Eaarth

One of our readers (okay, okay, my dad) sent me a review, from the November 2010 issue of Christianity Today, of Bill McKibben's new book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.  "Eaarth" is not a typo - it's the name McKibben suggests for a planet we know and love but perhaps don't respect enough, a planet that has changed radically and will never be the same.  A well-known environmental writer, McKibben says it's too late to expect that some of the changes civilization is talking about will actually help, but he's not ready to throw in the towel.  Instead, his solutions are perhaps in line with the "think global, act local" school of thought.

I could react to what the reviewer says are the solutions McKibben proposes, but that would be cheating.  I need to read the book first.  So I'm putting it on my "I should read this" list.  I learned from this review that McKibben - who has written on environmental themes in the past for Christianity Today - is a church-going Methodist who believes the Church at large should be leading the environmental  movement because of what Christianity teaches regarding stewardship.  Along these lines, I'm reminded of several things:

• An article by Wendell Berry, titled "The Gift of Good Land," that appeared in Backpacker magazine in the early 1970s.  Berry was the first author I'd read who connected care for the Earth with Christian values.
• A book I inherited from a reader (yes, yes, my father again!), titled Our Father's World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation, by Edward R. Brown.
• The Green Bible, my newest version of the Bible.  While many versions of the Bible use red type for the words of Jesus, this version uses green type to highlight all the places in the Bible that have anything to say about creation and caring for it.
• Another book on my shelf, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, by E. O. Wilson (rating: 7/10).  "Written in the form of an impassioned letter to a Southern Baptist pastor, The Creation demonstrates that science and religion need not be warring antagonists."  As a scientist and a Christian, that theme really resonates with me.

New to Hope

In Kendra Lacy's latest book, New to Hope, we have the privilege of someone describing for us the beginning of a unique and personal process.  Not only describing it, but taking us along as they begin their journey.

Kendra shares with us how her life has changed in the past year.  These changes were triggered when she finally found the right spiritual home.  She knew that it was the right place, she says, when she discovered a Narnia-themed library.  What happened to Kendra is hard for anyone but her to put in words.  It was not a conversion - she was already a Christian.  It was not an awakening - she was already awake, just not in the right place quite yet.  Perhaps we could think of the christening of a ship and watching it head for the horizon. It took just the right set of circumstances for Kendra's spiritual ship to leave the dock and head out to sea, her sails billowing with joy, like Narnia's Dawn Treader.

I encourage you to read Kendra's book and discover what all this means.  And if you want to follow her journey, follow her blog at http://newtohope.blogspot.com.  And, if you're in the Melbourne, Florida area on a Sunday morning, stop in at Hope Episcopal Church.  You'll be welcomed with a big hug, I'm sure.

Discipline and Spiritual Growth

I wasn't looking for Dallas Willard's The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives when I came across it at Borders.  But two things caught my eye.  First, the cover art, showing a spray of pine needles and a pair of small cones.  Second, an endorsement by Richard J. Foster.  Because I know of and appreciate Foster's books on spiritual life, this was no trivial endorsement.

The concept of discipline is not something that appeals to most people.  We either associate it with self-discipline (can I watch my diet and keep up my exercise), punishment (as in corporal punishment), or perhaps a monk from the olden days who lived on bread and water in the desert and never spoke for 40 years.

Dallas Willard is careful to explain how we have misunderstood discipline and its place in spiritual growth.  Is it easy?  Frequently no.  Is it something that includes pain and sadness?  Again, no.  Take a look at Willard's classification of disciplines.  The "disciplines of abstinence" include solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, chastity, secrecy, and sacrifice.  The "disciplines of engagement" include study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, and submission.  Willard backs everything up with sound, Biblical theology.

There is not enough room to go into the details that Willard provides supporting why these disciplines are not only useful but critical for spiritual growth.  I encourage you to read this book as well as Foster's Celebration of Discipline.

But here is one thought-provoking excerpt for you.  Touching on the philosophy of the ancient Greeks and Romans, Willard says that the "inability of classical civilization to produce sufficient people capable of serving as the foundation of good government destroyed the Roman Empire.  Early in human development, races of people are sufficiently under the duress of real needs to exalt the virtues that can make them strong.  But after thy become strong they have no sustaining principle that will allow the further development of virtue to maintain their society.  They lack the tension adequate to maintain character in their citizens.  No stable society can, therefore, be long maintained if it is prosperous.  A transcendental principle and tension is lacking, and that is what is abundantly supplied in the gospel of Jesus Christ and his Kingdom." (pp. 127-128)

I know from personal experience that a busy lifestyle makes it very difficult to find time to practice those forms of discipline which may further my spiritual growth.  I want to say there's not enough hours in the day!  But then Willard stopped me dead in my tracks: "Didn't God give you quite enough time to do what he expects you to do?"  I think maybe God was trying to tell me something.  Within a couple of days I came across this quote from H. Jackson Brown: "Don't say you don't have enough time.  You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Theresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."  

For further reading:
Foster, Richard J.  Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth.
Foster, Richard J.  Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home.
Foster, Richard J.  Freedom of Simplicity.