Sabbath/Time Feb. 17, 2008
Message M3: Series Sabbath/Time Ken Shigematsu
Title: Living by a Rule of Life
BI: Become an Athlete for God by Living by a Rule of Life
Text: Daniel 6: 1-23
Think about an athlete that you admire.
Whoever this person is you’re thinking about you know that that he or she didn’t develop their skill in their particular sport by accident.
Michael Jordan (show photo) is considered one of the best, perhaps the best basketball player to have ever played the game. Jordan was extraordinary to watch on the court. He seemed to defy gravity as he would soar to the basket. But what is less known about Michael Jordan is the fact that he was consumed with practicing.
As a teenager the fact that Michael Jordan was not considered good enough to play on his high school basketball team, engrained in him his passion to practice.
As a member of the Chicago Bulls Jordan was typically the first player to begin practicing and the last player to leave. His coach Phil Jackson says that before practice he often found Michael Jordan playing one-on-one with the younger less experienced players keen to develop their game.
Think of someone like Tiger Woods. (Show photo) Woods is considered one of the greatest golfers to ever play the game. Woods makes golf look easy, but as he himself would be the first to say, “Golf is not an easy game… it’s a ‘fickle’ game.”
Tiger Woods is a very private individual. The public doesn’t know much about his personal life compared to many other celebrities. But according to a friend of mine (Elizabeth who has worked on the PGA), Tiger works out about 7-9 hours a day when he is not in a tournament. That includes about 3 hours of stretching and stretching-related exercises. Like Jordan, Woods is passionate about training and practicing.
Great athletes, great musicians, and great artists don’t achieve their level of skill by accident. They have a life structure that enables them to become the kind of people who excel in their field.
The Apostle Paul, who was familiar with the Olympics, urges us to be athletes for God…
Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 says, Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last.
In 1 Timothy 4:7 Paul says “Train yourself to be godly.”
Christians from the earliest centuries spoke of themselves as “the athleti dei,” or “athletes of God.”
Athletes who train their mind, body and spirit to center on the things of God.
Darrell Johnson in his series in January talked about how we are in the midst of a spiritual battle, whether we are aware of it or not. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6: 11-12 that we are to stand against the devil’s schemes, 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Daniel was an outstanding spiritual athlete whose life can instruct our own.
As a young man, Daniel’s homeland of Judah was besieged by King Nebuchadnezzar, of Babylon. Then about the year 600 BC, Daniel and a number of his contemporaries were deported to Babylon. As a young man, Daniel found himself cut off from his family, many of his friends, his teachers, his culture and his language.
He was brought to Babylon as a potential leader in the Babylonian Empire, and he was sent to the best university in his new realm. He was immersed in a completely foreign pagan way of viewing the world in terms of history, literature, math, science, philosophy, religion. As commentators point out, he was also being exposed to astrology, sorcery, magic—all things that were banned in Israel.
Babylon, in an effort to completely assimilate Daniel, even changed his name to Belteshazzar. And yet, Daniel was able to resist the enormous power of Babylon and continue to serve God. How did he do it? How did he continue to live for his God?
Daniel did not leave it completely to chance. He had a plan to develop as a spiritual athlete. He lived by a “rule (or rhythm) of life.”
If you have your Bibles, please turn to Daniel 6:1-11
Daniel in the Den of Lions
1 [a]It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, 2 with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. 3 Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. 5 Finally these men said, "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God."
6 So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said: "May King Darius live forever! 7 The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions' den. 8 Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed." 9 So King Darius put the decree in writing.
10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. 11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.
(So these men conspire to have Daniel thrown into a den of hungry lions).
In verse 3 of our text, we are told that Daniel distinguishes himself from among the administrators and satraps by his exceptional qualities. In Hebrew it literally reads Daniel had an “excellent spirit.” Wouldn’t you love to have it said by God of you that you have an “excellent spirit”?
Throughout the book of Daniel we see that he was a person of extraordinary wisdom, integrity and courage.
In these chapters we see that Daniel is willing to be mauled to death by hungry lions for his conviction that he must seek the living God through prayer…
Last week, I saw the play "A Man For All Seasons". Thomas More is the chancellor of England and friend of King Henry the VIII, but he’s about to be executed because his Christian conscience will not allow him to support the divorce of Catherine of Aragon and re-marriage of King Henry the VIII to Ann Boleyn. Thomas More’s daughter Meg asks him, “ Why can’t you swear an oath submitting to Henry and pretend to support him so you can save your life…?” And More tells his daughter Meg, “When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then - he needn't hope to find himself again." Sir Thomas More chose his death rather than compromise his integrity before God by taking a false oath.
More was a man of astonishing integrity and courage…
So was Daniel… he was willing to die rather than compromise his integrity before God.
How does Daniel become this way?
How does he become this way? As is the case with a great athlete in verse 10 we read that Daniel prays 3 times a day toward Jerusalem, toward the temple of the living God—even when his life was at risk because of this practice. And by virtue of this daily rhythm of praying toward the temple, Daniel is saying through the day, “I am utterly dependent on the sustaining life of living God.” As he prayed he received the life-giving presence of God.
When we become people who structure our lives so we spend time consciously in the presence of the living God: in prayer, mediation, the Word, nature, with people, music and the places where we are uniquely meeting God… we become people who bear the life of God and are able to live in a new kind of way in the world.
The great athletes structure their lives around their goal to become champion athletes. And the great athletes for God have also structured their lives like Daniel, so that they can become great athletes for God.
How do they do this? By structuring their lives so that they are centered on God.
Some people may ask, “Well, what about grace? Isn’t the Christian life simply a gift?”
Dallas Willard says wisely, “The path of the spiritual growth in Christ is not a passive one. Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning.
My friend Elizabeth Archer Klein a great athlete says when it comes to becoming an athlete for God, we distinguish between “trying and training.”
She says "Trying" is saying over and over that tomorrow will be different, but mostly staying in the same old patterns.
Elizabeth says:
Training is setting up a new pattern of behaviors or habits that lead to change.
One of my images for this is running. You'll only get so fit if you run the same loop at the same speed every day. But if you start a 5 day a week program of tempo runs, sprints and long slow distance, with rest days and weight training, throwing in a hill day a few times a month: you get stronger. So, you are training smarter and the effectiveness is completely different. If I just said I would "try" harder the next time I raced, there would be little impact. But if I trained smarter, I will get faster.
Most of you here could complete a 26.5 marathon. Many of could climb Mount Everest. But you couldn’t do these by going out and “trying.” You could do them by training.
So will you become a trainee for God? (use prop… giving running shoes).
So, it is in our spiritual life… it’s not just through “trying” but through training that we become stronger athletes for God…
A rule of life (btw the term comes from the world of the monks, who lived a rhythm of worship, work, rest) enables us to live our lives with a kind of training that we can begin to do things that we cannot now do by our effort. Training gives us a new power to do what we cannot do now by direct effort.
It is true in sports, in art, in music, in speaking a language and it is also true in our spiritual lives. Living by a rule of life will enable us to structure our lives so that we can succeed in the most important race of all—our race for God.
So, what exactly is a rule of life (or a rhythm of life) if you prefer? A rule of life is simply a pattern or a structure for living that enables us to organize around God at the center and trains us to fulfill our life purpose.
Thomas Moore contends that “every thoughtful person, no matter what his current life style may be, has a rule,” meaning a pattern or a model for living (even if it has not been written down). Is there a pattern that we could establish in our lives that would draw us into an intimate relationship with God and ensure that we will fulfill God’s purpose for us?
Some of the categories that we might think about in a rule of life would include:
§ Sabbath (resting, worshipping, embracing life)
§ Prayer (finding a rhythm of prayer that works for you)
§ Scripture (finding a rhythm of Scripture reading that works for you)
§ Study (learning about God, yourself, and the world)
§ Work (seeing your work as part of your spiritual life)
§ Financial Life (using your income in a way that honors God)
§ Care for the body (sleeping, exercising, diet)
§ Re-creation & play (doing things that re-create you; e.g., outdoors, sports, music, art, etc.)
§ Spiritual friendship (committing yourself to walk with spiritual companions)
§ Family (caring for your family)
§ Reaching out/Mission (caring for others, serving, mission, care of the earth)
I am convinced that a rule of life is essential for anyone for who wants to be an athlete for God.
Whenever a young leader asks me the question, “If you could tell me one thing, what would you tell me?” My most frequent answer these days is live by a rule of life, a pattern that will enable you to keep God at the centre of your life and will enable you to continue to grow as a person. When people ask me how I am able to do all that I do—pastoring a church, working on a doctorate (part-time), serving on governing boards, speaking, mentoring, commitment to wife, family, relationships—I say it is not as hard as it may seem (It helps to have a great staff). The key is to live by a rule of life, a pattern of life—a daily pattern, a weekly pattern, a pattern across a month, a year, etc. It’s a great gift.
