Andrew Meredith’s Reviews > Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus, Become Like Him, Do As He Did > Status Update

JMC: "Now, short theology sidebar: In the library of Scripture, the Holy Spirit is not a vague force like in Star Wars, an eternal sea of nonbeing as in Eastern mysticism, or a nice feeling one gets in prayer. In Jesus’ teachings, the Spirit is a he, not an it. That doesn’t mean the Spirit is male; it means that the Spirit is a person.

In all of Jesus’ teachings, what we call God is, in a mysterious but beautiful way, a flow of love between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is a community of self-giving love; each member of the Trinity, as theologians call them, is distinct yet somehow still one. To be with the Spirit is to be with Jesus, and to be with Jesus is to be with the Father. It’s to enter the flow of love within the inner life of God himself."

Me: As a theology nerd, I appreciate some good Trinitarian theology when I read it because, trust me, it is rather rare in Christian books these days. JMC seems to have good grounding here, so kudos to him for that. (And is drawing good teaching out of it.)

The only small tweak I would make in the wording here is to say that the Spirit is the "flow of love" between the Father and the Son (Think Augustine's "Lover, Beloved, Love"). This circumscribes the Godhead to Three-in-One, instead of potentially Four-in-One with "Love" being either its own hypostasis or the divine essence itself of which the Three are apart.

JMC: "The question isn’t, Are you abiding? It’s, What are you abiding in?"

Me: It's not whether, but which.

JMC: "And this matters, because whatever we “abide” in will determine the “fruit” of our lives, for good or for ill.

If we are rooted in the infinite scroll of social media, it will form us, likely into people who are angry, anxious, arrogant, simplistic, and distracted.

If we are rooted in the endless queues of our streaming platforms of choice, they will form us too, likely into people who are lustful, restless, and bored, never present to what is…

If we are rooted in the pursuit of hedonism—another drink, another toke, or another hookup to take the edge off the pain and let us find a moment’s peace—that will form us as well, likely into people who are compulsive, addictive, and running from our pain and, simultaneously, our healing."

Me: Good, useful teaching here again (Rom 12:2).

JMC: "What do you return to in your quiet moments? Where do you go to find solace and joy? What would it look like for you to make your home inside God? And to clarify, this is not about holing up in a monastery but about learning to always be in two places at once…

Eating your breakfast and being with Jesus…

Braving public transit for your morning commute and being with Jesus…" (etc.)

Me: Maybe pedantic, but I don't think it's helpful to think of it as being "in two places at once" (what part is where, exactly?). Rather, you are in one place, and because you, a member of the Body (a part of the Temple), are there, Christ is also necessarily there by His Spirit, communicating with, by, and through you. This distinction is to reduce some of the gnostic dualism that has the potential to creep into our thinking, where we separate the spiritual from the physical and somehow commune with God apart from or above our physical, earthly existence. We are psychosomatic unions. Our souls were not designed to commune with anything apart from our bodies and vice versa.

JMC: "The Spanish Carmelite Saint John of the Cross called it “silent love” and urged us to “remain in loving attention on God.”
Madame Guyon—the French mystic—called it a “continuous inner act of abiding.”
The old Quakers called it “centering down,” as if abiding was getting in touch with the bedrock of all reality.
The Jesuit spiritual director Jean-Pierre de Caussade called it “the sacrament of the present moment,” as if each moment with God is its own Eucharist, its own movable feast."

Me: I would not personally recommend most, if not all, of these people.

JMC: "So many saints, with so many names for life with Jesus. But my undisputed favorite is from a monk named Brother Lawrence, who called this “the practice of the presence of God.”"

Me: Not necessarily a five-alarm alert, just a potential caution, but there is a part JMC seems to be overlooking here.

Yes, we are individually temples of the Holy Spirit, but more often, Scripture speaks of us corporately as THE Temple of the Holy Spirit. Christ lives in us individually by His Spirit, yes, but corporately we the Church are THE Body of Christ enacting His will in this world through our words and deeds. So, if you want to experience the presence of God, be spoken to by God, be acted on by God, then go to Church, join the Church, constantly be with the Church, and be acted on by Christ's Body through brotherly fellowship, Word, Sacrament, and discipline.

