Listening is not simply, or mainly, hearing what the other person is saying. It is thinking about what they are saying, and doing so from their point of view.

Implication: This includes a willingness to be influenced by others. If you are generally unaffected by what other people say, you aren’t listening.

Then I sent it to my theologian (and pastor) friend Adam. Here’s his brief biblical reflection, since he doesn’t blog himself:

I like these statements, they remind me of Proverbs 18:2 and 18:13. Here are some more thoughts for the conversation:

I think that “Listening” is the main theme of the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4; Matt, 13). Since this is the first parable, it functions importantly as a kind of gateway parable into Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom. Check out Mark 4 (akuo is the first and the last word of his initial telling of the parable to the crowds; and it is the only word in the imperative mood). It is literally this “hearing heart” that Solomon prayed for in his famous request for wisdom (1 Kings 3) Listening is a fundamental activity that characterizes entrance and continuation of life as a disciple of Jesus in His kingdom. Surely, a key discipline for disciples is the cultivation of a listening ear. As in the parable, those who fail to listen fail to bear fruit. A spiritually deaf disciple is a dead disciple. All of this highlights the importance of listening.

As to the nature of listening, it seems that a ‘willingness to listen from the speaker’s perspective’ highlights a potential sense or aspect of what true “listening” is, but this aspect still does not capture the bulk idea of a theology of listening. The primary idea seems to be more of a receptive and teachable heart (see also James 1:22; receiving the word with meekness). The Scriptures also speak of the nobility of the Bereans [Acts 17:11] for the discernment in which they listened. We must guard against both naivety and unreceptivity in our listening.

There are a cluster of virtues that seem to characterize healthy listening, such as: humility, honesty, love for and hunger for truth, and respect for others. Cultivating these virtures is likely to make one a better listener.

Final thought, on a practical note perhaps it is wise to distinguish between how we treat ideas and people. Namely, be critical with ideas. Be charitable with people.

Well said, Adam!

If you want to learn more for Adam, think about attending Cornerstone School of Ministry in Corvallis, Oregon, where he serves as Director and a church Elder and Pastor. I’m grateful for the opportunity to visit as a guest lecturer from time to time, and used to teach there regularly.

“The quest for a contemplative life can actually be self-absorbed, focused on my quiet and me. If we love people and have the power to help, then we are going to be busy. Learning to pray doesn’t offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart. In the midst of outer busyness we can develop an inner quiet. Because we are less hectic on the inside, we have a greater capacity to love … and thus to be busy, which in turn drives us even more into a life of prayer. By spending time with our Father in prayer, we integrate our lives with his, with what he is doing in us. Our lives become more coherent. They feel calmer, more ordered, even in the midst of confusion and pressure.”
—Paul Miller, A Praying Life

“True spirituality is not a superhuman religiosity; it is simply true humanity released from bondage to sin and renewed by the Holy Spirit. This is given to us as we grasp by faith the full content of Christ’s redemptive work: freedom from the guilt and power of sin, and newness of life through the indwelling and outpouring of his Spirit.”

- Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1979), 19-20.

[HT: Of First Importance ]

[HT: RevReav + the NewLife blog]

Begin the day with God!
He is thy Sun and Day!
His is the radiance of thy dawn;
To Him address thy lay.

Sing a new song at morn!
Join the glad woods and hills;
Join the fresh winds and seas and plains,
Join the bright flowers and rills.

Sing thy first song to God!
Not to thy fellow men;
Not to the creatures of His hand,
But to the glorious One.

Take thy first walk with God!
Let Him go forth with thee;
By stream, or sea, or mountain path,
Seek still His company.

Thy first transaction be
With God Himself above;
So shall thy business prosper well,
And all the day be love.
–Horatius Bonar

In asking whether his church could get too mature for community , he notes:

"The level of authentic confession of sin, persistent belief in the gospel, love for one another, and sharing of life and mission is remarkable. This is not naive community; it is redemptive community, a community of grace that holds in common brokenness and belief, failure and success, repentance and faith. As one of our people shared during our gathering on Sunday, “You are never too spiritually mature for community.”

Amen to that. Small/home/community/whatever-we-call-them groups should connect the weak and the strong, the mature and the newborn believer. In a very real sense, we’re all weak. Plus, I don’t think any of us really "get" the Gospel. We need it every single day, and we cannot be sanctified — changed into Christ’s image — without one another, and all that that entails.

Then Dodson asks if his church is too community-centered? He notes the happy tension:

Indeed, community should be common fare in the church, and I’m not talking about “fellowship”, just hanging out or feeling like you have friends. If we are not careful, our longing for and experience of community can subtly displace the gospel. Biblical community is much, much more than this. Biblical community is significant, not because it makes you feel significant but because it recognizes that Jesus is our common source of significance. The gospel, not people, becomes the means to the end of our identity. Our sense of acceptance flows from our relationship with Christ, which in turn frees us to love and serve one another, not secretly judge, demand or ostracize. We become a one anothering community, freed by the gospel, to love and serve each other. We are equally never too spiritually mature for the gospel.

I love it. Sweet highlights:

• "… Jesus is our common source of significance."
• "The gospel, not people, becomes the means to the end of our identity."
• "We become a one anothering community, freed by the gospel, to love and serve each other."
• "We are equally never too spiritually mature for the gospel."

As our church just focused on Colossians 3:12-17 last weekend, I resonate with the quote Dodson gives:

“We are to be teaching each other the gospel, to be correcting each other about the gospel with all wisdom, to be singing about the gospel with gratitude and so letting it dwell richly among us. When we come to church on a Sunday, or to our small group meeting during the week, we should come saying to ourselves, ‘I hope I will be reminded of the gospel in this meeting. I hope I will be taught about it and corrected in my understanding of it. I hope we will sing about it.” [Graham Beynon, God’s New Community , 119.]

That makes the Gospel central, really.

We would all do well to heed Dodson’s final exhortation:

"Does your church, your community, your small group, your missional community gather in anticipation of being reminded of the gospel, corrected in the gospel, motivated by the gospel, to sing of the gospel? If not, what can you do to reshape community expectations around the gospel, not community? Have you become too mature for community or too community centered for the gospel? Consider how to make the gospel central and community will follow."

• I encourage any leader to read Jonathan’s blog Church Planting Novice often

So much more is at stake in daily life. Whereas a basketball game is only a few moments, life spans years. Habits and routines. Life is made up of a million little choices and experiences, each moving us towards wholeness or away from it. By default, we will experience the hectic chaos of entropy: lives out of rhythm with God and the Gospel. Resist the urge to live in defeat by keeping in step with the Spirit. He desires it. God writes to us:

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. …
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." (Galatians 5:16-26, vv. 16, 25 here)

There we see the connection of life and daily walking with the Spirit of Life, which plays out in a thousand directions and creative opportunities to love God and others every day.

Also, this is not just a "religious" rhythm. That is, walking with the Spirit is in all of life, including how we treat our bodies, what we eat, what we take-in for our minds to consume, and how we think and relate to others, for just a short list. People who are unhealthy in one area of life may be outside of God’s will and not as useful for His Kingdom purposes.

That isn’t to say that we should be completely healthy and wealthy materially in this life. Often it’s quite the opposite: if we are cultivating contentedness with very little and in much weakness (see Phil. 4), then Christ’s strength and His creativity will may a way for our "poor" and "weak" lives to be full of Gospel rhythm. Thus we will be "healthy and wealthy" in the only ways that truly matter: rich towards God and generous towards others. (Jesus became poor so that we could become rich in Him (2 Cor. 8:9).) But, if you are feeding your addictions and living lives out of whack, then we won’t have the bandwidth, let alone be in rhythm, to see outside ourselves.

On a personal note: I finally feel like I’m getting into a rhythm of daily life with our new church and in a better trajectory of personal health. I’ve been able to take up running again, and hope to work these feet back into basketball shape sometime. Oddly enough, the snow is what may have contributed to it. While I couldn’t do any running, it did help with relationships. "Slow down" was the clear message. Many of us remarked that it was God’s gift at this time of Advent, to send us some sabbath rest with family, unable to busy our lives to much under the tyranny of the urgent.Yes, there is much to do, but the harmony and rhythm of a life lived wrapped around God and His Gospel is showing in the lives around us. Praise Jesus for His work of harmony. He has rhythm.