Part of my rule of life, as you probably have guessed if you have been here the past two Sundays (and heard the messages on Sabbath), is to partition off 24 hours for Sabbath each week. That includes time for worship, exercise, often spending time in nature, seeing a movie or play that is hopefully uplifting. If you are considering even right now the possibility of by living by a rule, one of the first blocks you may put in is that 24-hour block for the Sabbath, to seek to become a person who works from rest, rather who rests from work.
A rule of life ought to be built slowly over time--one category at a time.
An area, for example, that I am seeking to work on is “rest and sleep.” As my wife knows, I have a habit often of getting often quite early in the morning and one of my doctors, as well as a few close friends have been encouraging me to aim to get more sleep. Because I like to get up early, I have decided that I will do more sleeping in,--but sleep in on the “front end” meaning go to bed earlier. Instead of going to bed at 11:30, 12:00, 12:30, I am aiming to try to get to bed, if I can, by 10:00 and be up at about 5:00. And, as I am pursuing this, I am feeling better.
I have worked for years on a morning rhythm that works and I will keep tweaking.
Yours will like look very different depending on your wiring.
There is very set pattern to my mornings. I often begin my mornings about 5 a.m. by going downstairs and petting the dog. I do some light exercise in my home office (pull out the yoga mat as a prop). I begin with some stretching, (I am not very flexible!), some sit ups, push ups, chin ups, exercise with the elastic ropes, etc. It’s not intense—and only I do this for about 20 minutes.
Then I will read my Bible so a number of years I’ve used the ONE YEAR BIBLE which gives a daily reading--a section from the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Psalms and Proverbs each day. I have also been reading from the beginning of this year Romans 8 every day. I then enter into a time of prayer… and silence… (if it feels stale, I’ll change the approach).
And then I will go downstairs, do some reading and some creative work--outlining, some writing, some preparation work. Mornings are a very quiet time and I try to take advantage of that. In the morning (originally inspired by Rocky Balboa) I also go running (the dog is big motivator and he gets real excited about it), I come back and have breakfast. I am ready for the “official day” to begin by 8:30 or 9:00 a.m.
For years I have been thinking about how I can have a life-giving morning rhythm.
I will change it if I get bored with it—to commit to pattern for enough time perhaps a month to give time to become a habit, BUT to also have the freedom to tweak it (it’s important to feel free to tweak the rule).
An important key to developing a sustainable rule of life is to build one section at a time. Enter into it slowly. Don’t let the prospect of a rule overwhelm you.
It is hard to overemphasize the building a rule of life slowly. As you leave this service today and say, “I have been a lazy bum. I haven’t been praying much. I haven’t been exercising much. Starting tomorrow I am going to get up at 4:00 in the morning, spend an hour in prayer, an hour reading the Bible. And then I am going to go to Stanley Park and run the sea wall twice, come home and have a really nutritious, hot breakfast, then I’ll go to work, come home by six, eat dinner with the family, help Susie with her homework, do my e-mail, watch part of the Canucks game on TV, start reading The Brother Karamazov.”
What’s going to happen? First of all, you’re probably going to arrive late to work all hot and sweaty because you had no time to take a shower. And then you’re going to be up until about two in the morning trying to get everything done. And then the next morning when the alarm goes off at four, you are going to hit the snooze button (repeatedly), and pray while you are going to work. So the key is to build a rule of life slowly one category at a time.
I am going to invite you to just take a moment to look at this list, this rule of life, starter list. I want to you to focus in on just ONE area where you think that if you could grow in one of these categories—whether its prayer, or rest, finance, or spiritual friendship—anything that could make a significant difference in your life. Just jot some things around that category that you think you may be called to pursue.
(5 minutes to do the exercise—they will have a handout).
If you are interested in pursuing a rule of life, I also want to mention, too, that a rule of life isn’t just about adding things. Jim Collins, the wise and respected business writer, says, “Some of us need to generate a “to do” list and some of us need to generate a “to stop doing” list. I believe it was Meister Eckhart who said, “Spirituality is not so much about addition but about subtraction.” For example, as I begin to do some governing work for World Vision, I am planning to leave the board of the seminary I care about to open more space in my life… (use prop of the plate and apples, as you add you must subtract).
