Chapter One

Disciplines or Routines?

Modern Christians are not lacking in "relevance." What they do lack is a disciplined life and a critical mind to resist the temptation to conform to what everybody thinks or does.

SIMON CHAN

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

2 PETER 3:18

I played football in college. Well, I should qualify that: I was on the football team--I never really played much. At the end of each school year every team member would adopt a series of personal disciplines that he was expected to follow over the summer. The idea was, by the time we returned in the fall, we would be in good shape and hopefully a little stronger and faster and more adept at our individual positions than when we left school in May. Typically, those disciplines would include weight training, running, dietary controls and honing of techniques, and the coaching staff expected us to devote serious time and energy to those disciplines every day. Each week we were supposed to increase how far we could run in twelve minutes, the amount of weight we could lift in different exercises, excess body weight lost or "relocated," and our skills at such techniques as blocking, quickness, lateral movement and so forth.

Many of my fellow teammates devoted themselves to those disciplines, making them the centerpiece of their summer. They worked hard, sacrificed much and immersed themselves fully in their personal plans and disciplines. They loved to work out and, each fall, were stronger and faster than when they had left school in May. They were the ones who played. For my part, I never gave more than half-hearted attention to any of the disciplines that I would go away from school in good faith determined to engage in daily. My intentions were noble, but somehow it was too much trouble. I never pushed myself--in running, exercising or lifting weights. That is, when I managed to do them at all. I did just enough work on my techniques to keep from falling back in the depth chart (I was number two at my position but definitely not trying harder). It just seemed like my mind was always somewhere else, thinking about this or that and keeping me from focusing my attention on the business at hand. I barely tolerated the time I invested in these activities and cut it short more often than not. I skipped or skimped on my daily disciplines as often as I carried them out. I did just enough of each discipline to be able to say to my coaches that I had kept up my routine pretty well throughout the summer. But I never got much stronger or faster, and I never improved sufficiently in the skills required by my position to log many minutes of play. I sincerely hoped at the end of each school year that my summer would be sufficiently disciplined to enable me to get a little more playing time in the fall. But this usually turned out to be three months of half-hearted routines, with little in the way of improvement to show for my trouble.

There are some fundamental differences between routines and disciplines. While each is essential to life, they are not the same. For this reason, maintaining disciplines and not allowing them to lapse into mere routines is very important. And nowhere is this as important as in our spiritual lives, where, for too many followers of Christ, the disciplines of grace that God has given us to help us grow in him have become routine activities devoid of life-changing power.

Routines and Disciplines

A routine is something we do in order to maintain a status quo, like brushing our teeth and getting ready for the day, changing the oil in our car, locking the doors and turning out the lights before we retire each evening, or making the bed each morning. Such routines have an important place in our lives, but they do not change or improve anything. They simply allow us to maintain a certain level of existence that helps to keep all our systems functioning normally.

Routines require a minimum of effort. We hardly exert ourselves in accomplishing them. Indeed, we may complete a routine--like driving to the office or taking out the trash--hardly conscious of having exerted any energy or effort at all. Moreover, routines require little thought. They take no planning, require no serious monitoring or evaluation, and are done most of the time almost without thinking. In fact, much of the time we are involved in routines, we are thinking about something else, as when someone listens to the radio while getting ready for the day or driving to the office. Routines cost us little more than time and inconvenience, which we willingly invest for the benefit we derive from observing them. And routines seldom change. We always drive to work the same way, follow the same order of activities in getting ready for the day or clean up the kitchen in the same manner after a meal. We have no sense of a need to change our routines, so we continue to follow them without much thought or adjustment day after day, year after year. And our routines serve us well, allowing us to maintain a certain status quo in different areas of our lives but not really helping us to advance in any of those areas.

