A Somewhat Structured Random Thought

Greetings All,

This morning over quiet time I have been reading a new book that I sort of acquired by accident.  It is called Wisdom Chaser: Finding My Father at 14,000 Feet and it is written by the son of Richard Foster of Celebration of Discipline fame.  It is a book I would never have intentionally purchased or for that matter intentionally read, but it came in the mail, I was too lazy to send it back so I figured I might as well read it and I must admit I am really enjoying it.  There will be a book review to come, but the book is not my structured random thought for the morning.  My structured random thought for the morning involves Richard's book.

I was nine years old when Celebration of Discipline  was written and my prayer life consisted of "Now I lay me down to sleep" and "God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food."  The thought of silence or fasting or simplicity, never entered my mind.  All nine year olds are loud, hungry and yearning for more stuff, especially of the GI Joe variety; so it was not until much later, in fact 25 years later that I discovered Mr. Foster's book.  If you haven't read it, you need too because it is the most influential modern Christian book of probably the last 80 years.  It is a book that explains the historic spiritual disciplines of Christianty and teaches us how to employ them in our lives to deepen our relationship with God.  Foster is a Quaker so it is very much in that spirit of quietness and listening and humility and if you let allow it to seep in you will find the book changing your life.

In reading his son Nathan's book about reconnecting with his father I had one of those "a ha" moments.  One of those moments where the sun shines just right and you discover a sparkly treasure hidden in the tall grass that a moment ago or a moment ahead would have never been found; and due to the elusive nature of thoughts like that I decided I better go ahead and write it down.  It really isn't that original of a thought, it just struck me this morning in a really powerful way as a commentary on not only my life but the Christian world around us. 

I would have to look up statistics, but I would venture to guess that Celebration of Discipline is the most consistent selling Christian book every year over the last 32 years.  It probably hasn't exceeded sales of flash in the pan books like The Shack or The Purpose Driven Life, but I would venture to say that it continues to sell volumes at a slow and steady pace and will do so for decades to come.  It is a book about slowing down, simplifying life, about restructuring our priorities to find more of God.  In short it is a book about "being," and embraces timeless Christian values that many Christian's today have either forgotten or never knew they were values to start with.  The random thought was in contrasting Celebration of Discipline  with our modern Christian best sellers like The Purpose Driven Life, or Your Best Life Now. 

No longer is it enough in the Christian life that God created me to be me and to discover that in an unfolding way over a lifetime; now we have to have been created for a specific purpose to accomplish something and we need it NOW!  The values of the world have silently slipped into mainstream Christianity and we don't even realize the damage it is doing.  Having been in the business I world I have spent years being "driven," of pursuing a "purpose," of setting goals and plans to get what I want if not now, pretty darn soon!  You know what I discovered?  There is little satisfaction in any of that.  Once I attain my purpose or accomplish my goal, rather than reveling in the moment of success I am already looking for the next purpose, the next goal to accomplish, the next flash in the pan book to inspire me to be something new.

The only real satisfaction in life comes from recognizing that we were created to be children of God!  Does He have stuff He wants us to accomplish?  Yes, but that is secondary, even tertiary to us being His children.  Life as a Christian is better than life without Christ, not because we won't have problems and we will have prosperity (those are both lies of material driven Christianity), but because God is with us when things are bad and when they are good.  We are His children and He revels in us and likewise we should find the time to revel in Him.  Foster was trying to remind us of that in 1978, but best lives and purposes have drowned out that voice at times.  We need to find those moments in our life where it is enough to just be; to just be content with who we are as Children of God; to just be content with moments spent with our loved ones porchsitting or snuggling rather than "doing;" to just be content with what we have rather than take time away from God and our family pursuing more. 

They say art and literature imitate life.  I think that has become the case as we look at the more recent successful Christian books.  No longer are we looking for those "disciplines" to draw us closer to God; rather now we are looking for those formulas for success that will give us satisfaction and fulfillment immediately so we can put the notch on our belt and begin to pursue the next level of satisfaction. 

Lord, I pray today that you open our eyes to the truth that life in you should be traveled at a slow and steady pace.  Constantly with our eyes on you, but at a pace where we can appreciate the beauty of the scenery, the refreshing of the conversation in the moment, the serendipity of the unexpected breeze or traveler on the same path.  Lord help us to see that to simply be Your children is enough and then inspire us to share that truth with others that they might come to that place of contentment and joy that is being yours.  In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron