Could it be that burnout, as we know it, is not so much a matter of too much work as it is working without listening to God, so that our work is not rooted in His coventantal purposes for us and the world? (Sunder Krishnan, The Conquest of Inner Space, p. 12)
Yesterday was into listening to God — prayer priority #1!
Now, let’s talk a bit about imagination. Sunder is a pastor who wants to see the will of his listeners changed to conform to God’s will. This he has done through intellectual integrity, excellent delivery (I speak from experience) and a sincere desire to speak God’s words. And yet, there seems to be another approach to reaching the will of the hearer. As his brother-in-law, Ravi Zacharias, said, “Imagination has the power to bypass the intellect and get directly at the will.” (p. 16).
“If I was to be obedient to my calling as a preacher of the Word, it was not enough that I take God seriously as a theologian and offer my mind to Him; it wasn’t enough to take people seriously and listen carefully; I had to take words seriously and begin to exercise my imagination. I have never regretted that decision. Not that I have abandoned intellect. It will remain my primary forte. But it is being increasingly empowered by the imagination. (p. 17)
And so, two mental operations (as Krishnan quotes Eugene Peterson) work in tandem — Explanation and Imagination. Most of us have grown up with a strong dose of explanation. We pin things down so we can handle them, we define and restrict things to understandable chunks, we keep our feet on the ground so we can get work done. On the other hand, we may have missed imagination that opens us up so we grow into maturity — we worship, honor, trust and obey; we risk and expand our thinking, we lift our heads into the clouds and live with mystery.
I’m not one inclined to imagination, although when I let go I can certainly think outside the box, and even outside the warehouse! But, because these two mental faculties balance one another the great discipline of the mind is to discern where I am on the tetter-totter! When my prayers merely become recitation of the mundane, then I need to risk the impossible. And where my prayers become foolish flights of fancy I need to ground them in God’s Word which is past, present and future unchangeable!
Well, there’s a start. Looks like a good book.
Just before holidays a propitious (“propitious” — ‘likely to result in or show signs of success’ ) event/book jumped onto my reading table .
A book arrived at the church. The author is an acquaintance of ours. He has pastored a church for two decades or more, was once working for Atomic Energy of Canada, and is a truly intelligent, wise and discerning man.
The book’s subtitle is “learning the language of prayer.” In reality the content is basically taking the Jewish Psalms and using them as triggers, prompters, and any other word you wish to use, to prayer.
In the introduction, Sunder makes a clear statement that the first two chapters are paramount for the understanding of the book. These chapters are not about the Psalms, but about listening to God.
First — Who speaks first?
The Word of God is, and always was, intended to be the Voice of God that pulled hearers into dialogue with Him, permanently affecting them in the process, by either hardening or softening their hearts. (p. 5).
With the invention of the printing press (which meant we read individually instead of hearing corporately) and a shift in teaching methods (from dialogue, dispute and modelling to the current dispensing of datum) we lost something.
Hence the scriptures are no longer a Voice that pulls us into relationship with the Lord but something to be read to obtain data. Given what the Word says about itself, we have to reverse the shift. Reading the scriptures must somehow be seen as a means of listening in order to relate to the speaker. (p. 6)
Quoting Henri Nouwen, Krishnan makes the following summary —
For Jesus, the order was always communion with God, which drew a community around Him and through which he accomplished ministry. We, however, usually follow the opposite order. We desperately try to accomplish something (ministry). When we fail, we try to get people to help us (community), and when that fails, we pray (communion). (page eight)
You might see where this is headed!! I’ll blog on the second chapter in my next post!
I’ve set aside 4 1/2 days for holidays. As I awoke this morning, I didn’t rush anywhere. I did spend time doing something I like — rearranging things!
And when the phone rang, I let it ring. An answering machine is a marvelous thing!!
Now, I’m off to some soup for lunch and an unhurried afternoon.