How can I know if my soul is like the Titanic?

Sooner or later the issues on life’s lower decks, though we remain oblivious, will rise to the top.

How many of us are unwittingly in danger of being broken and sucked down without even realizing there’s a problem?

Most of us won’t take the time to go deep down within because we have too often been discipled into superficiality.

Quote from Intro on page xiv…
In some conservative traditions, transformation is about getting the right theology in one’s head while overlooking the inner work God wants to do.
In some progressive traditions, transformation is about right action and engagement within the world, but often at the expense of personal humility and mercy.

In some Charismatic and Pentecostal traditions, transformation is about getting the right experience, but without the deeper work of loving well and exploring our inner worlds.

We are being formed by a culture fashioned by shallowness.

Culture:

Speed
Distraction
Superficiality

So that is the purpose of this series and the book.

Set Up the Series:

The book
Groups
21 Days of Prayer booklets

You’re either being formed by culture or by Christ.

Galatians 1:6-7
6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

We are not transformed by the outside in;
we are transformed from the inside out.

Instead of being DEEPLY FORMED we allow ourselves to be SHALLOWLY SHAPED.

Contemplative Rhythms for an Exhausted Life

The pace we live at is often destructive. The lack of margin is debilitating. We are worn out. And because of this, what usually gets pushed out, are the most important things… Time for ourselves, time with our family, life with God.

As long as we remain enslaved to a culture of speed, superficiality, and distraction, we will not be the people God longs for us to be.

God has all the time in the world, and as a result, he is not in a rush.
Often, we are going much faster than God.

“It is only when we slow down our lives that we can catch up to God.” - N.T. Wright

“Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day.” - Dallas Willard

Unless we live with an intentional commitment to slow down, we have no hope for a quality of life that allows Jesus to form us into His image.

Throughout Scripture, we see a pattern with all of the people that God used to both be close to Him and make an impact on their world.

MOSES
*Exodus 3:1*
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

DAVID
*Psalm 27:4*
One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.

MARY
*Luke 2:19*
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

JOHN THE BAPTIST
*Mark 1:3-4*
3“a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’ ”
4And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 

JESUS
*Luke 5:15-16*
15Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

“Practice of the Presence of God” - Brother Lawrence 1800’s.

How do I begin to become DEEPLY FORMED?

Prayer
Silence
Solitude

The speed we live at does violence against our souls.

The inner and outer distractions minimize the capacity for us to see God’s activity around us and within us.

I sometimes imagine a scenario where someone is locked inside of a supermarket and dies of starvation.

Can you imagine?

It might seem impossible, but in our spiritual lives this happens every day. Whether we know it or not, we are locked in the supermarket of God’s abundant life and love. It’s all available to us. Even so, people are spiritually starving.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

God not just in the business of improving our lives.
He is committed to our transformation.

He wants to infuse us with His life. Every day he moves towards us in love, reaching, seeking, and pleading with us to be with Him.

4 Indispensible Practices:

Silent Prayer

Any relationship that has grown over time has developed the capacity to simply be with each other.
God purifies us of the false god of good feelings.

Sabbath Keeping

Sabbath is not a reward earned for hard work.
Sabbath is an invitation to a life that isn’t dominated and distorted by overwork.
Sabbath moves us from production to presence.

Slow Reading of Scripture

Read with the purpose of encountering God.
Focus on a word or phrase that God is highlighting for you in the moment.
Talk to God about what you feel like He just highlighted for you.

Commitment to Stability

Commit to a church, group, and process.
Stay connected with all others, especially in the moment of conflict, tension, and even anxiety.

STEALING TIME vs. MAKING TIME

Start somewhere.
Relationships only grow with time.
Give grace for this not to look or be amazing, especially at first.
Stay committed to the process.