Celebrating disciplines

In college, I read Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline and Dallas Willard's Spirit of the Disciplines. I loved them both - in theory. But I found the practice difficult. I pictured the disciplines as dry, lifeless, a sacrifice that the Christian must undertake to get to God. Somehow, I lost the point.

Fast forward a few years, a happy marriage, a gaggle of kids, and a lot more schooling, and I discovered Nathan Foster's book, The Making of an Ordinary Saint. And now I am inspired. To me, The Making of an Ordinary Saint is Nathan's autobiography of his attempts to put into practice the disciplines that his dad talked about in Celebration of Discipline.  And this time, I got the point.

Disciplines are not magic formulas, but rather, a training ground in which to cultivate our relationship with God. It is an opening of ourselves to the ways of God, of letting Him have His way in our hearts. It is a pruning session, to get rid of the things getting in the way, and a growing session, to become more Christ-like. Some disciplines are hard, revealing the junk we try to hide away in our spirits, but they bear fruit that only God can give. Disciplines take a little effort, a little planning, and a little elbow grease, but it is a wholly different than I tried to make it in my early days of undergrad study.

I love this book because it is an honest, sincere, messy, gut-wrenching, real life version of the disciplines for my ordinary generation, for those of us with hectic lives interspersed with work, and minivans, ministry and mowing the yard, kids, technology, and an imperfect Christian walk. My struggle with the disciplines was that I thought I had to do it perfectly for it to 'work' but Foster shows another way. He shows how God showed up in his efforts, even with mixed motives, messed up attitudes, and a messy life. He showed how God changed him through his celebration of the disciplines. I laughed, I cried, I was relieved, and inspired to do this discipline thing again. And how very cool that God would carry on Richard Foster's amazing work in his son.

If you're feeling like your relationship with Christ needs a boost, if your Christian walk has become dry, if you feel like you failed when you read Celebration of Discipline,  maybe its time to try again.
The Making of an Ordinary Saint.