Remember, as you create your rule of life: make sure that you include an element for fun, play. Some times, we who want to really live for God can become too serious. I love trail running with the dog, I love sailing… I love the movies… it’s important to have fun.
Also, keep in mind that for some people more structure is helpful, and for other people less structure is helpful. Have as much or little of structure that helps you serve your END GOAL of centering you life on God and making a difference for God in the world as a spiritual athlete.
Add some flexibility to your rule so that you don’t get bored with it.
Make your rule unique to you. Some people are morning people; some people are evening people. When I was a single person my rule looked different, than when I got married. As my wife and I become parents God willing at the end of June, our rule will look different.
Talk it over with a friend, some kind of spiritual companion, your small group. It helps to be able to talk about it.
Remember that, as Basil Pennington says, “A rule of life is not to be lived so much, as to be lived out of. It is not something that you serve, but serves you and your desire to put God at the centre of your life and to fulfill God’s purpose for you.”
Your life circumstances, may change, you may get the flu, your family may descend upon your apartment as part of a surprise family reunion for a week—if you can’t keep your rule that week don’t sweat—you don’t exist for the rule, the rule exist for you.
If you are interested in developing a rule of life further, I would commend a couple of different books to you: my friend Pete Scazerro, who has spoken here, has written a book called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (It’s on the recommended reading list.) The last chapter in that book is on developing a rule of life. I think it is also in our small group library. Another great book I would recommend is a book called Living by Faith Day by Day by Debra K. Farrington. It is a book that describes how to develop a rule of life. Debra Farrington is a wonderful writer on the spiritual life. Tiger Woods will not share his training secrets with you or Golf Digest—it’s a secret. But these people will, they show how like Daniel, you can become an athlete for God who makes a difference for God in the world.
Mary Oliver, the poet, asks the question, “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” What will you do with your one wild and precious life?
One of the greatest ways that you could honour your life and honour God’s purpose for you is to live by a rule. Like Daniel, live your life as an athlete for God.
(The sermon can be heard on line at : www tenth.ca/audio)
Title: Living by a Rule of Life
BI: Become an Athlete for God by Living by a Rule of Life
Text: Daniel 6: 1-23
Think about an athlete that you admire.
Whoever this person is you’re thinking about you know that that he or she didn’t develop their skill in their particular sport by accident.
Michael Jordan (show photo) is considered one of the best, perhaps the best basketball player to have ever played the game. Jordan was extraordinary to watch on the court. He seemed to defy gravity as he would soar to the basket. But what is less known about Michael Jordan is the fact that he was consumed with practicing.
As a teenager the fact that Michael Jordan was not considered good enough to play on his high school basketball team, engrained in him his passion to practice.
As a member of the Chicago Bulls Jordan was typically the first player to begin practicing and the last player to leave. His coach Phil Jackson says that before practice he often found Michael Jordan playing one-on-one with the younger less experienced players keen to develop their game.
Think of someone like Tiger Woods. (Show photo) Woods is considered one of the greatest golfers to ever play the game. Woods makes golf look easy, but as he himself would be the first to say, “Golf is not an easy game… it’s a ‘fickle’ game.”
Tiger Woods is a very private individual. The public doesn’t know much about his personal life compared to many other celebrities. But according to a friend of mine (Elizabeth who has worked on the PGA), Tiger works out about 7-9 hours a day when he is not in a tournament. That includes about 3 hours of stretching and stretching-related exercises. Like Jordan, Woods is passionate about training and practicing.
Great athletes, great musicians, and great artists don’t achieve their level of skill by accident. They have a life structure that enables them to become the kind of people who excel in their field.
The Apostle Paul, who was familiar with the Olympics, urges us to be athletes for God…
Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 says, Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last.
In 1 Timothy 4:7 Paul says “Train yourself to be godly.”
Christians from the earliest centuries spoke of themselves as “the athleti dei,” or “athletes of God.”
Athletes who train their mind, body and spirit to center on the things of God.
Darrell Johnson in his series in January talked about how we are in the midst of a spiritual battle, whether we are aware of it or not. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6: 11-12 that we are to stand against the devil’s schemes, 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Daniel was an outstanding spiritual athlete whose life can instruct our own.
