My Spirit... It's All About Discipline

I've been fortunate enough to find a graduate program that places a tremendous amount of emphasis on the importance of facilitating whole-person education. The benefit is that in learning how to facilitate, I also am wholly educated. Right now my cohort is taking a Spiritual Formation class and it has made an impact on me, to say the least. If nothing else, this class has pointed me back to the spiritual disciplines, and I've begun to find a new, refreshing power in them.

I hope the title was a bit intriguing to you, and maybe even found you disagreeing with it. However, what I've been finding, both through study and personal experience, points to that statement being true. I'm beginning to see that the spiritual disciplines are foundational elements to my faith, and without them, my foundation becomes less like concrete and more like sand.

A simple example is reading the Bible every day. I've heard people say that you shouldn't read your Bible unless your heart is in the right place, ready to receive the Word. Or I've heard, "Well, I just didn't feel like reading my Bible today." In my opinion, those are classic examples of how your heart can be deceived.

I'm reading a book for class right now called Desiring the Kingdom and I can sum it up for you in one phrase: "Habits are formative*." If that is the case, then shouldn't I make it a habit to read my Bible? Shouldn't I read it even if my heart is in a terrible place, if I'm ticked off at God, or if I just feel lazy? I have not been perfect, but since Jan. 1 I have tried harder than ever to make this an everyday practice. This class is only confirming what I've learned and experienced in the past year; if I open up my Bible, even out of habit, his Word will not return void. I notice that my SPIRIT is different on days that I start it all off by opening up my Bible. It's the same way with the disciplines of fasting, solitude, prayer, submission, service, confession, and celebration**.

My generation, and that includes a good portion of the people reading this blog, have strayed from Discipline, especially of the spiritual variety. I know everything I've written is not groundbreaking, but I want to encourage you all (if you're not doing so already) to pick one of the previously listed spiritual disciplines and try to make it a habit (either daily or weekly) and see what God teaches you through being diligent and disciplined. No, it's not a bad thing to daily open your Bible or pray, or fast a day a week out of habit. That's like saying it's a bad thing to put your seat belt on or to not swear because they are habits.

Make some of these disciplines habits and watch your spirit grow and change to become more like Christ!

*I'm not kidding. You really don't have to read the book because I just gave it away. It's not a huge message, but it's an important one to understand.
**If it sounds like I took a bunch of these from Foster's Celebration of Discipline, it's because I did.

Saying Goodbye to MAHE Cohort of '09

Two weekends ago, I was at TU where I watched old and new friends alike, receive their MAHE hoods and then graduate the next day. Those two days were full of emotion as goodbyes had to be said to brothers and sisters in Christ who are starting new chapters in their lives.

The program director, Tim Herrmann, spoke at the hooding of one of the most difficult things to learn while in education. He spoke of the importance of learning to say goodbye, and the message definitely resonated with me. I learned how it would be selfish of me to want them to stay and so I tried my best to send them out with a blessing. There is no doubt in my mind that the MAHE class of '09 will go on to impact their world for Christ.

So I want to say thank you to the '09 cohort, for impacting my life through intentional relationships, providing Christ-like models in your personal and professional lives, and for pushing the '10 cohort to strive for excellence while living a balanced life. May God bless you all as you continue to serve Him and His Kingdom.

Spring Break... A Thing of the Past

I've recently come to grips with the reality that spring break no longer exists for me. It is a thing of the past. The whole reason I decide to enter into the arena of education is so I would have Christmas, Spring, and Summer Breaks for the rest of my life*. But NO, reality had to hit me square in the teeth the past couple weeks and deny me any hope of ever getting another spring break. Why do I say this, you might ask? Well let me tell you.
Today marks the end of the second (yes I said second) consecutive week of spring break for me. Here is what my 2 week spring break consisted of: homework. Not rest, not fun, just homework, period. I have a bit of a quarrel with Webster when he defines thesis as "a position or proposition which a person advances and offers to maintain, or which is actually maintained by argument." I think it just means an obnoxious way for graduate faculty to make my life miserable through tireless study on a specific subject**. Needless to say, I have done a lot of work the past couple weeks and I WILL OVERCOME.

*and maybe to impact the lives of students, who are searching for Truth
**It also may or may not involve me becoming an expert in my area of study and landing a job outside of grad school.

Thesis is off the ground

If you would have told me a little over a year ago that by Feb. 2009 I would be smack in the middle of graduate work and starting a thesis, I may have laughed in your face. I'm finding that I am not an academic and have little desire to become one, but when I am fully engaged in something, I get really excited about the little things.

Friday was a great day for me to get excited. I officially settled on a research topic with my thesis supervisor* Skip Trudeau. He was very encouraging and got me all amped up to begin my thesis. I think we will work very well together for several reasons, but mainly b/c our personalities are very similar and we have many similar interests, one being my topic.

I'm going to be studying the effect that being a college athlete has on a person's spirituality and spiritual development. It's a topic that hasn't been researched much, but one that Christian college presidents and athletic directors are becoming increasingly interested in. It's going to be a long, sometimes frustrating, but very rewarding road. It's exciting though to get this part of my masters started. I'll keep you updated periodically on my progress and findings.

*Skip has a much more official sounding title for himself, but I like to keep it simple/I forgot what it is

Someone Pinch Me...

I think I'm getting old. Maybe it's a dream, maybe I just don't want to face reality, but Saturdays are becoming like Sundays for me.

I sat around all day today and was content in watching a couple basketball games and talking on the phone to a mentor of mine. I then realized that I needed to get some homework done, but wasn't upset about it and actually felt like doing it. It's almost like I was looking forward to learning.

Somewhere in all that, I snuck in about an hour nap. Then after doing a bit of leisurely reading, I crawled into bed at 9:30ish* to get some much needed beauty sleep. Now, you might look at the time of this post and ask a pretty valid question. There is a reason why I am awake 3 1/2 hours later and that is because I couldn't go to sleep because I was laying there completely caught up in thought.**

I couldn't stop thinking about how I could better invest in the people around me. There are so many hurts, needs, potentials, good intentions, people searching for Truth, people trying to engage in Truth and better serve others, and the list goes on. I want to reach out and touch people where they are and make an indelible impact on their lives.

One of the ways I will hopefully do this is by taking a few young men with me to Atlanta over spring break to work with Desire Street Ministries and expose them to urban ministry and to the issues the needy are dealing with. I was getting all excited thinking about it and had to get back out of bed and look up DSM's website and reacquaint myself with their cause.

I'm coming down off of my high, so I think I might go to bed for real now. I'll keep everyone informed on any news about the DSM opportunity.

*This is definitely an old person's bed time
**To me this constitutes an adult activity/getting old, so if you disagree with me too bad

I'm officially in the MAHE cohort

I don't even know what this means, but I was repeatedly called a member of a cohort today and I repeatedly felt like I was a member of a massive crime ring.

Apparently, in this case, it's a good thing because I'm now an official member of the MAHE (M.A. in Higher Education) program at Taylor University and, in the process, am starting yet another adventure in my life.  After learning that the program director and his partners in crime (colleagues) aren't out to destroy my life for 2 years, I became very excited to get this baby rolling.

My classmates and I spent the day getting to know the faculty, the second-year program "cohort", and each other.  It was exciting to get a peek into the lives of the people that I will be pretty intimately connected with 20 months from today.

So I'm taking the plunge into somewhat of the unknown, but it's not one of fear, but rather one of excited anticipation and expectation.  I feel that God has called me to and prepared me for this program and I've been very affirmed in that.  I'm excited to see what He has for me here.  Let the "fun" begin.