I read an interesting article (link at the bottom of this post) today (thanks Kent) that made me think about our conversation last night about the disciplines. Some good food for thought from Dallas Willard and Eugene Peterson....
Willard offers this theological definition of the term “spiritual disciplines”: “Doing what we can do with our body, mind, spirit, to receive from God power or ability to do what we cannot do by human effort.” Peterson offers a different slant, less focused on activities that we do or perform: “There’s a certain learned passivity about the spiritual life that is hard to program and hard to make popular. People who give leadership in spiritual direction, the good ones, that’s basically what they’re doing: they’re trying to train us and teach us how not to be in control of our lives; to enter into what God is doing already.”
I love what Peterson says. The purpose of the disciplines is to lose control...or, to put it in a more pretty tone, to give up control.
Shalom,
Tim
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