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Rule of Life

Earlier this year I read Punk Monk a sort of prequel to Red Moon Rising. Punk Monk recounts the modern and ancient stories of people who have chosen to live in communities of prayer and discipline. I read the book Holy Fools close to 5 years ago and like Punk Monk it too is about asceticism and the wisdom of the Desert Fathers (with a few caveats). While there is certainly excesses in monastic movements and a bent toward legalism, there is also great truth. We live in a self centered and self indulgent culture. The core values of our lives are shaped more by consumerism and giving in to every fleeting desire than self discipline and sacrifice. It just so happens that God's people and God himself are more of the sacrificing ilk than the indulgent ilk.

I hear the debate already. That sounds like old legalistic religion and bondage. I do however think that there is a middle ground of the Hebraic understanding that creation is good and the equally Hebraic/Christian view that earthly things can distract us or dull us from things of the Spirit. A little abstaining now and again can re-calibrate our senses to enjoy God's creation and the Creator God. Sadly, discipline has become a dirty word to most of us. Our lives are guided by haphazard habits and off beat rhythms. Sometimes we pray, sometimes we meditate on scripture, sometime we fast, sometimes we gorge, sometimes we go to church, sometimes we confess our sins, sometimes. Whenever the mood hits and the guilt increases to unbearable levels. Whenever we read a book or want to try a new get Christlike quick gimmick. I know for me my spiritual life is often made up of more fad diets than healthy living. I've lived the last few years in a sort of spiritual obesity. I haven't disciplined my life or my body. In an attempt to overcorrect my own performance orientation I've gone to another extreme the total lack of spiritual training. In 2012 I've sought to come back to a healthier center. 9 months in and I'm seeing subtle differences. I've realized that what I'm signing up for is not a month long fast or 21 day prayer campaign. It isn't a 3 day retreat or a week long conference. I've signed up for daily discipline of stretching my spirit man. This is a life not an experience. So often we look for an experience to replace the hard and slow work of daily living. It would be nice to get blasted on the carpet and get up with a heart permanently aligned and aflame. As long as sin is in the world this simply isn't realistic.

The life of a disciple of Jesus is a race of endurance not explosive sprinting. There are athletes who can explode in a rapid fury but quickly fade. Then there are distance runners. A distance runner trains slowly and consistently. They aren't trying to get top speeds right away. A distance runner wants to build his or her ability to run longer and longer and slowly they begin moving faster and faster. My wife has been running about 2.5 years and the progress has been grueling. Yet day by day she gets a little faster and a little stronger. There have been numerous set backs and times of injuries. When her routine is thrown off my sickness or work schedules she suffers immediately. Her whole life and all of her priorities are now bending to her running schedule. What see eats, when she eats it, how long she runs and on what days, all of it is training for the next race. Each race is itself training for the next one after it. Imagine what that sort of intensity and persevering would produce if applied to a life in the Spirit?

That is the point of the Desert Fathers, the old Mystics, the Revivalists, and many other saints. The gold in their lives has been refined from mud over decades of saying prayers over meals, living in community, praying fervently and daily, fasting often, and praying in the Spirit constantly. I've asked some of the heroes of my faith what the secret of their ministry was. I've asked some in real life and even more in dreams. They ALL have told me the same thing.

Me: "What is the secret to walking in the Spirit/Glory/Anointing/etc.?"

Hero A: (Pausing briefly) The secret is praying in tongues a lot and fasting regularly.

Hero B: The secret is praying in tongues, praying the bible, and fasting to build hunger for God's ways and presence.

Hero C: The secret is getting low through praying in the spirit for long periods, serving the poor, fasting regularly.

ETC ETC ETC

These are people who have raised multiple people from the dead, prophesied over kings, cleared entire villages of the sick, witnessed to millions, reached millions, been thrown in jail, gone to heaven, met the risen Christ, and suffered for the Gospel. They all say the same thing. It is a lifetime of daily small choices not a single cataclysmic event. I once asked a living revivalist (who will going down in history as the fire starter for the greatest revival of the late 20th century) what I should do since nothing seems to be happening in my life now. His response was, "Enjoy this time in your life. Build a deep foundation of the studying the word, praying, fasting, worshipping daily. It is the years of doing this that you will draw from later in life in seasons of busyness. If you do it you will look back and say that these are the greatest days of your life."

What he was saying was that the days of raising the dead, preaching to stadiums, and seeing thousands healed in a single meeting while traveling the world would not compare to the times of "nothing" lived in discipline. Jesus Himself lived in a rhythm of Engagement-Ministry-Solitude. He would engage and challenge his disciples, minister to the masses, and draw away with the Father. I imagine that His favorite times were the times when it was just Him and the Father being refreshed in the Father's love. You could say that this rhythm was the "rule of life" for Jesus.

A rule of life is written set of values and disciplines that you vow to live by often in community. The monastic orders each had rules they lived by that guided how they sought God, worked, played, and loved the lost and the least. They committed to helping the poor, praying constantly, giving generously, living simply, worshipping passionately, and working quietly. The most famous rule is that of St. Benedict. It is the guiding line for cultures of prayer. A rule calls us to live outside our comforts and to pursue solitude and community in a healthy rhythm of love and obedience. It's a long leap for the this Baptist boy to write on the merits of Catholic practices but this is something I've thought about for the last 9 months. No conclusions yet. I do know that love motivated commitment is the most powerful thing we have. Without it our lives fall apart. If we don't love our bodies and selves we grow weak and obese. If we don't love out families we become fractured, if we don't love Jesus with daily commitment we become nominal Christians who've prayed an easy prayer but live outside the promised land of rest.

What would a modern and grace filled rule of life look like for me or you?