As a young man, Daniel’s homeland of Judah was besieged by King Nebuchadnezzar, of Babylon. Then about the year 600 BC, Daniel and a number of his contemporaries were deported to Babylon. As a young man, Daniel found himself cut off from his family, many of his friends, his teachers, his culture and his language.
He was brought to Babylon as a potential leader in the Babylonian Empire, and he was sent to the best university in his new realm. He was immersed in a completely foreign pagan way of viewing the world in terms of history, literature, math, science, philosophy, religion. As commentators point out, he was also being exposed to astrology, sorcery, magic—all things that were banned in Israel.
Babylon, in an effort to completely assimilate Daniel, even changed his name to Belteshazzar. And yet, Daniel was able to resist the enormous power of Babylon and continue to serve God. How did he do it? How did he continue to live for his God?
Daniel did not leave it completely to chance. He had a plan to develop as a spiritual athlete. He lived by a “rule (or rhythm) of life.”
If you have your Bibles, please turn to Daniel 6:1-11
Daniel in the Den of Lions
1 [a]It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, 2 with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. 3 Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. 5 Finally these men said, "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God."
6 So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said: "May King Darius live forever! 7 The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions' den. 8 Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed." 9 So King Darius put the decree in writing.
10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. 11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.
(So these men conspire to have Daniel thrown into a den of hungry lions).
In verse 3 of our text, we are told that Daniel distinguishes himself from among the administrators and satraps by his exceptional qualities. In Hebrew it literally reads Daniel had an “excellent spirit.” Wouldn’t you love to have it said by God of you that you have an “excellent spirit”?
Throughout the book of Daniel we see that he was a person of extraordinary wisdom, integrity and courage.
In these chapters we see that Daniel is willing to be mauled to death by hungry lions for his conviction that he must seek the living God through prayer…
Last week, I saw the play "A Man For All Seasons". Thomas More is the chancellor of England and friend of King Henry the VIII, but he’s about to be executed because his Christian conscience will not allow him to support the divorce of Catherine of Aragon and re-marriage of King Henry the VIII to Ann Boleyn. Thomas More’s daughter Meg asks him, “ Why can’t you swear an oath submitting to Henry and pretend to support him so you can save your life…?” And More tells his daughter Meg, “When a man takes an oath, Meg, he's holding his own self in his hands. Like water. And if he opens his fingers then - he needn't hope to find himself again." Sir Thomas More chose his death rather than compromise his integrity before God by taking a false oath.
More was a man of astonishing integrity and courage…
So was Daniel… he was willing to die rather than compromise his integrity before God.
How does Daniel become this way?
How does he become this way? As is the case with a great athlete in verse 10 we read that Daniel prays 3 times a day toward Jerusalem, toward the temple of the living God—even when his life was at risk because of this practice. And by virtue of this daily rhythm of praying toward the temple, Daniel is saying through the day, “I am utterly dependent on the sustaining life of living God.” As he prayed he received the life-giving presence of God.
When we become people who structure our lives so we spend time consciously in the presence of the living God: in prayer, mediation, the Word, nature, with people, music and the places where we are uniquely meeting God… we become people who bear the life of God and are able to live in a new kind of way in the world.
The great athletes structure their lives around their goal to become champion athletes. And the great athletes for God have also structured their lives like Daniel, so that they can become great athletes for God.
How do they do this? By structuring their lives so that they are centered on God.
Some people may ask, “Well, what about grace? Isn’t the Christian life simply a gift?”
Dallas Willard says wisely, “The path of the spiritual growth in Christ is not a passive one. Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning.
My friend Elizabeth Archer Klein a great athlete says when it comes to becoming an athlete for God, we distinguish between “trying and training.”
She says "Trying" is saying over and over that tomorrow will be different, but mostly staying in the same old patterns.
Elizabeth says:
Training is setting up a new pattern of behaviors or habits that lead to change.
One of my images for this is running. You'll only get so fit if you run the same loop at the same speed every day. But if you start a 5 day a week program of tempo runs, sprints and long slow distance, with rest days and weight training, throwing in a hill day a few times a month: you get stronger. So, you are training smarter and the effectiveness is completely different. If I just said I would "try" harder the next time I raced, there would be little impact. But if I trained smarter, I will get faster.
Most of you here could complete a 26.5 marathon. Many of could climb Mount Everest. But you couldn’t do these by going out and “trying.” You could do them by training.