Recently I wrote a paper, and the professor especially liked one section I wrote:

"… two things become apparent to me. One, God does not use lazy people. And two, those who are greatly used by God realize that it does not depend upon them.  Dwelling in and enjoying the tension of this apparent paradox has been my short journey as a servant and child of God."

The paper was about relationships among church leaders, and one pillar of camaraderie I wrote about was diligence . There is no substitute for hard work, and hard working people gain more fuel from the journey by coming into contact with one another. Yet, for all our hard work, we release that this work of God depends upon Him, not us. A person  around me for any length of time knows I love to swim the depths of what I call "happy tensions," the paradoxes of the universe worth exploring.

Consider the happy tension the Apostle Paul writes of (in v. 29 esp.):

"24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. " ( Colossians 1:24-29 )

He was diligent beyond himself by an energy beyond himself. Oh the happy tension of a life lived in the power of God Almighty!

"How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water."

Notice that portion in vv. 9 & 10. The duplicity — and power (vv. 5-8) — of our words is astonishing. We used to chant the lie, that "sticks and stones … but words will never hurt me." That’s totally false. Words are far more destructive than any object thrown. At least with sticks and stones the damage is seen, and visible reminder. Yet, words can wound far deeper, and the scars remind though hidden.

The point is illustrated deeply in my own mind as I contemplate my son’s increasing vocabulary (all dozen or so words), and think of how he said "Bible" for the first time today. Wow.

Someday he will realize the infinite worth of the Book he is talking about — I hope and pray his eyes go open as God shines His light. Yet, today, I am really his best connection to what the Bible is all about. Do I bless God, and speak of and from the Bible, and then turn around and reveal a disdain for people, for whom Christ died? He sees it when I do. And although he cannot speak in sentences, he certainly can think complete thoughts. He is arriving at conclusions about our Creator on the basis of our few hours together each day. I speak and pray in front of my son: that God is our Father. Who is Dutch’s father? Does he see a correlation, and will he desire to know this Father whom I love and know and weep at His sheer grace. Is that coming across to my son?

Kari assures me I’m doing well. Yet as a father — twice now — these thoughts weigh on me, as they should. And I hope and pray to be like my own Dad who always has joyful and pleasant words, who is a gentle man who radiates care as a father should.

Resolve to make our words personal

Can we resolve to use our words for the building up of one another?

• Have you recently harmed someone with words, even in a small way? Will you resolve to take practical, even humiliating steps, to seek forgiveness and reconciliation?
• Or, perhaps it is the other way around: How can you forgive them in love?
• Start with those you are connected to. If getting out of that rut seems insurmountable, with and the bickering, complaining and sarcasm, then start "small."
• Begin with those who may seem to be of little importance, on the fringe of your daily life — like those who pump your gas, serve your feed, and drive your kid’s school bus. We can tell a lot about a person by how he or she treats people who supposedly are not adding value to our lives. Are we adding value to theirs?
• Have you realized they may be having a worse day than you are? (Have I realized that?)

Take an interest in them, and in doing so, lose yourself in the beauty of what it means for all persons to be image-bearers of our Creator. Each one of us is marred and worse off than we realize, yet more loved than we dared imagine.

Let’s speak to one another (as made in the image/likeness of God) like we are speaking to Christ, who is The Image of God. That is how it is supposed to be.

Here are the top five lessons I (think I) have learned over this past 50 month journey and beyond. All are interconnected:

1. People are more important that what they do. Personalizing it: I am not what I do . That is, my identity is rooted in Christ, not my performance. I work from significance in Christ, not for it, as the Gospel would have it. (Repeat that last sentence with me! This message never grows old, and must be the cornerstone of a daily life. We must preach that application of the Christ’s glorious grace to ourselves every day.) In this season, I had to learn to do a few things well. To be fine with not being a perfectionist (okay, I am a recovering one). To release myself from forming a tiny view of life, all centered on me and what I am doing. I was a chronic do-er five years ago, and will never be that again, by the grace of God. Reality is, I work harder now, more efficiently, and am more content to simply BE, motivated by the Gospel.
2. Life is meant to have rhythm. Walking in step with the Spirit is a relationship worth fighting like heaven to keep vital. He is the One working in me to fulfill God’s ultimate purposes. Some people like to refer to life as being in "balance," and I probably should like that word as an engineer-type. It sounds so mathematical. Yet, it fails to see life in proper perspective, for we are not weighing things against one another (the definition of balance), but seeing them come together in harmony. Some like to pit propositional statements of faith against the story of faith. Jesus against Paul. The Bible against the Spirit. Truth versus experience. That’s utter foolishness. They are not against one another, but serve one another in love. Inexplicably connected. For example, in the Gospel rhythms, my job does not compete with my family.They are interwoven in a beautiful work of art by the Father, Son and Spirit.
3. GOD is the Gospel ( tag | search ). If there is one message I hope to bring to the local church, it is this one (along with the view that the Gospel is for all of life, even for Christians). I read the book by that title in 2006 while on hiatus from seminary (Kari was pregnant, I focused on working to provide for us). Lightning struck my soul. It is essentially 180 pages of meditation on two primary verses: 2 Corinthians 4:4,6 . Wow. All things exist and move towards the public display of God’s infinite worth (His glory). Since God Himself is the great good of the Gospel, entering into relationship like Him is like diving into a pool, not just off a diving board. As God is meant to permeate all of life, the Gospel is meant for all of life (like a living room, as opposed to simply the doorway to new life).
4. All of life is preparation. God will, as a loving Father, use every means possible shape us into the image of His Son ( Romans 8:28-30 , Hebrews 12 ). This process of sanctification (purifying) is deep and lasting, and cannot happen without pain, tragedy, relationships (including conflict and resolution) triumphs, and dependence. As a single man I began to see the need for Lamentations 3:25-33 and Habakkuk 3:17-19 become reality in my own life, asking God to shape me into the kind of man who praises Him no matter the circumstance. Doing that deep work requires preparation, which requires suffering. From a broken vertebrae that remains today, to relational brokenness, to physical pain in my feet, to disappoints of various sorts, there is no end to the design of God’s good for us through these experiences.
5. My life is meant to be wrapped about God’s story, not Him around mine. This couples with the others, and specifically #4, as God’s story is simply bigger than teeny, tiny me. That is because the Gospel is not merely good advice. It is the Good News — check that — the best news possible, that Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, died for our sins and rose again, eternally triumphant over all His enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe in Him, but only everlasting joy in God. Thus, God and His Word are the ultimate reality. I don’t apply the Bible to my life, I rather press my life into His Word, applying my life to Him. This is more than semantics, for each of us is prone to by default live for the glory of ourselves, to seek to further our own kingdom. I am a servant of King Jesus. I am part of His Kingdom. He holds the keys to the future, and I gladly submit to His leading, whatever that entails. As all good story feature conflict and resolution, the Grand Story of the Bible being played out in the universe by the Triune God is the best possible mixture of both.
6. (Just like yesterday there are six. Forgive me.) Faithfulness is our part, fruitfulness is God’s. Actually, our faithfulness is enabled by His ( Phil. 2:12-13; 1 John 5:3 ). Kari and I remind one another weekly that our home and family is the first ministry. Being faithful starts here. For whatever "success" I find in vocation, in being a pastor, in whatever, it is worthless if I fail as a faithful husband and loving father. That is the definition of success.

From these lessons I formed the chief objective of my life: To help everyone breathing know the one and only Triune God, in Christ, better than they know anyone or anything else, and to love and enjoy Him together more than anyone or anything else in all the world.

Ever a life-long learner (through all eternity), swimming in the depths of the Gospel and seeing how necessary these truths are, and looking for more to discover.

• Tomorrow I’ll share 5 lessons learned over these last 50 months . For now, here are five signposts along the journey to being a pastor (stretching back before these last 4+ years).

