In the Details #2
How do we allow God to work in the deeper places of our lives? There are two basic strategies that I know about:
1. The FACTS – FAITH – FEELING Sequence.
This method roots change in accepting and believing new ideas. We start thinking new thoughts and we become new persons. Doug Pagitt has captured this model really well on page 24 of A Christianity Worth Believing (Jossey Bass, 2008).
Notice that facts pull the train and that feelings and circumstances follow behind.
- Is this really how life change happens?
- Do we get new facts, put them in the driver seat, and start moving down the tracks?
It seems ideal, but my experience is that few people really live this way. I know very few people who can think their way into a better way of feeling or doing. Personally, I have found this method to be tiring to my body and my spirit.
2. The Life Practice Approach
This model suggests that we turn our will to God as we gradually allow God’s teaching to reshape our actions, thoughts, and social context.
Our soul is like a sailboat that blows the exact direction that the wind takes it. Rather than choosing to be blown about by personal impulses, circumstances, or the opinions of others. Our life begins to change as we commit to responding to God’s Word. However, we harness the wind through using specific life practices. Just as there are reliable ways to navigate a boat, there are reliable life practices that set us in motion.
It is not facts that change our lives, and the life practices don’t really change it either. We change as we surrender to the leading of God’s word and bring our lives into harmony with it through concrete practices.
Jesus is the one who teaches us how to actually pull all of this together. If you want to read more about His life practices, I would suggest the Sermon on the Mount.
On my website, you can find out more about three major types of life practices (inward, upward, and outward) on the Pages tab at the left .