So will you become a trainee for God? (use prop… giving running shoes).
So, it is in our spiritual life… it’s not just through “trying” but through training that we become stronger athletes for God…
A rule of life (btw the term comes from the world of the monks, who lived a rhythm of worship, work, rest) enables us to live our lives with a kind of training that we can begin to do things that we cannot now do by our effort. Training gives us a new power to do what we cannot do now by direct effort.
It is true in sports, in art, in music, in speaking a language and it is also true in our spiritual lives. Living by a rule of life will enable us to structure our lives so that we can succeed in the most important race of all—our race for God.
So, what exactly is a rule of life (or a rhythm of life) if you prefer? A rule of life is simply a pattern or a structure for living that enables us to organize around God at the center and trains us to fulfill our life purpose.
Thomas Moore contends that “every thoughtful person, no matter what his current life style may be, has a rule,” meaning a pattern or a model for living (even if it has not been written down). Is there a pattern that we could establish in our lives that would draw us into an intimate relationship with God and ensure that we will fulfill God’s purpose for us?
Some of the categories that we might think about in a rule of life would include:
§ Sabbath (resting, worshipping, embracing life)
§ Prayer (finding a rhythm of prayer that works for you)
§ Scripture (finding a rhythm of Scripture reading that works for you)
§ Study (learning about God, yourself, and the world)
§ Work (seeing your work as part of your spiritual life)
§ Financial Life (using your income in a way that honors God)
§ Care for the body (sleeping, exercising, diet)
§ Re-creation & play (doing things that re-create you; e.g., outdoors, sports, music, art, etc.)
§ Spiritual friendship (committing yourself to walk with spiritual companions)
§ Family (caring for your family)
§ Reaching out/Mission (caring for others, serving, mission, care of the earth)
I am convinced that a rule of life is essential for anyone for who wants to be an athlete for God.
Whenever a young leader asks me the question, “If you could tell me one thing, what would you tell me?” My most frequent answer these days is live by a rule of life, a pattern that will enable you to keep God at the centre of your life and will enable you to continue to grow as a person. When people ask me how I am able to do all that I do—pastoring a church, working on a doctorate (part-time), serving on governing boards, speaking, mentoring, commitment to wife, family, relationships—I say it is not as hard as it may seem (It helps to have a great staff). The key is to live by a rule of life, a pattern of life—a daily pattern, a weekly pattern, a pattern across a month, a year, etc. It’s a great gift.
Part of my rule of life, as you probably have guessed if you have been here the past two Sundays (and heard the messages on Sabbath), is to partition off 24 hours for Sabbath each week. That includes time for worship, exercise, often spending time in nature, seeing a movie or play that is hopefully uplifting. If you are considering even right now the possibility of by living by a rule, one of the first blocks you may put in is that 24-hour block for the Sabbath, to seek to become a person who works from rest, rather who rests from work.
A rule of life ought to be built slowly over time--one category at a time.
An area, for example, that I am seeking to work on is “rest and sleep.” As my wife knows, I have a habit often of getting often quite early in the morning and one of my doctors, as well as a few close friends have been encouraging me to aim to get more sleep. Because I like to get up early, I have decided that I will do more sleeping in,--but sleep in on the “front end” meaning go to bed earlier. Instead of going to bed at 11:30, 12:00, 12:30, I am aiming to try to get to bed, if I can, by 10:00 and be up at about 5:00. And, as I am pursuing this, I am feeling better.
I have worked for years on a morning rhythm that works and I will keep tweaking.
Yours will like look very different depending on your wiring.
There is very set pattern to my mornings. I often begin my mornings about 5 a.m. by going downstairs and petting the dog. I do some light exercise in my home office (pull out the yoga mat as a prop). I begin with some stretching, (I am not very flexible!), some sit ups, push ups, chin ups, exercise with the elastic ropes, etc. It’s not intense—and only I do this for about 20 minutes.
Then I will read my Bible so a number of years I’ve used the ONE YEAR BIBLE which gives a daily reading--a section from the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Psalms and Proverbs each day. I have also been reading from the beginning of this year Romans 8 every day. I then enter into a time of prayer… and silence… (if it feels stale, I’ll change the approach).
And then I will go downstairs, do some reading and some creative work--outlining, some writing, some preparation work. Mornings are a very quiet time and I try to take advantage of that. In the morning (originally inspired by Rocky Balboa) I also go running (the dog is big motivator and he gets real excited about it), I come back and have breakfast. I am ready for the “official day” to begin by 8:30 or 9:00 a.m.
