Why Spiritual Practices Don't Do What You Expect
For those who have read my work for a while know that I’m worried when spiritual formation is treated as if it is just doing spiritual practices.
We have to talk about spiritual practices of course - what we used to call means of grace - but we must not talk about these in a pragmatic, self-help, or idealized manner. Too often that is the case.
One problem we address in When God Seems Distant, is that spiritual practices take on different shape and experience in different seasons of the soul. In early consolation spiritual practices often feel easy. We are animated by giving ourselves to these things and any problems we run into along the way are not debilitating, but are just a part of the process. We are excited and we often are fueling these practices with passion.
Spiritual practices in this season are weaning us off of our flesh and onto things of the Spirit. Like a parent who offers their child something delicious to help them leave milk aside, in this season our heavenly Father is giving us consolation to wean us off of the things of the world and the flesh to understand that he himself is our good.
In many ways this is such a wonderful season. Passionate about new things, our life is truly changed.
But as we note in the book, passions burn hot and quick, but they do not light a life on fire. Passion is not the stuff of faith and hope, but is a fleshly way to fuel a life. As a child in Christ, this is fine. This is why Paul says, in 1 Cor. 3:1: “I, brothers and sisters, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.”
Notice that being people of the flesh and being an infant is the same. But it is not a vice for infants to be infants. The problem is when you are a teenager and are still on the bottle. Now it is a problem that you are being fleshly.
Paul assumes that we have to think about the Christian life developmentally. There are seasons of life with the Lord, and throughout each season the Lord is working with where we are in light of how he raises his children. In certain seasons the Lord dotes upon his people, lavishing them with his kindness. In others he might send us a thorn of the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass you (as he did with Paul, 2 Cor. 12:7-10).
Read how Charles Spurgeon wrote about this:
Now there are many who have rejoiced in the presence of God for a season; they have basked in the sunshine God has been pleased to give them in the earlier stages of their Christian career; they have walked along the “green pastures,” by the side of the “still waters,” and suddenly—in a month or two—they find that glorious sky is clouded: instead of “green pastures,” they have to tread the sandy desert; in the place of “still waters,” they find streams brackish to their taste and bitter to their spirits, and they say, “Surely, if I were a child of God this would not happen.” Oh! say not so, thou who art walking in darkness. The best of God’s saints have their nights; the dearest of his children have to walk through a weary wilderness. There is not a Christian who has enjoyed perpetual happiness, there is no believer who can always sing a song of joy. It is not every lark that can always carol. It is not every star that can always be seen. And not every Christian is always happy. Perhaps the King of Saints gave you a season of great joy at first because you were a raw recruit and he would not put you into the roughest part of the battle when you had first enlisted. You were a tender plant, and he nursed you in the hot-house till you could stand severe weather. You were a young child, and therefore he wrapped you in furs and clothed you in the softest mantle. But now you have become strong and the case is different.
When you are being doted upon, spiritual practices look a certain way. When you are in the middle of the desert and it seems like God has abandon you, those practices feel very different. Now they are more purgative. Instead of seeing growth in your life, it feels like you are going backwards. In the desert, things seem to get worse rather than better.
In all that God is doing he is leading you to himself, to know that he is the God of steadfast love and mercy. The Lord is leading you to himself to know his holiness and his glory, and to discover in him that you are still trying to animate your life in the flesh - even your Christian life in the flesh.
The Lord has more for you.
If you want a bit more about this theme of the desert, see the recent article I published at The Gospel Coalition here.
For my paid subscribers, I want to talk a bit more about the dynamics of spiritual practices in different seasons of the soul and why a developmental spirituality is necessary to understand these things. This is key for spiritual formation to be a task of shepherding, which I think it must be. I hope this is helpful.