This spring, I'm going to be teaching the spring semester of our School of Church Leadership at our Cedar Falls campus. It's one class that will be meeting on a few weekends during the spring. The topic? Spiritual formation - God's process of transforming us into the image of Christ for the sake of others, and how we are able to partner with him in that process.
One of the books I'm reading to prepare for the class is David Benner's Surrender To Love: Discovering the Heart of Christian Spirituality. In it he makes a statement that caused me to stop and think:
Ask Christians what they believe about God, and most will have a good deal to say. However, ask the same people what they know about God from direct personal experience, and most will have much less to say.
Is that true of the people you do life with? Is it true of you?
Benner goes on to explain why he thinks this is - this time quoting from A. W. Tozer:
A. W. Tozer notes that most of us who call ourselves Christians do so on the basis of belief more than experience. We have, he argues, "substituted theological ideas for an arresting encounter; we are full of religious notions but our great weakness is that for our hearts there is no one there."
Finally, Benner makes this statement:
Any authentic spiritual journey must grow from direct, personal experience of God. "Knowledge by acquaintance," Tozer affirms, "is always better than mere knowledge by description."
Maybe you've never thought about it that way. Maybe for you, your primary knowledge of God has always been more about what you believe about him ("Am I accurately describing to you what the Bible says about him?") more than it has been about what you have experienced of him ("Can I tell you how the God of the Bible has intervened in my life?").
Don't get me wrong. Let's not throw right belief out the window. I've got a seminary degree and some sizeable student loan debt that says I value right belief. People make God into whatever image they desire, and to their own peril. It's important to rightly describe him.
Nevertheless: you can accurately describe someone without knowing them, can't you? I bet there are people who know more about the facts and figures of my wife's life than I do: her nuclear family, college roommates, maybe her co-workers. But I bet no one knows her as well as I do.
So, if you're in this predicament of being able to describe what you believe about God, but aren't really able to tell as many stories about how you've experienced him, what do you do?
- Well, take the class. (Shameless self-promotion.)
- Grab Benner's book. (By the way, Amazon's Kindle is available as an app either on your phone, laptop, or tablet. It's fantastic. And Kindle books are cheap. Oh, and the app is free.)
- Do some journaling. Think prayerfully, in conversation with God, about why this might be.
- Have a spiritual conversation about this - maybe with your spouse or your small group. See what the Spirit brings up as you do.
- Do something that God says he's already doing: caring for the disenfranchised, loving his enemies, forgiving those who have sinned against him. You're bound to encounter him in those places.
Anyways, that's what's got me today. Would love to know your thoughts.
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