Monday, 19 October 2009 by Paul Dubuc.

I ended September and began October with a three day retreat at The Convent, the venue for a retreat and spiritual direction ministry called “Sustainable Faith” run by David and Jody Nixon. The building is a renovated convent on the grounds of the Vineyard Central Church community in Norwood, Ohio (Cincinnati area). My visit there was a very peaceful and refreshing time for me. On most days my habits of prayer, reading and serious reflection seem on the periphery of each day’s events or fit into the gaps in between. It was good to spend a few days with those things at the center. I had no schedule, no specific agenda, no distractions (unless one counts the wonderful smell of fresh, brewing coffee coming from downstairs in the morning). Dave and Jody are very gracious and grace filled hosts. They have turned this old house into a warm and welcoming place for the weary and wandering soul in need of some solitude. I highly recommend The Convent if you’re looking for such a place.

Since my return, several people have asked me, “how did it go?” or “what did you learn?” I’ve been thinking about that myself, trying to put it in context.

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Thursday, 17 September 2009 by Paul Dubuc.

This is a very helpful book. Peter Scazzero draws from many different sources and presents their content in easily digestible form. The issues he deals with are very important ones for any Christian who wants to grow spiritually into the Christlike person that God intended him or her to be. The basic premise of the book is that it’s impossible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature (though it often does work the other way around). Those who want to grow spiritually must grow and maintain their emotional health. Lacking in this is at the root of the failure of many discipleship models being used in the church today.

After describing the problem and symptoms of emotionally unhealthy spirituality Scazzero gives us as an outline of a life that balances contemplative spirituality (consciously living one’s life in God’s presence) and our daily activity. Following that are several chapters on different aspects of reaching emotional and spiritual health: Accepting and understanding your emotions and understanding your “true self”. Healing the wounds of past experiences that hinder emotional and spiritual health. Dealing with the experience of your life hitting a “wall” in upheavals beyond your own control to remedy and the feeling that life has passed you by. Grieving over past mistakes and losses in life rather than trying to “stuff” them and pretend they no longer matter. The proper place of sabbath rest, recreation and refocusing on God throughout each day. Learning to love well. Developing a “Rule of Life” to help you be more conscious of, and intentional about, your spiritual and emotional growth.

This is a very good book for individuals and groups to spend significant time studying and applying. I also recommend the companion book by the same author, Begin the Journey with the Daily Office for those who have had trouble developing a habit for fixed times of prayer throughout the day. This book is a very good start and follows the themes in Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. Very few people live well on one meal a day (even if it’s a large one). More small meals a day keep your body supplied better. The same is true of time spent with God.

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Friday, 27 February 2009 by Paul Dubuc.

Looking for something to read for Lent? I found this one, Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, in 2003 and I’m using it again this year.

“For Breadth of scope and depth of insight nothing rivals this collection”, says on the dust jacket. I heartily agree! This collection of readings is the best supplement to Lenten and Easter devotional reading that I have ever used. I’ve never seen such a selection of great authors’ writings between the covers of one book. Each of the 72 selections are about 4 or 5 pages long. They are grouped into 6 sections that form a progression from the Invitation prepare for Easter by seriously examining oneself and following through on the themes of Temptation, Passion, Crucifixion, Resurrection and New Life. There are quite a variety of perspectives represented in these writings. Every one of them will reward the thoughtful reader in different ways. There isn’t a dull one in the bunch. These aren’t shallow “inspirational” writings. They will challenge and encourage, and sustain serious reflection. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I’d say that Malcolm Muggeridge’s “Impending Resurrection” was the high point. I highly recommend this book.

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Tuesday, 17 February 2009 by Paul Dubuc.

The writers over at Mere Orthodoxy often have some interesting things to say. This one caught my eye. It’s a letter to a friend who struggles with belief in the goodness of God; something many of us struggle with sooner or later. This letter gives some very wise advice, I think, and presents a thoughtful personal perspective.

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Monday, 19 January 2009 by Paul Dubuc.

Dallas Willard’s book, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God, has the most practical, wise and biblically sound reading I have ever done on the subject of divine guidance. It’s a book worth reading over and again for those who wrestle with the problems of how God communicates with us personally: Is it presumptuous to think that God would want to communicate with us directly? Isn’t the Bible an entirely sufficient revelation of God’s will for any and all Christians? What is the relationship between the Bible and more personal forms of communication from God? How do we reliably distinguish the voice of God from our own thoughts and desires? What if something which I believe God is telling me later proves to be mistaken? Willard deals with these issues in very perceptive and insightful ways, not with pat answers and formulas. (Though he does provide one formula at the end of the book, it’s for “living with God’s voice”, not for getting God to speak with us on matters that may concern us.)

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Saturday, 4 October 2008 by Paul Dubuc.

“Where is our hope?” is the title of a recent posting on Scot McKnight’s blog, Jesus Creed, and it sums up pretty accurately my own preferred attitude toward the coming November elections. I try to make informed decisions when I vote. I try to listen to advocates for both sides and read different points of view. It often happens that the more I do this the less clear my choices seem to get. It’s especially difficult when I’m surrounded by so many people who believe the choices are clear. I marvel at, and sometimes envy, their certitude on the matter. Eventually I come to what I think is a reasonably confident decision according to my own conscience and, in the process, a hopefully respectful attitude toward those who disagree with it. I think it’s helpful to understand McKnight’s use of the theological term eschatology in the meaningful sense of what we view as being of ultimate importance, the means by which God fulfills his purpose for humankind. It’s important to me to remember that politics is not my faith, my ultimate source of hope. My faith informs my political choices but it is not identical with them. I sometimes wish I could split my vote and give different candidates a percentage. Maybe if we could do this it would relive the pressure that so many seem to feel in seeing their own, and everyones else’s, vote as an expression of 100% confidence in a candidate. We wouldn’t be so tempted to only listen to one side and disparage the other. But maybe the better solution is just to realize that we must often make difficult choices in this world, make them as responsibly as we can and live as best we can with the ambiguity and uncertainty knowing that our ultimate hopes lie above and beyond them.

