Contemplation 101

Christ Jesus is an overcomer; He defeated His enemy and wins the battle and the legal case (Two aspects of overcoming in the Bible).  We are call to be people of God who overcome also.  We are to be those who defeat the works of Satan and who labor so that the Kingdom of God comes to earth.  Most followers of Jesus Christ believe that we should overcome.  We also differ vastly in how we are to overcome.  We may have a Biblical view, or one given by revelation, or one broadcast by Christian culture or from the cultural christianity that we are in. Most likely we have a mixture of Bible, revelation, opinion and culture.  So how can we move toward maturity?  How can we see advancement in our renewed mind?  How can we walk more and more in transformation?

I believe the answer is prayer.  Contemplative prayer is a tool used by the people of God for centuries for maturing in the faith and living the lives God asked of them.  Contemplative prayer is on the rise around our nation, but many of us still hesitate to abandon our old ways and walk into deeper water.  We struggle to give up control.   Since I have been in the prayer movement for a few decades I feel I have the foundation to speak into that movement.  I love the thousands of praying people I have interacted with.  I am also grieved that often we spend more time communing with our form of prayer than communing with God.  Contemplation can help this.

Contemplation is a surrender of the will as you wait on God.  Listening is both a skill and art form.  Listening to respond, re-direct or win an argument is not the same as waiting before God as you deny yourself and follow Him.  Many young believers have been raised their whole life in consumer Christianity and have no idea that “not choosing” and “not having an action step” is foundational to the faith.  Many not think that “waiting on the Lord” is about time spent in a prayer room.  Fewer and fewer believers are not detaching from the world and allowing the Holy Spirit to kill off their volition.  Self-empowering Christianity is Lord and almost anyone who challenges this will undergo rejection and attack by their spiritual community.   I want to use football to share where I think we ought to go.

On a football team there are many homogenies groups.  A homogenies group is a group composed of parts of the same kind.  There tend to be tight knit but are more connected by “sameness” than deep relationships.  Some of the groups on the football team would be offensive linemen, defensive linemen, linebackers, DB’s, wide receivers and quarterbacks.  Each one of these groups has a specific focus, common function, goals and vision.  Only when the football team learns to function as a team and not as separate groups, does it work correctly.  Games may be won or lost as a dysfunctional team but they are failing at the foundational aspect of being a team.  Being aware of the others groups, thinking as they think, perceiving the game from there vantage point can be described as contemplative playing. 

Each team group as each church group, can focus on themselves, their purpose and their calling.  When this happens they may be a part of a larger aspect, but that connection is only so that the group can be what they want to be.  Selfishness, self-awareness, personal success, personal achievement are what is valued in a dysfunctional team.  Elitism sets in as individuals judge the team and others but what they do so that “I am successful”.  A team that doesn’t meet the expectations of the homogenies group is often rewarded with grumbling, complaining and criticism.  Judgments sets in as a standard of “what is right” is reinforced through the eyes of smallness.

Among the people of God this trend sets in over time.  A group of believers tend to resist change from the outside and from others “not like them”, so in time most of the group has the same values and goals.  Often there are some core scriptures that are used as a mantra for solidifying the vision and valued goals.  These prayers, common themed sermons and teachings, limited focus fellowships and interactions work like layers of duct tape circling and trapping the individual and group.  Thinking they are open to the Lord, revelation and His leading; they are in the practice of wrapping themselves tighter and tighter into a homogenies ball.  In time, their world-view, doctrines, teaching, judgments, opinion, values and dreams will be limited to their one thing.  God will be mostly lost to them and the wonder of following Christ Jesus will be rejected for the honor of being in their group.

If people in this condition practice contemplation without the surrender of self or will, they will only hear more and more of what they are able to hear.  The creative, unique word of God is lost to them because they cannot hear it.  Deception can enter the hart as they feel they are open to God but truthfully they are only open to ideas and expressions that reinforce what they already practice and now judge other by.  I feel I can speak honestly about this because I have been there and may be there again.  I am not seeking to throw rocks but life lines.  But even if I fail, God is still alive and active.

This may seem like a sidetrack.  God in His wisdom and ways is always seeking to lead us into righteousness and truth for His name sake.  This is different than for our ministry, esteem or success.  God usually wrecks our lives when our listening has grown to dull.  When we have it all figured out, God will open the door for sickness, disease, death, defeat, rejection or a million other similar things of life to see if we will repent of our ways and seek Him.  The sad part is that many of us simply get out the duct tape and our familiar world view and keep wrapping ourselves up tighter and tighter.  This ends up being an addiction and we need to treat it as such.

If you are still reading this them maybe God is stirring you to be a part of His team?  God does call each member of His body to be a part, to have a homogenies place of belonging.  From that beginning place we mature to become a part of the body of Christ, a part of His Saints (the church) and a part of His Kingdom.  If I can overcome my ADD I will try and write more about this later.  But for now here are a few things you can put into practice.

1.       Read old book out of your tradition and stream

2.       Spend ½ hour time slots listening and journaling

3.       Read a unmarked Bible and a different translation

4.       Fast all your favorite religious stuff (music, prayer, worship songs)

5.       Don’t try to grow via sacrifice, but by living (no fasting, sacrificial giving, radical living.  Grow in the everyday practicing the presence of God)

-      More on this later if I can pull it off

6.       Celebrate your weakness, inability and lack of control by leading on God

7.       Practice not knowing and learning from others

ENJOY