In 1998 I first sensed Christ’s call to enter the ministry. My heart and mind was electrified as a sophomore at OSU, an engineering student, and oh so fed up with how far behind I was spiritually. In that day, specifically Super Bowl weekend in late January, He ignited in me a spark that grew larger and larger, coupled with an insatiable desire for God’s Word. Those college years and serving in the local church and on the OSU campus were invaluable experiences. Many lessons learned, lots of failure. More grace. The relational connections made still remain firmly intact. The Gospel was our chief unifying reality. I have been blessed to see fellow students, and then my own students from Real Life and the School of Ministry forge ahead in their part of God’s grand story.

In 2003 I was graciously enabled to marry the woman of my dreams. Kari, I l. No matter what "success" I achieve as a pastor, my first duty is to be a faithful husband and loving father. Before God, let all these other things serve to reinforce that trajectory, not divert from it. Without you, Dutch, and now Heidi, this journey would not be worth taking.

Fifty months ago (2004) Kari and I took the plunge and moved to another state for the sake of my becoming a pastor in the official sense for the first time. Until then I had been "pastoring" in many ways, and while I knew the title would not add an inch to my stature, it was to be a significant jump in responsibility before God and men. And boy was it. Nothing like we imagined, and I never did became a "pastor" in the official sense. We felt "shelved." But God broke me, and rebuilt me again to be the kind of man who loves Him more than a title and is willing to suffer for the Gospel. People became real to me. The Gospel went deeper. Christ became huge, more than adequate and satisfying. We look back fondly on that season now with the vantage point of having come through it. Warren Wiersbe in On Being a Servant of God reminds us to not ask God to get us out of our trials, but to ask Him, "What do You want me to get out of this trial?" God had a whole different plan for us, a crucible of what seemed like an endless string of disappointments. Our character needed it. I thank Him for it — without reservation — and would not for a million dollars trade any of those experiences. Please don’t sign me up for it again, our good Father, but I would not go back and chart a different course.

In 2005 we came back to Oregon, continuing in a career of construction management  in construction for my good friend Ben was the sweet spot of God’s will for us at the time. As were were a growing company, and I needed to gain credibility with the crew, I took to being the lowest grunt of the lot, moving aluminum shoring and pipes, and finally getting some good callouses from hands fully engaged in some good manual labor. Installing sewer lines 8 feet below the ground surface and mortoring up manholes was a crucible for learning. I remember the guys often asking me during lunch, "They didn’t teach you that in college, eh, Mr. Civil Engineer!?" I thank them for it. During the process I learned that nothing is secular, the construction workers need the Gospel just like I do, and that all circumstances are "sacred" in that they are meant to be used for worshipping God. Without those "silent years" we would not be here (positionally, and certainly not ready in our character). I learned to practice God’s joy in all of life, especially the mundane things. That is why I plead with people to find their identity in Christ alone and not in what they do. Funny to thing back how my move into the office became official when on the eve of Thanksgiving I ran over my left foot with the Jeep Wrangler. (Yeah, it really hurt, and I walk with a slight limp today.)

Also in 2005 we also became students again. A couple years earlier we had wanted to go to seminary (in Chicago, we thought), but Christ had some pre-graduate school preparation for us (see above). Now, we were able to do this together , both as students, and those Friday-only classes and one night course during that first year at Multnomah was a unique experience. Not sure how we managed the 90 minute commute both ways (fuel was much cheaper), but that time did serve to be like mini "dates" for Kari and I. We entered seminary as a young married couple, and when Kari graduates this year she will have given birth to two children while a student. (She’s incredible, by the way…)

So much more could be said. Dutch was born around Christmas 2006, and our lives have been changed for the better because of him. Last year we lived with Kari’s parents, on purpose, and it was a tremendous experience for Dutch. For us, it showed us how much we love family, need them, and love to live on our own again Without it, we would have had to quit seminary. The last year of interning with Foothills Community Church has been mightily used of God. He reprogrammed me in many ways, especially relationally, bringing out lessons and things from our experiences through Pastor Dale’s care and mentoring. Again, without them, we would not be who and where we are today.