A discipline is different. A discipline is something to which we submit in order to effect change. As Dallas Willard says, "A discipline is any activity within our power that we engage in to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort," like losing weight or getting in shape (so that we'll look and feel better and live longer), or learning a new skill on the job (so that we can secure a promotion, raise or better position). We can't make ourselves feel better, and we can't achieve a promotion or raise on our own, so we submit to certain disciplines that we believe will enable us to accomplish those things not immediately within our power.

Disciplines can require a great deal of effort. We push our bodies to new levels of exertion as we go through our daily workout, or we stretch our minds in new directions to understand some new procedure or master some new technology. We force our brains and bodies into concentrated, strenuous activity in order to prepare ourselves for taking on new roles or responsibilities or assuming a new lifestyle. A good discipline requires serious intellectual involvement--in planning, monitoring progress, evaluating levels of mastery and so forth.

Further, disciplines tend to involve significant investments of time. To do them we have to sacrifice other activities we might otherwise choose to do and concentrate time and effort on mastering those disciplines that we hope will get us what we want. We have to be willing to give up certain things we enjoy--foods, leisure activities or rest--in order to devote the time and effort needed for getting in shape, becoming a better worker or preparing for a new job. And disciplines tend to get adjusted from time to time. As we reach one level of expertise or mastery, we may alter our disciplines in order to push beyond that level to a still higher one.

Both routines and disciplines are important in our lives. Yet they are clearly not the same. A problem arises when we allow what are intended to be disciplines to become mere routines--like my summer workouts. When that happens, not only do our disciplines not produce the desired results, but they become tedious, boring and dull. We may be faithful in attending to them, but not in the way they were designed and certainly without much in the way of results to show for our effort.

This problem is especially serious in the area of our spiritual lives when our practice of the disciplines of grace is allowed to become a mere spiritual routine instead.

God has given us the disciplines of grace as means to help us grow in love for him and our neighbors. These precious tools--prayer, the Word of God, worship, solitude, giving, fasting, silence in God's presence and so forth--bring us into his presence in ways that everyday living does not, enabling us to glimpse his glory and tap into his power for daily renewal in Christ. But when our practice of the disciplines of grace is allowed to lapse into routine devotional activities--when our disciplines become mere routines--they lose their power to bring us face to face with the Lord in life-transforming ways.

In Jesus' day no group of people was more renowned for their discipline than the Jewish religious leaders. One and all knew them as the men who prayed the most, knew Scripture the best, fasted the most consistently and gave the most alms to the poor. Some of them were sincerely spiritual, even godly persons, such as Zacharias and Nicodemus. Yet, for a great many of them, their disciplines had not served to prepare their hearts for the coming of the Messiah or for being able to recognize him when he appeared among them teaching and doing good. Their practice of the disciplines of grace had not helped them grow in love, either for God or their neighbors. Many of them were proud, greedy, scornful of the ignorant masses and protective of their special status in society. They saw Jesus as a threat and, after putting up with him for three years, conspired to put him to death.

All their disciplines had been of no use in helping them to experience God's glory and enter into his grace. They pursued their practice of spiritual disciplines merely in order to keep their place in society rather than to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. Their disciplines had become mere routines, giving them a certain amount of self-satisfaction and enabling them to preserve their status in the eyes of the people; yet their spiritual lives were empty and devoid of any real relationship with God. They had become "whitewashed tombs," as Jesus observed--self-satisfied, self-righteous, complacent and smug.

Before our own spiritual lives degenerate into such a condition and we become negative and judgmental, lacking in compassion and having little zeal for the life of faith or the mission of Christ, we need to consider whether our own use of the disciplines of grace is according to God's purpose and plan.

The State of Spiritual Disciplines Today

In the church today we are blessed with abundant resources and given endless advice and encouragement for using the disciplines of grace for Christ and his kingdom. There is no shortage of Bibles and Bible study materials, groups and classes for learning the Word of God, books and conferences on prayer, manuals concerning and opportunities for worship, or calls for fasting. Most people I know who profess to be followers of Christ are engaged in spiritual disciplines at some level, although many of them will at the same time admit to a certain lack of satisfaction with their devotional lives. On the whole, though, it would seem that the practice of spiritual disciplines is alive and relatively well among the members of the church.

