Seasons of Discipline

I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. (Philippians 4:10)   Hot off the heals of Paul's invitation to practice what they have learned and seen, Paul immediately begins to talk of how the Philippians have indeed practiced what they have seen Paul live and teach!  Unsurprisingly, their practice of generosity has brought Paul to rejoicing.  It is not as if, therefore, Paul was scolding the Philippians before.  It was not as if the only news in Philippi was bad news about fights between these two women Euodia and Syntyche and others that demanded correction.  No: the same life lived in the mindset of Christ Jesus that Paul has traced and invited, he now brings the Philippians to recognize already within themselves, too.  The imagery behind the phrase "at last you renewed your concern for me" is an image drawn from nature.  It is a picture of Spring—of life bursting forth from the dirt and branches after a long season of death and stillness.  There was a season when the Philippians had "no opportunity to show" their concern, but now the seasons have changed and their concern for Paul has visibly sprung back to life once again. Whatever else may be drawn from this passage, there at least can be a recognition that our practice of the Christian life ebbs and flows.  There is a seasonality to the things we practice.  We are not perpetual motion machines that mechanically repeat the exact same patterns of life and faith from birth to death.  We are not assembly line robots.  No: we are living things.  And so there are seasons when we are able to give and seasons when we are unable.  Seasons when we are able to serve and others in which we are not.  The familiar words of Ecclesiastes 3 come to mind: there is time for every activity under heaven, like "a time to plant and a time to uproot."  This notion perhaps runs against the grain of our sensibilities.  On the one hand—we know this to be true.  Even when, like the Philippians we remain concerned for everything—that doesn't mean that we can actually do everything all the time—we have limited time and resources.  On the other hand though, we can feel guilty about this.  Aren't we supposed to be unfailingly faithful in every good spiritual discipline like Bible reading, prayer, giving, serving, etc?  The trick, perhaps, is to recognize that faithfulness does not lock us to a static, unchanging routine.  Just as a good workout routine will employ variation to alternate the working and resting of different muscle groups at different times, so a good routine of spiritual discipline will shift around the burden to different areas of our spiritual capacity over time to ensure a mature, well-rounded relationship with God and our neighbours. In her Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun says it this way: "Like every other living thing, humans have seasons.  Winter, summer, autumn and spring are real places on the spiritual journey. These seasons cycle through our lives bringing times of fruit-bearing, root-deepening, drought and deep waiting.  No matter how old or young we are, seasons come and go and return to come and go again.  Some disciplines can be more suited to one season than another. When choosing a spiritual discipline, pay attention to your spiritual season" (p. 326).  God calls us into different practices in different seasons: different forms of attentiveness to our relationship with him and our neighbours.  The point in all this, no matter the changes, is that we remain faithfully attentive to these relationships with God and neighbour.  So: where are you at in the seasons of life?  What grace does God speak to you today in terms of inviting you to pick up or lay down different activities of faithful spiritual discipline?  If you'd like to read further, let me know and I can forward you a copy of Calhoun's 8-page guide to discerning the season you're in and the spiritual disciplines that might be appropriate to it.  This is a good part of the work of faith formation across the seasons of our lives.