A Gracious Resolve

Marilynne Robinson Interview

The author Marilynne Robinson interviewed on the radio show "On Point" hosted by Tom Ashbrook.



Ms. Robinson shares her faith and her understanding of Christianity.  I wish she would have explained how she holds on to hope.  Without that explanation, her experience sounds more like an exercise of human will than the exercise of a spiritual practice.

I haven't found it possible to will myself into a more loving frame of mind or a more forgiving nature. I have found success when I've admitted my inability of change and confessed my need for Christ's help.  After that self-realization and confession, if I surrender to Christ's will, that's when my attitude improves.

In that moment, I stop focusing on what's annoying me (or frightening, angering, or depressing me) and instead start thinking about Christ.  That reminder of who Christ is and what Christ's mission is about, and most of all the connection to the Spirit of Christ that occurs when I surrender and seek help, that's what saves me from myself.

Easily offended or loving?

John Wesley's first publication, Collection of Forms of Prayer for Every Day in the Week (1733), is part prayer book and part self-examination book.  The book is organized so that a set of self-examination questions prepare the reader for the prayer that follows.  (A sample of the book is available on Google Books.)

An abundance of Wesley-inspired self-examination questions is available on the web for those who are interested.  I've always found the lists to be too long to be helpful.  Possibly something shorter and more pointed would have more of an impact.

I found such a list in Victorious Living (also available online).  I'll let you know if the questions turn out to be an effective spiritual practice.   If you give them a try or if you have a different list, I'd be interested in hearing about your experience.

Here's the list that E. Stanley Jones got from a friend--

1. Am I truthful?
2. Am I honest?
3. Am I pure?
4. Am I easily offended, or am I loving?
5. Am I selfish, or am I consecrated?

The fourth question is the one that really gets to me at the moment.  I think this reaction might have something to do with the presidential election season that has just began and that is already starting to offend me.  

I confess.  Yes, I am easily offended by most of the presidential candidates.  No, I do not have a loving attitude towards them.  Christ, if you want me to be loving in this situation, then you will have to work a miracle.  I trust your ability to fix what's broken in me, and I will try my best to react to your gracious intervention in an appropriate manner.

What do you know!  A set a self-examination questions followed by a prayer . . . this list just might have potential.

A Reasonable Faith?

The Being-made-perfect-in-love Prayer

Last night's sermon was a meditation on “Be Ye Perfect,” how perfection is interpreted in the Wesleyan tradition, what it meant to the preacher (a candidate for ordination) to be made perfect in love, and her own struggles with perfectionism.

This reminder of the goal of Christian Perfection got me wishing for a prayer practice, something that I could pray whenever I’m feeling at a loss and unsure what the loving thing to do in a given situation might be.  It would have to be something I could say quickly, remember easily, and use unobtrusively as I tried both to stay engaged with the person before me and to reach out for divine assistance, simultaneously.

I thought of and rejected a number of options, went to bed with no satisfactory answer to my quandary, and woke up at 1 AM with the desire for a discipline still foremost in mind.  The early morning inspiration was to follow the pattern of the doctrinal order of salvation, Repentance-Faith-Holiness.  I chose three words and three body parts to associate with each step in the analogy of faith, and came up with the following--

Focus on the head and think “Help”

Focus on the heart and think “Save”

Focus on the feet and think “Move”

I like the head-to-toe coverage of this form of prayer; it feels like I’m all in, every part of me seeking and listening for guidance.

“Help” is the point where I admit that I am clueless and have no idea what a loving response would look like in a given situation.  “Save” is an act of trust, in which I reaffirm my belief that Christ can transform me and teach me how to love.  “Move” is an expression of my desire to discern the direction in which God’s grace is already leading and to follow.

I will be heading to the hospital this afternoon to visit two relatives who are gravely ill.  I don’t know if I’ll need the perfect love prayer during the visit, but it does feel good to have this prayer to experiment with should I feel the need.

Our Three Responses to Grace (typically)

The video clip below is from my Wednesday, March 26, 2014 presentation at Rockbrook UMC in Omaha, Nebraska. In it, I tell the audience about an experience I had the Sunday before Lent.  

On that particular Sunday, my husband and I had arrived early for the evening service.  After finding seats, a member of the staff approached us and asked if I would read the scripture lessons during worship. When I told her that I would be glad to help out, she handed me two pieces of paper, one of which contained Psalm 131 in a translation that was unfamiliar to me-

"O Lord, my heart is not proud nor my look haughty; I do not aspire to great things or to do what is beyond me; But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.  O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore."

I almost burst out laughing when I read the second stanza because I do aspire to great things and I do over-reach.  It was a convicting moment, and it was the start of a process in which I moved from repentance to faith to holiness in the space of a few minutes as the service started.

Repentance-Faith-Holiness is the order of salvation in the Wesleyan tradition.  It is the analogy of faith that Wesley followed when he interpreted scripture, and it is how he characterized Methodist Doctrine.  It is the succession of responses that one typically has to an experience of grace when belief is new, and it is a repetitive sequence throughout the stages of the spiritual maturation process.

I shared this experience with the good folks at Rockbrook because I think it's illustrative of what I mean by Wesleyan Spirituality, and because I'm looking for new terms, something other than repentance-faith-holiness, to describe our typical responses to God, and I was hoping that the audience would tell me about similar experiences that they had had and what terms they use when they describe those experiences to others.

The Christian life-cycle

Reflection on Peter's denial of Christ and its implication for us.