Yeah, I hate the word “resolution” too. To me, it smacks of well-intentioned failure, of something that won’t last until Valentine’s Day.
Still, at the same time, there are new patterns of life that I choose to engage in as the new year dawns. Some of these new patterns of living are physical, some have to do with how I relate to others (as a father, husband, pastor, friend), and some are spiritual.
Traditionally, these new ways of living spiritually are called disciplines because they are tools by which I train myself to become something that I’m currently not. Brian McLaren, in a book I’m currently reading called, Finding Our Way: the Return of the Ancient Practices, says, “That same mentor defines training like this: employing appropriate actions within our power by which we become capable of doing things currently beyond our power, and by which we become people we are currently incapable of being. Those “appropriate actions” we could further define as a community of practice that carries on the tradition” (80-81).
By that understanding, a discipline can be anything that serves to train myself to become something, or to live in a way, that more closely approximates what it means to live as a follower of Christ. Based on McLaren’s quotation, here are a couple questions to stimulate your thinking of discipline:
- Spiritually speaking, what is it that you want to become that currently seems beyond your power?
- What is something you can do now on a smaller scale that will help you train for this greater thing?
- Who is your “community of practice” that you are training with?
- What are some of the deeper “traditions” that you find yourself drawn to?
