I attended a conference last summer where I had the opportunity to hear a man named Gayle Beebe speak. Dr. Beebe is the president of Spring Arbor University, and his sermon was very similar to a college lecture. He handed out a quite comprehensive outline and then hit only the high points, leaving us with a wealth of knowledge to sift through following the service.

One of the "high points" of the sermon was how life with God can be categorized into seven different approaches. I nearly balked at this statement from the moment it left his lips, but the outline he provided left me intrigued with the possibility that he could be correct.

He unpacked only two of these approaches:

1. The Spiritual Life as the Right Ordering of Our Love for God

and

2. The Spiritual Life as a Journey

Under each approach was listed a number of theologians, writers, and thinkers who adhere to that approach, and whose writings support as such.

The approach that I no doubt found the most attractive was the approach that stated a life with God is an oscillation between a life of action and a life of contemplation leading to initmate relationship with God.

I think I found this approach so attractive b/c it defined the search all of us have inside of ourselves to know God intimately, lovingly, and more than anything else differently.

I understood a long time ago that my life with Christ can exist completely outside of what I DO for him, but recently I can't ignore the call to something greater as I am sensitized to the war, famine, hunger, and injustice that exist both in and outside our own nation's borders.

Yet, in leading a life upholding justice, I don't want my work to lead me to a self-righteous state where I feel that is enough either. I have often wondered how to balance a life of mission and a life centered on quieting the outer voices and being found by Him.

Dr. Beebe made a quote that I have scribbled in the sidebar to the outline: You are distracted from your core belief by the things you think which give rise to the things you do.

I wonder what will become of this "emerging" movement that seeks to so very much to start doing when it all begins and ends in Him.

Today in our office devotions, I listened to the story of the the thief nailed on the cross beside Jesus. It is referenced previously that he was one of the individuals who joined in with the jeers from the crowd. So what happened? There came a moment when he realized that he was indeed mistaken, and that this man was the Son of God. Jesus was hanging there suffering so the world could come to know him, and he was praying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And then a conversation was had between the other theif and Jesus when this criminal decided that he would change his tune and stick up for the man who had done nothing wrong. And the world stopped and Jesus turned to him, looked into his heart, and said, "Today you will be with me in paradise."

Jesus, while in communion with his Heavenly Father, stopped and turned to this criminal and offered him eternal life. Quite an oscillation.

One of the definitions of oscillation is a flow of electricity changing periodically from the minimum to the maximum. I don't believe in balance. I think much of our pop psychology stuff was taken from Mr. Myagi. But maybe this oscillation is a continual swing from the life of action to the life of contemplation.

Minimum to Maximum
Maximum to Minimum

Contemplation to Justice
Justice to Contemplation

But the machine that holds the pendulum is Jesus, speaking truth and affirmation into our souls so that we are enabled to act in His name.

Though Dr. Beebe didn't make this particular approach one of his "high points" it certainly left me with a lot to think about. The goal is not to study the approaches, but to use one or more of the approaches to facilitate our own life with God.

posted by Kelly @ 11:01:00 AM