But the question arises as to why the church appears to be so lacking in power. Why do our biblical convictions play so meager a role in shaping our culture and giving direction to our society? Why are the ranks of churches declining as a percentage of the population as a whole--in spite of the megachurch phenomenon? Why do such behaviors as incivility, vulgarity and indecency continue to rise and be tolerated in our society? Why are believers in general so reticent about their faith? Why do we expend so much effort in squabbles over such matters as forms of worship, the role of women in the church and the place of Christian pop culture in the life of the community of faith? Why are we so despised by the cultural and social elite of our society? And why, when we disperse throughout society as the leaven of Christ's kingdom in the loaf of a sinful and dying age, are we so indistinct as citizens of the heavenly realm?

There are doubtless many answers to such questions, but one suggests itself to me that, from my own experience and observations, as well as my reading and study, requires further examination. That is, as a community, believers are not experiencing what God intends for them from their practice of the disciplines of grace. As Simon Chan suggests in the earlier quote, either we are not involved in spiritual disciplines or our involvement has become perfunctory and not a source of grace and glory for transformed living. It is possible that many have allowed their spiritual disciplines to lapse into mere routines without being aware. They are praying, reading their Bibles and faithfully attending worship services, but nothing much is happening in their lives as citizens of the kingdom of God. They continue to be strapped with the same besetting sins, seem hardly more inclined to offer themselves in sacrificial service to the Lord, are quick to criticize and condemn those who disagree with them on spiritual matters, and are reluctant to engage their neighbors in spiritual conversations for the cause of the gospel. At the same time they are active in the disciplines of grace--having their daily devotions, being in a study group, faithfully attending at worship--but they are not growing in grace. Rather, they are barely managing to maintain a kind of spiritual status quo amid the press of temptations, duties and the hectic pace of postmodern society.

For such people it may well be that their spiritual disciplines have become mere routines, without power and effect for turning the world upside down for Christ.

What God intended as disciplines to bring us into the presence of his glory and to transform us increasingly into the image of his Son have, for many of us, become mere routines--mindless, effortless, fruitless undertakings that placate our sense of duty but do nothing to equip us for kingdom living in the world.

In the Arena of Grace

The disciplines of grace constitute a special arena of grace in which, through intensive personal encounter with the living God, in the presence of his Spirit and the power of his Word, our love for him is renewed and deepened, and we are further enlivened in Christ to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is not to say that we do not meet Christ at other times in our lives or that God is not to be found throughout the course of our day as he makes himself known through the world around us or guides and prompts us by his Spirit. It is simply to insist that, in the disciplines of grace, there is an intensification of God's presence and power that comes from careful and deliberate attention to these disciplines, and that can effect dramatic and permanent change in our lives. This experience of the transforming grace of God cannot be found anywhere else. Without it we can hardly expect to know the life-changing power of Christ in the normal course of our lives.

What happens in the practice of spiritual disciplines? How should we enter into them, and what might we expect as a result? In 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 the apostle Paul shows us what God intends should happen during the practice of the spiritual discipline of God's Word. What we discover here is equally valid for all the spiritual disciplines:

Therefore, having such a hope, let us be very bold, and not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel might not continually look upon that which was fading away. But their minds were hardened, for until this very day the same veil remains at the reading of the Old Covenant. It has not been removed. Because it is done away with in Christ. But until this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil remains over their hearts. But when someone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. And the Lord is the Spirit; and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is--liberty! But we all, with our faces unveiled, as we behold the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit (my translation).

Notice first of all that spiritual disciplines are arenas of grace in which we encounter a special concentration of the power of God's Spirit and of his Word. God's Word prescribes the spiritual disciplines, and his Spirit provides the power enabling us to benefit from the disciplines prescribed in his Word (we shall examine this more carefully in the next chapter). These two powers, present in all the spiritual disciplines, are at work in our lives according to God's good pleasure for each one of us (Phil 2:12-13), that is, according to our individual needs and the opportunities for ministry that God places before us each day.