The Christian life should not be lived diving down further and further into ourselves, naval-gazing ever deeper inward to try to hear the voice of God or somehow commune with Him in our souls. But rather, it is outward focused, centered on and controlled by the ears (the passive, receiving organ) as the Word of God is spoken over us by the Body of Christ, His Church. The Word, like the water of baptism, the elements of the Lord's Supper, and church discipline, comes to us from outside ourselves and works from out to in to change us. Now, I'm not saying, "Go to your prayer closet instead of church," is what JMC is advocating. This is just a caution not to bypass the Church as the primary and pinnacle way to meet with Jesus.

JMC: *Whole continued section on practicing prayer every moment of the day.

Me: Excellent. Good teaching. (Depending on what he means by prayer, of course.)

JMC: "As apprentices of Jesus, you and I have both the ability and the responsibility to set our minds on him. To direct the inner gaze of our hearts onto his love.

To look at him, looking at us, in love… “I look at Him, He looks at me, and we are happy” This is the apex of Christian spirituality."

"Do you believe that?
That the most important thing in all of life is to love and be loved by God?"

Me: Alrighty then, let's start by defining "love" biblically. What is "love"? (Baby, don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.)

Let's begin with these touch points from Scripture: "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (1 Jn 5:3, cf. 2 Jn 1:6), or "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does not work evil against a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law" (Rom 13:8-9), or "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love" (Jn 15:10; cf. 14:15).

Biblical love from our end is always inexplicably conjoined to keeping the Law, the covenant stipulation. In other words, it's expressed in our covenant faithfulness up to and including sacrifice. It drives us to image our Triune God by valuing and pursuing the good of others above our own wants and needs.

What about from God's end? "For this is the way God loved the world: He gave His only begotten Son..." (Jn 3:16), or "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Eph 5:25), or "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us..." (1 Jn 3:16). "Hesed" the Hebrew word for love, means God's loyal, steadfast, covenant faithfulness. God is sacrificially faithful to His covenant promises, He acts for us in accordance with them, and this IS His love for us.

Our Triune God is always in a sacrificial give and take relationship within Himself, as the Father loves and glorifies the Son and the Son loves and glorifies the Father, and the Spirit is the Spirit of that very love proceeding from the Father to the Son and reciprocally from the Son back to the Father. The Spirit is the gift of love.

When that very Spirit is poured out upon us (outward to in, again), He permeates us with the very love that the Father and the Son share. So that we begin to desire to sacrifice ourselves for God, for our brothers in Christ, and for fallen humanity that still bears His image (always in that order of priority). Steadfastly obeying both tables of the Law (both positively and negatively) is how we do this.

One last crucial piece to this puzzle: Christ loves us in and through His Body, the Church, which is the chosen corporate covenant community united to Him by baptism to continue all His work on earth. When we speak truth and grace to one another, Christ is speaking truth and grace through us. When we sacrificially act for the good of one another, Christ is acting through us to love us.

Christ baptizes us uniting us to Himself, and then every week Christ welcomes us into His presence, Christ pronounces over us the forgiveness of our sins, Christ opens up His word and instructs us, Christ invites us to His Table to eat with Him, and then Christ sends us out into the harvest to work side by side and continue to be His hands and feet in the world. He does all of this through His people. All of this is always physical AND spiritual. The two cannot be separated.

Compare what I've said, now, to what is being promoted by JMC (in this section at least). It's not love being described here, but soul-to-soul sentimentality: the Romaticized redefinition of "love" that is conceptually divorced from physically obeying the Law. It seemingly flows to us outside and apart from the Church such that a disciple (apprentice) could grow more Christ-like just by sitting in their prayer closet and continuously soaking it up like a spiritual sponge. Charitably, you could perhaps call it "adoration," except at no point (in this section anyway) are any of the wonderous, holy attributes of God called to mind in order to praise Him with, so the reader must import that idea themselves.

JMC: "The word contemplation comes straight out of the New Testament itself, from a key passage in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians:

We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with everincreasing glory.

The Greek word for “contemplate” here is katoptrizō, and it means to “gaze or behold.” To “contemplate the Lord’s glory” is to direct the inner gaze of your heart at the Trinitarian community of love."

Me: The context of this verse (2 Cor 3:18) has nothing to do with what JMC is doing with it here.

Briefly expounded for contrast, Paul is talking about the superiority of the New Covenant to the Old in terms of glory. The letter of the Old Covenant or the Law (typologically portrayed by the Ten Commandments engraved on stone) came with such glory that the Israelites could not even bear to look at the radiant face of Moses, so he had to veil his countenance for them. But even so, the New Covenant so surpasses it in glory that its as if the Old had no glory by comparison.

