I can't believe it's been over a month - and into a whole new year - since I last blogged. Not least because I had committed to blogging at least once a week. Oh well, I have no intention of beating myself up, but it does highlight something about the importance of discipline.I've just started a module of my theology degree on 'spiritual formation'. It's a trendy title for all the stuff involved in relating to God and living it out. I guess you could say theology without the stuff of spiritual formation is just so much hot air; combine the two and you have the beginnings of something powerful and transformational.
At the heart of this is 'the disciplines' - prayer, fasting, study, pilgrimage, meditation, service... And they're called disciplines because, yes, you guessed it, they require a disciplined approach. It may be a daily rhythm; in the case of the 'offices' it's a sequence of prayer and meditation throughout the day. But in every case they require the disciple (is there a link here between disciple and discipline?) to subjugate the flesh and give themselves to a practice that they might otherwise find some reason not to do.
As I write this, I'm thinking of the parallels with physical exercise - in the normal course of events, people tend to shy away from it, since it involves some level of discomfort (in order to increase your fitness, you normally have to extend the capacity of your body, whether your muscles or cardio vascular system, which necessarily involves pushing it beyond where it has been before - this in turn leads to discomfort). It therefore requires discipline. For me, that means an inner expectation that, however I feel, whatever the weather, I will run, swim, cycle, or whatever on most days.
My challenge is to bring that same level of discipline to my spiritual life which, for the most part resembles the wave which is 'blown and tossed by the wind' (James 1:6). I'm hoping this module will help provide the external structure I feel I need. So help me God.