In anticipation of entering these arenas where the powers of God are especially concentrated for our growth, we look forward in faith eagerly to what the Lord might do in our lives. Our attitude is like that of the psalmist who prayed, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Ps 119:18), or like David when he came before the Lord saying, "Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in my distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer" (Ps 4:1). A sense of eagerness and heightened expectation settles on us as we enter by faith into the practice of spiritual disciplines. Like Moses ascending Mt. Sinai, we experience a feeling of wonder, excitement and fear at the prospect of meeting with the living God. And we do have faith that we shall meet with him, shall "look full in his wonderful face" and hear him speaking directly to us, have audience with him concerning the desires of our heart, and be warmed and renewed by his love and instructed by his Word. Our joy in this privilege and in our love for him who provides it for us begins to rise and revive as we enter the arena of his power to encounter him afresh. Like children rushing downstairs on Christmas morning, we are filled with wonder, excitement and the prospect of blessing and delight.

Once there we encounter the glory of God, that is, the very presence of God as he makes himself known through one or more means, assuring us of his presence with us and enveloping us in his grace. Paul tells us that the glory of God comes off the pages of Scripture--or fills the atmosphere of our prayers or any of the other spiritual disciplines--and we are suddenly aware of a loving, other-worldly power making itself known to us, affecting us heart, soul, mind and strength. We see God in new ways, experience him more profoundly and really hear him speaking with us by his Word and Spirit, feel his comforting or convicting presence with greater intensity and passion, and desire to draw closer to him. With Moses we plead, "Lord, show me your glory!" We know what Jeremiah experienced when he exulted, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart" (Jer 15:16). Our bodies may be affected by such an encounter with the living God. We may raise our hands in praise or supplication, weep tears of joy and gladness or sorrow for our sins. We may cover our faces in shame, cry out in joy or burst into a song of praise and thanks to God. Our hearts may race with the prospect of new growth or opportunities for serving the Lord. We may find our minds transfixed for long moments on a phrase from God's Word or some aspect of his creation that reveals his beauty and glory in a new and wondrous way. We may fall to our knees or leap to our feet. Or we may simply sit in stunned silence and marvel at the grace of God for sinners such as we. We feel ourselves, whether slowly or suddenly, being drawn beyond our present condition to a greater sense of Christlikeness, a deeper love for him and stronger desire to show his love to others. Like the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration we would prolong this experience of the glory of God, for there is nothing in this world that can compare with it.

But this manifestation of the glory of God--whatever form it takes--is not merely for the purpose of exciting, soothing or stimulating us during the practice of spiritual disciplines. Rather, it is given to transform us increasingly into the image of the Lord. The Spirit of God, says Paul, takes the manifestation of God's glory that we encounter in the practice of spiritual disciplines and brings it to bear on our lives to make us more like Jesus Christ. From one experience of God's glory to the next, we see new aspects of his nature that we long to possess in ourselves. Our own sins are illuminated with such brilliance that we come to hate them and love the righteousness of the Lord more and more. We discover new ways that we might lay down our lives for our friends, reach out to our lost neighbors or show the love of Christ to members of our family or church. A new resolve begins to form in our hearts. Old selfish thoughts and ways are despised and rejected. Definite plans take shape by which we will act on what God has shown us, and we become aware of a new power at work within us, preparing us to live for Christ in new and exciting ways. Hope, confidence and joy rise, and we are thrilled with the prospect of going forth to live for Christ in whatever he may bring our way this day. Even in those "dark nights of the soul" we will know the comforting presence and grace of God assuring us that his love is surrounding us and that he will never fail nor forsake us (Ps 13; 43).

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Disciplines of Grace by t.m.moore. Copyright © 2001 by T. M. Moore. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Disciplines of Grace : From Spiritual Routines to Spiritual Renewal

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