Invitation to a Journey by M. Robert Mulholland Jr

Author:M. Robert Mulholland Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2016-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

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iscipline is not a popular term in our culture. Quaker writer Richard Foster’s invitation to the “celebration of discipline” is a radical call to a largely undisciplined and comfort-seeking culture.1 Our avoidance of discipline is another symptom of the pursuit of instant gratification that characterizes our culture. Instant fulfillment of needs and desires allows no time for the long and rigorous path of disciplines. Yet it is this path that brings true and lasting fulfillment, not the brief and fleeting appearances of fulfillment that disappear in the next moment.

While the avoidance of discipline characterizes much of our culture, the acceptance of discipline can also be symptomatic of brokenness. There are those for whom discipline become a rigid structure of life that allows no room for divine serendipities or graced interruptions of the disciplines. There are those for whom disciplines become such a fixed order of being and doing that the possibility of changes in the pattern becomes unthinkable. There are those for whom the disciplines become the total content of their relationship with God, and works righteousness the shape of their spirituality.

Somewhere between the extremes of avoidance of discipline and the imprisonment of discipline is the holistic practice of balanced spiritual disciplines that become a means of God’s grace to shape us in the image of Christ for others. Paul seems to intimate this in his seemingly contradictory “Work out your own salvation, . . . for God is at work in you” (Phil 2:12-13). Which is it, Paul—am I to work, or do I wait for God to do it? Paul’s response would be yes! You see, both sides of the equation are essential for balanced spiritual disciplines. If we destroy the paradox by opting for working out our own salvation, the disciplines by which we seek to do this work will become our prisons. If we destroy the paradox by opting for God to do everything, the absence of disciplines becomes a barrier that precludes God’s opportunity to effect any consistent transformation in our lives. Holistic spiritual disciplines are acts of loving obedience we offer to God steadily and consistently, to be used for whatever work God purposes to do in and through our lives.

Our tendency, however, is to destroy the tension of the paradox. We come down either on the side of do-it-yourself spirituality or on the side of waiting for God to do whatever God wants to do. This is why Paul says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you.” It is always difficult to maintain the delicate balance between working out our own salvation through spiritual disciplines and allowing God to work in us. It is so much easier to opt for one side against the other.

We also practice spiritual disciplines “with fear and trembling” because of the strong temptation to pervert the disciplines. We may exercise spiritual disciplines to attempt to win God’s favor or to get God to do what we think ought to be done in our lives.

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