To this day, when the Jews read their Scriptures, they cannot see Christ's glory shining through the types and shadows presented there because the veil over their hearts remains unlifted. But the Spirit has given us freedom, lifting the veil for us so that when we read the Word, we can see the glory of Christ brightly shining through. The reflugent glory of Christ we behold there (in the Scriptures) transforms us from one degree of glory to another into His image as we behold it.

So, no, to “contemplate the Lord’s glory” is NOT "to direct the inner gaze of your heart at the Trinitarian community of love." It is to direct your gaze outward, specifically here by reading the Scriptures with your heart unveiled by the work of the Spirit until those very Scriptures transform you more and more into the glorious image of Christ.

If we are focusing on how this transformation occurs, then this verse is about the importance of Scripture reading, not "contemplation" as a mystic exercise.

JMC: "And in Paul’s paradigm, this transformation happens as we “contemplate,” as we gaze, as we look at God, looking at us, in love.

This simple, uncomplicated act has the potential to transform our inner lives and heal our deepest wounds in ways that more Bible study, church attendance, and even therapy (as good as those are) cannot possibly touch."

Me: No. Bible study IS integral to the "contemplation/beholding" Paul is referring to, and the church service is where we hear the Absolution of our sins pronounced over us by Christ Himself week after week (also where we should hear long readings of God's Word and the Word of God preached authoritatively over us as Christ Himself speaks to us through His minister) before Christ invites us to eat with Him and one another at His Table in an act of acceptance and communion. These are what heal our deepest wounds and transform our lives, not sitting by ourselves in isolation soaking up disembodied "love."

JMC: “When you sin [and I will, as you will], don’t hide it from God. Hold it before God, with no excuses, no blame shifting, no denial, just utter vulnerability, and let God love you as you are. And then let God love you into who you have the potential to become.”

Me: I appreciate that JMC is willing to use the word "sin." But is this really how we deal with sin? Not without further explication. We confess our sins, and our High Priest cleanses us with His own blood, expiating our sins and propitiating the wrath of God. This is love, yes, but it is embodied love, which is the only real kind.

JMC: "But this is a very different kind of prayer than many of us are used to. I grew up praying in a mode that was wordy, fast-paced, and a bit demanding. Prayer, to me, meant asking God for things, mostly good things, but still, the aim was to use a lot of words to ask God for what you needed and desired. And there’s a place for that. Yet contemplative prayer isn’t looking to get anything from God; it’s just looking at God. “I look at Him, He looks at me, and we are happy.” Few of us even realize this type of prayer is a possibility."

Me: Whenever Jesus or the apostles give examples of prayer, they are ALWAYS asking God for things. God wants us, as ever-dependent creatures, to constantly ask and rely on Him for all things, and then respond in gratitude and praise when He graciously provides. There are no Scriptural examples of what JMC is talking about here. It sounds pious, but it is hubristic in the end.

JMC: "It’s not that words in prayer are bad; they aren’t. It’s just that you reach a point in any relationship, but especially with God, where words and even thoughts no longer carry you forward toward intimacy. They bring you so far but not all the way. They may even hold you back."

Me: This is a rather dangerous gnostic lie, and I don't know how else to put it. All relationships are built on embodied, physical communication. We all can only communicate in exchanged signs (of which shared language is the most potent). Without these shared signs we cannot have a relationship because we cannot know what anyone else is truly thinking or feeling. The only way you can get to know someone or grow in relation with them is embodied communication.

Our relationship with God is the exact same way. We communicate to Him with language (spoken or thought). He communicates to us in His Word and in Christ's embodied Church through Word and Sacrament, without which we cannot know Him, much less know Him better somehow.

JMC: "I’m with the theologian Karl Rahner, who said, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all.”"

Me: Haha. No.

JMC: "I go to a little room in my house, close the door, sit cross-legged on the floor, and pray. I usually pray the psalms (note: not read the psalms), meditate on a passage of Scripture, talk to God about my life, listen for his voice, and attempt to just let go. But most of the time, I just sit there. I breathe. And I look at what my eyes can’t see."

Me: Private prayer is good, and JMC had me until "listen for his voice." I recommend Kevin DeYoung's "Just Do Something." If you want to audibly hear God's voice, read the Scriptures out loud.