Some may be thinking — are they done with seminary? Not exactly. Kari will finish her last class in December and then graduate in May with a MA in Pastoral Studies with a concentration in Women’s Ministry. I will close out this semester, take a bit off, and then (probably, open to revision, as the above story proves!) take one class at a time when possible. Since pastoring (again, a verb) and serving the local church was and is the "end goal," seminary has served that purpose in part, and I hope to see it continue towards an MDiv (at least 2/3 complete now). We wouldn’t be here without Multnomah , in more ways than one. We love our professors, the staff, fellow students, and alums!

(Okay, this is six…) Today Christ has more of me than He did back then. Some like to talk about returning to their first love (see Rev. 2 ). For me, returning to that teeny, tiny love would be going backwards, for my vision of Christ and seeing as the ultimate cause, reason, object and satisfaction of my life is far greater today than it was then. Truly, all of life is preparation .

Helping others know, love and enjoy God above all else,

JP

1. We are pilgrims in this world; and
2. We are to be missionaries.

The first, as pilgrims and sojourners, we must seek renewed minds :

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind , that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. ( Romans 12:1-2 )

The second, we live as indigenous people, like cross-cultural missionaries ( 1 Cor. 9:19-23 ).

In these two paradigms we live in the Gospel rhythms, and are able to know, love, and enjoy Christ above all else, living sacrificial lives pleasing to Him (2 Cor. 5:9-15 ).

The publisher gives a summary:

"As two pastors outline the biblical calling to make both the gospel and community central in the Christian life, they apply this dual focus to evangelism, social involvement, church planting, discipleship, youth ministry, and more, urging the body of Christ to rethink its perspective and way of life."

Here’s a sampling from chapter one, a quote I sent this morning to a friend about the both/and of being Word-centered and Spirit-centered (not either/or). I think they nail it on the head.

"Spiritual experience that does not arise from God’s word is not Christian experience. Other religions offer spiritual experiences. Concerts and therapy sessions can affect our emotions. Not all that passes for Christian experience is genuine. An authentic experience of the Spirit is an experience in response to the gospel. Through the Spirit the truth touches our hearts, and that truth moves our emotions and affects our wills.

This also means that Bible study and theology that do not lead to love for God and a desire to do his will — to worship, tears, laughter, excitement or sorrow — have gone terribly wrong. True theology leads to love, mission and doxology (1 Timothy 1:5, 7, 17 ). We should not expect an adrenaline rush every time we study God’s word. We all express our emotions in different ways. But when we study God’s word we should pray that the Spirit of God will not only inform our heads but also inspire our hearts.

Part of our problem is that we often assume an experience of God will be some kind of revelation — a dream, an inner voice, a guiding sense of peace, an encounter, a word. This assumption is reinforced by mysticism and existentialism. But we have no reason to need or expect a revelation from God. God as revealed himself in his Son and in his word. And God’s word is whole adequate and sufficient. But the Bible does lead us to expect other experiences of God through the Holy Spirit — love for God, love for others, assurance, joy, confidence, peace, and so on. Word and Spirit give us a new desire for God (Romans 8:5-9; 4; 17 ; Galatians 5:17 ).

True Christian experience is experience that arises through the Spirit from by the revelation of God in Jesus contained in the Bible. God rules through his word, and the Spirit applies that word to our lives. The Spirit opens blind eyes to see the truth and melts cold hearts to respond to God’s word. The word of God comes in the power of the Spirit (Acts 10:44; 1 Corinthians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6 ). If we want to see the Spirit of God at work, we must proclaim the word of God.

We might say that being word-centered is synonymous with being Spirit-centered. The difference is that we cannot control the Spirit. We cannot determine or even predict when and how he will work (John 3:8 ). Our role is to read, hear, proclaim, teach, and obey the word. The Spirit’s role is to do the work of God through that word. Through the Spirit our words become the living word of God (2 Samuel 23:2 ). And so we center our lives and ministries on the word of God while praying that God’s Spirit will do the work of God through that word."

- Tim Chester & Steve Timmis, Part 1: Gospel and Community in Principle, (ch. 1) "Why Gospel?", Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community (Crossway, 2008), pp. 31-32.

