“Holy habits deepen into fixed patterns of life. We experience a growing preponderance of right actions flowing from a right heart” (Richard Foster in Streams of Living Water). 

This powerful quote from a major figure in the revival of the concept of spiritual formation teaches us that when we are focused on the transformation of our own lives, we can also transform the world around us. This post is the fourth in a series devoted to transforming our inner selves in 2019 through simple spiritual practices.

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The  world is becoming more chaotic every day.  The leadership of the United States is the most amoral, the most selfish, and consistently the most hateful it has ever been.  How will this end?  How can it  change?  What can we do?

The only thing we can do is to offer our transformed lives to a world that needs transformation. And if we are to offer transformed lives, we must become transformed people. We can’t offer fixes or policies or programs unless we are filled with God’s vision for his world and his people. That means we must see the world as God’s world and everything and everyone in it as God’s Creation. We must carry a big picture view of the Kingdom on earth and the Kingdom still to come. We must be overwhelmed by God’s love, be directed by the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and be energized  and informed by the life Christ lived on this earth.  

The work in today’s world requires Christians of deep faith and deep willingness to grow into the deep and full relationship to which God calls us. We must devote our lives to training to become more like Jesus.  For many, the practice of spiritual disciplines is the way to take on the likeness of Jesus.

The task of living in the world as a Christ-follower is not an easy task, which is why so few who call themselves Christians accept it.  Richard Rohr has a warning for us: