A Slow Spirituality

A conversation took place at a large Christian Conference between Eugene Peterson and a young Pastor as they were queuing for lunch. ‘What do you do?’ said Eugene after the preliminary exchange of names. ‘I run a church’ was the response. This reply so concerned Eugene Peterson, who reflected on his many years as a pastor, writer and College Principal, that he undertook to begin writing a new series of books on Spiritual Theology. He was profoundly disturbed that all his years work in theological colleges were summed up by the phrase, ‘I run a church.’ Surely, he reflected, our primary task as followers of Jesus is to seek God, whether we are called as pastors, Church leaders, or indeed to any other vocational calling. Our personal relationship with God and our own Spiritual pilgrimage must have precedence over the functions and manifest ways in which we then outwork the ‘fitting tasks’ that God calls us towards. This surely is at the heart of our Spiritual journey, and indeed that of all those we seek to serve.

And yet the tyranny of the urgent drives so many into the belief that we are valued for what we do. David Runcorn in his book ‘Time to be’ has this to say about what can feel to be the tyranny of time: ‘I must change the question I keep challenging myself with, I cannot ask, “How should I spend my time?” I must ask, “Who am I spending my time becoming?” I will not glorify God in my life by doing some thing, but by becoming someone.’

‘Slow down, you move too fast’ – words from Simon and Garfunkel that may be prophetic for the Pastors and Church leaders of today. I well remember reading an account of a missionary back in the 1900’s who had gone to Africa. He had hired a group of indigenous tribesmen to carry all his belongings through the jungle to the mission hospital he was to work at. It would seem to be at least a three day walk, and yet at the end of the first day much progress had been made, and he felt that another good day would see them at their destination. However, when they prepared to set off on the following morning the native tribesmen seemed very reluctant to move off. The missionary asked the translator what the problem was, and after speaking with the head tribesman he replied, ‘They say they travelled so fast yesterday, that they must now wait while their souls catch up with their bodies.’ Do you ever feel that way? All of us complain that we haven’t enough time. It’s because they look at our lives from too human a point of view. There’s always time to do what God wants us to do, but we must put ourselves completely into each moment that he offers us.

Maybe the questions we all need to be asking ourselves are:

What occurs in my life that nurtures me spiritually?

What or who occupies the space at the centre of my life?

What or who drives me and motivates me?

Duncan MacLean