Dallas Willard on Spiritual Formation... 6/9

Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to thee;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of thy love;
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for thee.

Frances Ridley Havergal

Transforming the body…

Willard looks at the transformation of body through both it’s capacity to act and also its physicality, both essential to spiritual formation and often over looked. Interestingly he suggests that:
"The body lies right at the centre of the spiritual life?"
Willard, D(. 2002) Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ
In other words the body, Willard suggests, remains the primary barrier to conformity to Christ. Strong words - as one quickly learning the gentle (so far) reality of middle aged spread, is he saying that being prone to putting on weight is a detriment to spiritual development? Certainly not! What he is saying is that any attitude to the body that fails to recognise the context that we honour God through our body and puts emphasis on sensual gratification represents an issue if we are to take consecration seriously. If that is eating the wrong food, or not enough food, whether that be an idolic approach to weight loss and fitness, whether that be an addiction to appearence - it represents a focus on self.

The transfromation of the body is a refocusing away from self, a denial of the body to govern life, a refusal to be pre-occupied with the body. So that we can embrace a life of consecration in the terms of Frances Ridley Havergal's beautiful Hymn (here.)

Willard outlines these steps to explore in the spiritual formation of our body:
  • We must actually release our bodies to God as a definite action,
  • No longer idolize your body as an object of your ultimate concern.
  • You do not misuse your body - through avoiding excess; through dominating or manipulating others through the intimidation of gossip, sarcasm, knowing looks and remarks, even unsuitable jokes; through avoiding overwork often associated with competitiveness.
  • The need to honour and care - through nourishment, exercise and rest - for the body recognising that the body is to be regarded as holy.
“Human ruin comes from placing oneself at the centre of one’s universe in place of God” (2002:160)
----------

Dallas Willard on Spiritual Formation... 1/9
Dallas Willard on Spiritual Formation... 2/9
Dallas Willard on Spiritual Formation... 3/9
Dallas Willard on Spiritual Formation... 4/9
Dallas Willard on Spiritual Formation... 5/9

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit of sally bashing....

Came across a good bit of Sally bashing over at salvationsoldiers I have to say we try and make sure that everything we raise goes into projects that build local community in Poplar but hopefully if you read this blog you get that sense anyway.
Read more

Types of Christian Spirituality...

Image
It is easy to think and to limit ourselves to a single approach to Christian spirituality. A 'if it works for me it should work for you approach' tends to narrow our appreciation of other ways which actually impoverishes our experience of spirituality. Urban T. Holmes has developed a means of exploring spirituality and helps develop an appreciation through discovering links between spirituality, temperament and predisposition. The diagram illustrates his ideas together with potential inherent dangers. The vertical continuum speaks and helps us understand our relational orientation to God. This ranges from engaging with God through understanding and theological process to a more emotive response. Horizontally speaks of a persons preferred means of pursuing the spiritual life. Kataphtic speaks of affirmation and the need of something tangible in an individuals spirituality- this may take the form of worship, art, even imagination with the use of metaphors, symbols and images play
Read more

Lost Voices of Mission...Fred Brown

Image
Along the world famous Oxford street in London's Westend; nestled in among the classy frontage of designer shops there is almost an unnoticeable, unimpressive wooden door. It is more or less alongside The Regent Hall's main entrance onto the busyness of Oxford Street. People pass the wooden door oblivious to the equally unimpressive wooden steps that go up three storey's to what was Regent Hall's youth club. When I was 10 I played on these bare wooden steps totally unaware of the significance behind and upon which I played. Many years later I discovered a university youth work course - as an induction to Youth Work - stopped outside this insignificant wooden door to point out that Youth Work as we know it in the UK started behind this door. ...whether that be the surbanite flower people that flooded the Westend to express their free love; or the hard core drug community this unimpressive wooden door became the 'portal' that blurred encounter between church an
Read more