• Find out more from the publisher
• Also, both authors were in the U.S. in August for the Total Church North America conference
  • Church planter Jonathan Dodson has some good reflections on the gathering

Today is the middle day of three weeks in a Greek intensive course. Good times. Challenging material, and time consuming. Feel like giving up many times a day, as all things worth doing take hard work.

My only quasi-complaint is that the dusk to past dawn schedule of life these three weeks makes being healthy a difficult chore. (Okay, I’m not complaining, just observing!). No cycling into town (which is good for my back especially), so no exercise other than walking, and little sleep as I’ve been up past midnight parsing and translating and memorizing.

Again, I am, in a phrase: out of rhythm . Could not keep up this pace for more than a little sprint like this. The mental and emotional drain — especially wanting to be my best self for Kari and for Dutch in the evenings, pushing Greek to after they head to bed — is multiplied by physical pain. My back pain flairs up, and posture doesn’t help when sitting almost the entire day. Feels like a knife in the lower back. Being out of rhythm is painful.

We were meant to be in step with the Spirit, to have different tempos for different seasons, and to both labor hard and to rest well. Looking forward to getting back in a more manageable rhythm later this month, since life is a marathon and not a sprint like this.

(Some call it a daily routine or even balance , but I call it rhythm , as we were created to walk in step with our Creator on His chosen path. Routine sounds boring and mundane, and balance reminds of weighing good and bad. ‘Rhythm’ brings a sacredness to the mundane activities of life, those things we have to do and joyfully participate with Christ and in cultivating them into worship experiences.)

And I pray I would continue to be actively fighting against temptation all the while. May Christ be with us, under us, before us, upholding and carrying us all the way.

Sometimes we say our words must be a balance of love and truth . Think about that phrase.

A balance? As if truth and love are to be weighed in comparison? Shall we have 50% love and 50% truth, or if we are really bold, then 80% truth but keep the loving flowing a little at 20%. The concept comes from Ephesians 4:15 : "speaking the truth in love." Our truth must be filtered in love, and our love must be filtered in truth. There is a happy tension in there for sure. People deserve 100% of both, for love and truth are not enemies but rather best of friends. God is Truth; He is Love; He is neither one in part, but both in His fullness. Jesus’s incarnation reveals this much for in Him dwells all the fullness of grace (love) and truth (John 1:14 ).

"Balance" is a metaphor, and I contend, it is an incomplete one. We use it to talk about balancing work and play, our finances, our relationships, our emotional and chemical state, and just about everything else it seems here in the West. Do you have a balanced diet? The picture of "balance" is, at the very least, incomplete, in my humble opinion. For is God (and are we?) solely interested in finding out how to balance our careers and our families? Isn’t there more to this vapor of a life than simply finding our inner balance?

Enter a better, more descriptive word: Rhythm .

Rhythm (from Greek rhythmos , "any measured flow or movement, symmetry") is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events.

The Christian life is a journey towards realizing God’s rhythm. (I would say ‘finding’ it, but must confess I don’t think we are capable of looking for or finding it ourselves.) All things in the end will be brought into full harmony through Christ ( Eph. 1:10 ), while in the interim we endure this broken, unrhythmic world. Through Christ’s redemption from our fallen state, the Spirit’s renewing us and empowering His community of believers, and the Father’s joy in making us full sons of God, we get to join in the dance (perichoresis ) with the Triune God.

It seems that the New Testament vision of Christ is less about bringing balance to our lives, and more about restoring the underlying rhythm of the entire universe, us included as the most important aspect of creation ( Romans 8:18-27 ). Perhaps the reason why so much of our "preaching" these days (How To …) does not transform is because it is aimed at this make-believe balance rather than transforming the whole person to live in the whole rhythm of our Creator.

I don’t know much about music and cannot carry a tune, but when I hear good music, it makes the soul groove. The harmony and melody and beats come together in a true concert of sounds, which makes one think ‘ah, that’s how it is supposed to be!’

• How about you? What makes (musical) rhythm attractive to you?
• And how do we go about achieving God’s harmony for our lives?

Kari and I are committed to finding out what it means to live in the Gospel rhythms, or to use the NT wording, walk in step with the Spirit, in His rhythm. We find our balance living in His rhythm.