For years I have been thinking about how I can have a life-giving morning rhythm.
I will change it if I get bored with it—to commit to pattern for enough time perhaps a month to give time to become a habit, BUT to also have the freedom to tweak it (it’s important to feel free to tweak the rule).
An important key to developing a sustainable rule of life is to build one section at a time. Enter into it slowly. Don’t let the prospect of a rule overwhelm you.
It is hard to overemphasize the building a rule of life slowly. As you leave this service today and say, “I have been a lazy bum. I haven’t been praying much. I haven’t been exercising much. Starting tomorrow I am going to get up at 4:00 in the morning, spend an hour in prayer, an hour reading the Bible. And then I am going to go to Stanley Park and run the sea wall twice, come home and have a really nutritious, hot breakfast, then I’ll go to work, come home by six, eat dinner with the family, help Susie with her homework, do my e-mail, watch part of the Canucks game on TV, start reading The Brother Karamazov.”
What’s going to happen? First of all, you’re probably going to arrive late to work all hot and sweaty because you had no time to take a shower. And then you’re going to be up until about two in the morning trying to get everything done. And then the next morning when the alarm goes off at four, you are going to hit the snooze button (repeatedly), and pray while you are going to work. So the key is to build a rule of life slowly one category at a time.
I am going to invite you to just take a moment to look at this list, this rule of life, starter list. I want to you to focus in on just ONE area where you think that if you could grow in one of these categories—whether its prayer, or rest, finance, or spiritual friendship—anything that could make a significant difference in your life. Just jot some things around that category that you think you may be called to pursue.
(5 minutes to do the exercise—they will have a handout).
If you are interested in pursuing a rule of life, I also want to mention, too, that a rule of life isn’t just about adding things. Jim Collins, the wise and respected business writer, says, “Some of us need to generate a “to do” list and some of us need to generate a “to stop doing” list. I believe it was Meister Eckhart who said, “Spirituality is not so much about addition but about subtraction.” For example, as I begin to do some governing work for World Vision, I am planning to leave the board of the seminary I care about to open more space in my life… (use prop of the plate and apples, as you add you must subtract).
Remember, as you create your rule of life: make sure that you include an element for fun, play. Some times, we who want to really live for God can become too serious. I love trail running with the dog, I love sailing… I love the movies… it’s important to have fun.
Also, keep in mind that for some people more structure is helpful, and for other people less structure is helpful. Have as much or little of structure that helps you serve your END GOAL of centering you life on God and making a difference for God in the world as a spiritual athlete.
Add some flexibility to your rule so that you don’t get bored with it.
Make your rule unique to you. Some people are morning people; some people are evening people. When I was a single person my rule looked different, than when I got married. As my wife and I become parents God willing at the end of June, our rule will look different.
Talk it over with a friend, some kind of spiritual companion, your small group. It helps to be able to talk about it.
Remember that, as Basil Pennington says, “A rule of life is not to be lived so much, as to be lived out of. It is not something that you serve, but serves you and your desire to put God at the centre of your life and to fulfill God’s purpose for you.”
Your life circumstances, may change, you may get the flu, your family may descend upon your apartment as part of a surprise family reunion for a week—if you can’t keep your rule that week don’t sweat—you don’t exist for the rule, the rule exist for you.
If you are interested in developing a rule of life further, I would commend a couple of different books to you: my friend Pete Scazerro, who has spoken here, has written a book called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (It’s on the recommended reading list.) The last chapter in that book is on developing a rule of life. I think it is also in our small group library. Another great book I would recommend is a book called Living by Faith Day by Day by Debra K. Farrington. It is a book that describes how to develop a rule of life. Debra Farrington is a wonderful writer on the spiritual life. Tiger Woods will not share his training secrets with you or Golf Digest—it’s a secret. But these people will, they show how like Daniel, you can become an athlete for God who makes a difference for God in the world.
Mary Oliver, the poet, asks the question, “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” What will you do with your one wild and precious life?
One of the greatest ways that you could honour your life and honour God’s purpose for you is to live by a rule. Like Daniel, live your life as an athlete for God.
(The sermon can be heard on line at : www tenth.ca/audio)
posted by Shigematsu at 12:14 PM
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