discernment – Jesus @ 2 am blogs and podcast

Loving God 401, Part 8: The Upward Spiral

January 30, 2017January 30, 2017Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

Genuine hardship is an essential part of the work of maturity in the Christian life. And one of the most damaging fallacies of pop-Christianity is that experiences of distance from God, isolation and aridity are signs of regression (or as my tradition so often refers to them: “back-sliding”).

One need look no further than to Jesus’s own life in which there were moments of great emotional intimacy with God and sense of direction in ministry (e.g., the transfiguration), and deep emptiness and feelings of complete abandonment (e.g., garden of Gathsemene). In both instances, Jesus was in exact alignment with the will of God, and yet his emotional experience was very different. So it is with us.

In this episode, we continue our study of discernment (learning to hear God’s voice in our life) with a look at two equally essential categories of experience, what Ignatius called “consolation” and “desolation.” Both are inescapable dimensions of growth, and both can be signs of trouble as well! We will learn how to tell the difference between true and false consolations and constructive and destructive desolation.

All this builds to a broad vision of growth that resembles what a mentor of mine refers to as “the upward spiral.” Transformation (or, technically, “sanctification”) does not happen in an instant. Rather, we make slow progress back towards our true identity (the person God created us to be). Just as sin leads us into the downward spiral of destruction, so grace allows us to reverse the course, and travel back home. The journey is long and the progress, slow. But as we understand the process and discern God’s leading, we gain confidence in our efforts and can see that we are taking on the likeness of Christ!

In other news, as I mentioned in the intro, I am working hard – especially amidst the political and social turmoil of recent days – to increase my presence on social media. I am trying to offer my most constructive thoughts as to how we – as followers of Jesus – stand up to wrongs, without ultimately adding to sin ourselves. (We must never forget that politics and politicians are not the enemy – sin is! To the degree that humans are agents of sin, they must be confronted and stopped. But the means by which we do so must be in accordance with manner of Jesus. We are never to become “Christian Utilitarians” – as if such a thing could exist.)

I would love to have you follow me and engage in conversation.

You can find me on

Twitter at: @jesusat2am
Instagram at: @jesus_at_2AM
Facebook: facebook.com/jesusat2am

Hang in there. Pray short and often. And remember: love is the name of the game! (If others seem to not understand the rules or how to score points, don’t let yourself get confused. Play your game and stick with it!)

Much love to you all,

Kirk

Loving God 401, Part 7: Who’s Voice Is That? – The “Discernment of Spirits”

January 24, 2017January 24, 2017Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

How do you know when God is talking?

There are some people who claim to hear the voice of God constantly – in every impulse they have, every chance event or random encounter. And others who have never had an inkling of divine communication.

The classical tradition says that neither of these pictures is accurate. It claims -and I agree! – that God does seek to communicate with his people (far more consistently than many of us assume). But it equally teaches that we should be quite suspicious of impulse and recognize our temptation to give divine authority to what might well be our own desires.

In this episode we dive deeper into the work of St. Ignatius of Loyola and his instruction around discernment (what he called “the discernment of spirits”). He offers very practical help not only in listening to for God, but in determining – over time and in community – if we are discerning God’s voice correctly.

Want more on the topic of discernment? Check out episodes 85 and 89!

Thanks for listening!

Loving God 101, Part 12: Contemplation “Lab” (Palm Sunday 2015)

August 26, 2015August 26, 2015Kirk WinslowLeave a comment

Having – hopefully – made the theological case for contemplation (as St. Ignatius of Loyola describes it), in this episode our pal, Jon Saur, gives a short example of the practice.

This sermon was preached on Palm Sunday 2015 and thus uses the traditional story of Jesus’s “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem as the gospel text to be contemplated.

If a short refresher is helpful, the goal of Ignatian contemplation is encounter, not “exegesis.” That is to say, in contemplation we read the scriptures so as to find ourselves within them (vs. writing an academic/interpretive commentary that explains the author’s intended meaning). As we read the story (particularly stories from the gospels), we try to identify the perspectives and experiences of the original participants. In this case, what was it like to be in the crowd as Jesus entered? How would a 1st century Jew have interpreted the events? How would a Roman soldier? How would one of the 12? (Clearly this requires a good bit of exegetical/interpretive background to be able to answer and thus we spend a lot of time in other sermons on this!)

As we move around the scene – viewing it from various perspectives (like scene in a movie being shot from the vantage point of different characters) – we ask: Where am I (in this moment in time) in this story? (And we know the answer might be different tomorrow.) And having identified ourselves we then ask: What does God have to say – through this story – to someone in my position? And what might God, then, be saying to me?

Because such reflections are deeply personal, they obviously are not the stuff from which doctrinal theology made (or, at least, ought not be!). And – as Ignatius regularly reminds us – if the direction we receive in such moments of prayer feel dramatic or at odds with our current course, we need very much to discuss them with wise counselors before acting. But as a habit of prayer, contemplation has done me – and many, many before me – a tremendous amount of good!

This is a sermon that was originally presented at Canvas (a Presbyterian church in Irvine, CA), March 29, 2015. To learn more about Canvas, click here!