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Thursday, 26 June 2008 by Paul Dubuc.

“If only atheists were the skeptics they think they are.”

This article presents an interesting challenge to nonbelievers and believers alike, I think. Based on some of the published thoughts of the great mathematician and thinker, Blaise Pascal, Edward Tingley makes an interesting point about skeptics who claim to be interested in the truth about God. The real seeker for truth will follow the path wherever it leads. Tingley says that most skeptics abandon the search when the material evidence runs out, but base their conclusions of the unknowability or nonexistence of God on just the same lack of evidence that they claim believers base their faith upon. They “prefer their own commitments over reason.”

That belief in God is not irrational (contrary to reason), and shouldn’t be so, is a fairly easy position to defend and one that is conceded by many thoughtful nonbelievers. The real issue is that logical argument based on empirical evidence (that which can be perceived by the five physical senses according to the methods of the physical sciences) does not compel belief. Unbelief is also a rational position and a simpler one since it supposedly doesn’t rely on conjecture, but limits itself to the more tangible possibilities of natural science. But the question true skeptics should be asking is, “What reason do I have to subordinate the possibility of God’s existence to the powers of my senses?” If the search for God reasonably leads beyond material evidence into the ways known only by the heart, committed seekers are bound to follow. But rather than facing the facts, many atheists and agnostics unwittingly and irrationally limiting their choices to those that suit them:

We are told we should face the facts. Well here they are: The only world in which strictly empirical evidence is the road that we should take in our views about God is a world in which God either shows himself by such evidence or simply does not exist. Those are the options that the agnostic and the atheist like, and it is because they like them that they never pay any attention to the further fact that accompanies these: God might await us down another road. There are three options, not two.

In a world in which God both exists and hides, relying upon conclusive evidence is the way to be wrong about God. Reason delivers three options, but the agnostic and the atheist are not listening to reason; they hear only the options they like, and simply pick the one that suits them.

… It is not true at all that he cannot believe without evidence; he has already done so, having arrived at his commitment to evidence without evidence. Evidence is not his only vehicle of locomotion, and he should admit it. He should notice what his heart is already doing for him, when he lets it.

The whole article is well worth reading and thinking over. I really haven’t done it justice here. But I said at the beginning that this article presents a challenge for believers as well as unbelievers and I want to say something about that. This isn’t something explicitly stated in the article, but I think it’s true because many believers have a tendency to limit their understanding of God by confining it to beliefs with which they are most comfortable. Many Christians, especially those who like to indulge the unbelievers in debates over the evidence, fall into the trap of confining their commitment to God to rational beliefs. They too prefer to spend most of their time below the tree line, content with a relationship with God that fits well with their own understanding and desires rather than follow the ways of the heart up toward the summit, “onto the icy slopes out past the limit of concrete evidence” where our footing is less sure and the risks to our comfort are greater in pursuit of the reward of intimacy with God. There is no passion to know God, only to know truths about Him. We need to follow our hearts where our heads can’t take us.

All this is no excuse for irrational religion. Our rational faculties are a gift from God, meant to be used well. They serve to guide the heart, but they have limits that the heart is able to surpass. If we choose to follow God only within those limits, are we really much better off than the unbelievers? Pascal had a brilliant mind and was also a passionate believer. We can learn as much from him as the skeptics can.

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Thursday, 3 April 2008 by Paul Dubuc.

In August of 1999 my family took an unforgettable trip to Israel with other members of our church to visit some of the many interesting archeological and historical sites in that country, the birthplace of the Christian faith. It was very good to learn more about the time and places of Jesus’ life and ministry in context. I came away with a renewed appreciation for the historical significance of my faith and a lasting desire to learn more.

One of the best places on the Web for news of an historical nature about the Holy Land is Todd Bolen’s Bible Places website and blog. They are a great educational resource. It has been especially helpful in setting the record straight on sensational news media controversies like “The Tomb of Jesus” and 60 Minutes’ recent treatment of the James Ossuary. It’s interesting to see how the popular media take sides in each of these cases; how much more skeptical they are of the authenticity of the James Ossuary than they are of the Jesus Family Tomb. The common slant is one to undermine the historical basis for the Christian faith. This seems to be their way of observing Easter for us. From these accounts the bias seems deliberate, not due to ignorance or sloppy editing of interviews. I wonder how much damage this sort of thing does to the public opinion of Christianity. Discovery Communications (who bills itself as “The number-one nonfiction media company“) and CBS certainly command a wider audience than the rebuttals ever will, but those of us with any stake in the truth will always dig deeper. For those who do, sad to say, it’s not surprising that there is so much distrust of the popular news media these days.

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Tuesday, 25 March 2008 by Paul Dubuc.

In all of my life I have never had to have an internal surgical procedure. That changed in late February. I guess I was overdue. I discovered that I needed to get a couple of hernias patched. These days this surgery is considered a low risk, outpatient procedure and I had a lot of confidence in the surgeon and the surgical method he would use so I wasn’t terribly worried or scared. Still, finding out for the first time that you are going to be laid out on a table, knocked out for a few hours and… was a little disconcerting. I’ll spare you the medical details. Anyone who has been through this knows them already. Those who haven’t probably don’t care to know them. I’m more interested in looking at the spiritual side of the experience: how to make the best of it. Read on if you’re interested.

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Thursday, 6 March 2008 by Paul Dubuc.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1 Cor. 12:12-26)

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