Spiral Stairway
LETTER BY BRIAN MORYKON
Last night I began reading Philippians to my soon-to-be-eleven-year-old son.
He stopped me.
“Shouldn’t I get my workbook to fill in the answers?”
A candy bar awaits him at the end of that workbook — a perk of his newly minted youth group status.
I fumbled around for something better than cliché to express how God speaks through Scripture.
“Bud, this part of the Bible, Philippians, is a letter — a real letter sent from a real guy named Paul to a real church in a real city called Philippi, sometime around the year 60. It’s good to understand why the book was written, who Paul is writing to, and what Paul is saying. But here’s the special thing about the Bible: God wants to speak through it right to our hearts. His message is alive, like food grown fresh in the garden. We don’t just read it once to get through it or to jot down the right answers. We take it in slowly to be fed by God. I’ve read Philippians a hundred times or more and God still feeds my soul every time I read it with an open heart.”
He listened patiently. Maybe something landed. But at the least, it was a sermon to my own soul on how to read for life and nourishment.
Saint Theophan the Recluse said we must learn to descend with the mind into the heart.
That’s good advice for prayer and for reading prayerfully.
And how does one traverse that eighteen-inch descent from head to heart?
When it comes to spiritual reading — whether Scripture or other classics — slow down. “Soak” in a paragraph or phrase. Humbly “dwell inside” truth rather than merely touching on it.
Think of a tall spiral stairway. We circle round and round and return to familiar sides while making progress upward toward God (or downward into the soul with God; pick your favorite picture). To use Paul’s language, we press on toward Jesus, who awaits us around every bend.
Prayerful reading isn’t to get through something; it is inviting God to get through to us.
But what if we do read the Bible or a spiritual book to check a box or get our goody (proverbial or literal) at the end? God, in his mercy, is kind enough to use even that as a step on the stairway.
So Lord, teach us to read with humility and heart that our minds may be renewed and our bodies animated to do the work of love.
Brian Morykon
Director of Communications
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LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY GRACE POUCH
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1.
Mariah Velásquez, Director of the Incarnatio Center for Formation and Integration at Westmont College and Associate Director of the Martin Center, joins Nate on the Life with God podcast to talk about a favorite book — Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God.
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2.
Read an excerpt from Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God.
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3.
Mariah’s essay on practicing the presence begins with the heading “Lessons from a Tired Mama.” She shares the good news that we can abide with God in the midst of even life’s most tiresome circumstances.
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4.
The Martin Center (where Mariah is Associate Director) hosted an academic workshop called “A Crisis Among Us: The Problem of Christian Immaturity.” Renovaré was a partner in the conference and several of our Ministry Team members and staff participated. The full recording of the conference is now available.
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5.
Carolyn Arends encourages us to “trust in the slow work of God,” and not to be dismayed when things take time to sink in.
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6.
Writing about the “unsurpassed” wisdom of Teresa of Ávila in her classic book, Interior Castle, Dallas Willard offers this advice for reading and rereading: First, read it nonstop — just push ahead — to get a view of the whole. Mark themes and divisions clearly as you go, and at the end sketch out the outline. This is crucial for understanding Teresa’s project as a teacher. Then go back and read slowly from beginning to end. This time you mark striking passages for further study. Then meditatively dwell on those passages, not necessarily from beginning to end, but in the order your heart and mind call you to.
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
WORTH QUOTING
“I will remind you of only one thing: one must descend with the mind into the heart, and there stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all seeing within you. Prayer takes a firm and steadfast hold, when a small fire begins to burn in the heart. Try not to quench this fire, and it will become established in such a way that the prayer repeats itself: and then you will have within you a small murmuring stream.”
– St. Theophan the Recluse (via Henri Nouwen)
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TO CONTEMPLATE
Arbres en Bordure d’un Chemin
Eugène Brouillard (1870-1950)
(source)
As I look at this scene, I notice the repetition of the trees, the rhythmic shadows they cast, and the well-worn wagon tracks, and these visuals remind me of the truth that following Jesus is repetitive. Over and over again, he takes me back to important ideas I need to grasp and back to areas where I still need to grow. Each pass imprints the truth deeper on my heart and brings me nearer to God.
TO PONDER
What is a book you found rich enough to reread? We’d love to hear. Reply to this email and we may share a few next week.