Now, there's probably something truly good for our overburdened minds when we sit in unhurried silence. If we meditate on Scripture or spiritual things, or pray while we do it, then all the better. Perhaps even the sheer intentionality of a difficult, initially counter-habitual act sets it apart as a useful tool to wean and train our dopamine addicted brains. But I don't see any biblical mandate that it must be done, or that it's any kind of key to greater Christ-likeness.

JMC: "In the same way, if we want to reach the depth of life with God that Jesus modeled, we need to find a diversion-free place to get away and be alone with the Father. It could be an office in the woods, your bedroom late at night, or a park down the street from your house. Or if all else fails, a closet or pantry. The point is that, like Jesus, we need to learn to hide."

Me: We should absolutely pray by ourselves in secret. It is commanded, and there is always blessing associated when we do what we are commanded. We do each individually have a personal relationship with God. I just don't believe it to be the "apex," the very pinnacle of spirituality to sit by ourselves and soak in God’s love, that apex belongs to participation in the Lord's Day service.

JMC: "This practice from the life of Jesus has come to be called “the spiritual discipline of solitude, silence, and stillness.”"

Me: Did Jesus seek solitude to pray? Yes, of course, and so should we. But silence and stillness have been imported into the text. Jesus taught us how He prayed, and it was vocal ("Our Father who art in heaven...").

JMC: "For many of you, an hour a day may be unrealistic. But could you do a half hour? Twenty minutes? Surely you could begin with ten? We all have excuses for why it’s hard to make time to pray, but many of them are just that—excuses. A push-pull dynamic is at work within all our hearts (myself included)."

Me: And here again is why JMC can be so helpful and so many have benefited and will continue to benefit from him. It is good to encourage people to be obedient in this hard way, and it will deepen their relationship with God to pray to Him. (Just use words when you do.)

JMC: "Hurry is, arguably, the number one challenge you will face should you decide to take following Jesus seriously. Like an enemy, it won’t just stand in your way; it will actively fight against you."

Me: There is much wisdom in this advice. Most of us today would greatly benefit physically, emotionally, and spiritually if we would slow down and stop rushing from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next, ad infinitum until overtaken by the sweet release of death.

However, JMC is overstating things, turning a secondary adversary into a primary one. Your sinful flesh, the world of darkness, and the Devil are the major challenges you will face. Could the "need to always be in a hurry" be mixed up in some of the Serpent's lies? Absolutely, but it is not your number one challenge or the greatest enemy of your spirituality (it's not even necessarily sinful, though it might be detrimental). It is a fruit problem, not a root problem.

I do want to emphasize again that this is really good, wise advice. We need to evaluate how we are spend our precious time and subtract the activities that are unnecessary or of lesser benefit, and then deliberately NOT fill the newly created space with new stuff. We need to put our phones down and stop cramming every nook and cranny of awake time with information and/or distraction. We need to learn to sit patiently in our thoughts without distraction and let them slowly compost into something useful. All of this would make us mentally healthier as a society.

Concluding thoughts so far: Well, the wheels fell off a bit for me during this chapter. Other major concerns elucidated above aside, I guess my main critique is that being with Jesus is primarily presented as escaping by yourself into some secret prayer closet so that you both can mystically and silently stare at each other in love. This is presented as the "apex," the very pinnacle, of what changes you into being like Him, and then you flow out from there.

Private prayer is important, we are created individuals after all, but if you want to be with Christ and become more like Him, go to where He is to be found, His Body, the Church on earth. It is through Christian fellowship, hospitality, Word (both read out loud and preached), Sacrament, and church discipline where we will most be conformed into the image of Christ.

What JMC is advocating here is not primary (though parts of it may be wise to implement). Christ loved and came, lived, died, rose, and reigns for His Bride, the corporate Church, and for you, if you have been baptized into that Church.

Side note in order to make the mental, biblical image I'm drawing from here more explicit (I think in images): I am using mountain, Temple, river imagery as found throughout the Scriptures, but especially in Genesis 2 with Eden, Ezekiel 40-48 with the Temple, and Revelation 21:9ff with the New Jerusalem.

The apex, the pinnacle, the highest mountain of "Being with Jesus" (up closest to the firmament/veil beyond which is the Holy of Holies "not made by human hands" where He ministers forever as our High Priest) is where the eschatological Temple (the corporate Church) is placed in order to perform its priestly duties. And from its entrance flows out a river of life that waters the earth, brings renewal, and heals the nations.

Wish I could ❤️ that last comment