and others in our community, and we must make God the focus of our Rule (don't focus on  negative images of ourselves) and then we move in the directions in which we feel God's calling. A Rule of Life should be a response to being loved by God in the first place, and feeling moved to become what God calls us to be in this world.

Ever since St. Benedict's time, Christians have used a Rule of Life to provide an ancient yet powerfully consistent way to live into our present and future faith.

Read More

an apocalypse on Earth on December 21, 2012

an apocalypse on Earth on December 21, 2012

Read More

rules contain 12 Steps of Humility, which parallel Bill W’s 12 Steps in AA.

Will power!  That’s all you need.  Determination. Discipline. 

Ah, if the road to recovery were only that easy   

 anyone recovering from addiction, anyone seeking the divine in their 

daily lives knows recovery and re-finding God is more about surrender than struggle, more about 

journey than destination, more about making progress than achieving perfection. 

Our puny will power is no match for what God really wants for us. 

For most of us, finding God and surrendering to God’s will is about reclaiming the truest parts of 

ourselves—a humbling journey that often drops us to our knees.  And, according to many great 

teachers, down on our knees is a good place to start a spiritual journey.   

One of these teachers is Benedict of Nursia, a monk who lived in the fifth century and who 

developed “rules” for living a day-to-day spirituality with others.  These rules contain 12 Steps 

of Humility, which parallel Bill W’s 12 Steps in AA.  

Benedict (like Bill W) realized we must understand our dependence on God before being 

restored to sanity.  “We are like a child on its mother’s lap,” Benedict writes, “cut off from 

nourishment, helpless, left without the resources we need to grow in the spirit of God.” 

Stephen Lander—who grew up in the Episcopal Church, drifted away, studied many of the 

spiritual traditions, became a therapist, returned to his Episcopal roots and was ordained a priest  

??? years ago—believes Benedict’s 12 Steps in Humility reinforce the 12 Steps of AA and 

restate the same life-changing principles in new ways. 

“Both are steps to freedom,” Lander says, “freedom from self-centeredness and freedom from 

looking outside ourselves for what we think we need to be happy.  They help us connect with our 

divinity.   They show us how to befriend our true selves and to tap into our own inner resources.” 

One inner resource, he says, is our sense of humility.  “As we progress on a spiritual path, we 

come to distrust the idea that our will power can make things happen,” Lander explains.  

 

Read More