Spiritual Lessons from Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda offers some lessons for spiritual formation for those with eyes to see. Here are some things to look for:

• Indirection

In Kung Fu Panda, Shifu cannot train Po directly. Po is out of shape and has never studied kung fu. He is not quick to learn. Shifu however discovers that to reach food Po can do amaizing things. So instead of getting Po to concentrate on kung fu, he gets him to concentrate on getting the food.

As Dallas Willard says, the spiritual life burns grace like a jet burns fuel. Without grace we cannot address the things that need transformation in our lives. We cannot address these needs head on. Instead through Spiritual Disciplines we place ourselves in a position where God can pour grace through us transforming us into something new.

• Freedom through discipline

After training, Shifu tells Po that he is free to eat the dumpling. It can't be that easy can it? Po has to use all of his skills to get the dumpling from Shifu.

Richard Foster writes in Life With God,

Again, Spiritual Disciplines involve doing what we can do to receive from God the power to do what we cannot do. And God graciously uses this process to produce in us the kind of person who automatically will do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.

This ability to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done is the true freedom in life. Freedom comes not from the absence of restraint but from the presence of discipline. Only the disciplined gymnast is free to score a perfect ten on the parallel bars. Only the disciplined violinist is free to play Pagannini's "Caprices." This, of course, is true in all of life, but it is never more true than in the spiritual life (18).

Wrecked for God

The Divine Conquest by A.W. Tozer

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Are you sure you want to be filled with a Spirit who, though He is like Jesus in His gentleness and love, will nevertheless demand to be Lord of your life? Are you willing to let your personality be taken over by another, even if that other by the Spirit of God Himself? If the Spirit takes charge of your life He will expect unquestioning obedience in everything. He ill not tolerate in you the self-sins even though they are permitted and excused by most Christians. By the self-sins I mean self-love, self-pity, self-seeking, self-confidence, self-righteousness, self-aggrandizement, self-defense. You will find the spirit to be in sharp opposition to the easy ways of the wold and of the mixed multitude within the precincts of religion. He will be jealous over you for good. He will not allow you to boast or swagger or show off. He will take the direction of your life away from you. He will reserve the right to test you, to discipline you, to chasten you for your soul's sake. He may strip you of many of those borderline pleasures which other Christians enjoy but which are to you a source of refined evil..." (123).

Being so immersed in the world of espresso, I have been wrecked to inferior coffee. At times I ironically proclaim, usually to Elaine, that my coffee snobbery is my burden to bear. That is the way it is with the Spirit, says Tozer, He wrecks us. We no longer are satisfied with the "borderline pleasures," but long for something deeper and more real. The good and pleasurable Folgers or Maxwell House becomes "refined evil."

"Through it all He will enfold you in a love so vast, so mighty, so all-embracing, so wondrous that your very losses will seem like gains and your small pains like pleasures. Yet the flesh will whimper under His yoke and cry out against it as a burden too great to bear. And you will be permitted to enjoy the solemn privilege of suffering to 'fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ' in your flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church. Now, with the conditions before you, do you still want to be filled with the Holy Spirit?" (124).

Reading this my mind again wandered to a hot straight shot of espresso. Those of us who drink it, know that we don't do it for the fun of it. It is not a soft drink. No it is hard and rumbly. Its ultimate pleasure is through the suffering.

Dear God, wreck me for you. Bring me along the way of the cross!


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Biking from one town to another

Today I got in my head to ride my bike. We've been biking a lot as a family lately, but I wanted to go it alone and see how far I could get. I checked the tires and topped them off, the back one has been feeling a little squishy lately. Then, I shouldered the messenger bag, stuck my headphones in, started the Speaking of Faith podcast put on my helmet and struck out on my way.

I must have looked like a cross between a geezer and a geek. This year I am riding a Huffy Cranbrook, a throw back to bygone classics. I was wearing some hip plaid shorts, but with the blue socks Elaine found (the only pair around). This year I have also been wearing a helmet to be a good example for the kids. I am afraid it is not flattering. The overall impression must have been pretty laughable, which probably accounts for the guy on the motor cycle revving past me in mockery!

I stopped at the church, about half way between Sebewaing and Unionville. I drank a water, still listening to the podcast. Krista was interviewing Jon Kabat-Zinn about meditation. It was a welcome reminder as I slowly made my way past growing fields, trees, houses, being mindful of my own breath and the growing sense of power in my legs.

That power reminded me of scrambling up the Sierra Madre foothills at Mater Dolorosa. For a guy who is constitutionally opposed to work and excersize, these glimpses into how good it feels is remarkable and spiritual.

Inner-healing is tough work!

I created a list of the wounds that came to mind. They formed a chronological order tied to place and the church or school I was in at the time. After I finished I sighed heavily. The list spanned two pages. This was going to be difficult work.

Since I was sitting in an empty coffeehouse (some weeks from opening) I brewed myself some herbal tea, chamomile and hibiscus, to settle in with God.

The next hours were wrenching. I found I was able to get through only a couple hurts. The one that really got me surrounded the three years my family lived in Grand Rapids Minnesota pastoring the Assembly of God church there. The church chewed up and spit out my dad. He shielded us from all the things that happened, we never became bitter or angry about it, but tonight to my surprise I found there were a lot of pent up emotions about it. I must have perceived more than I realized at the time. Perhaps the night of fear and agony with stomach pain stemmed from being aware of it, or perhaps it was from the enemy. At any rate, God and I had a lot to go through tonight.

Breaking the power of the past

Tonight I asked God to examine me. “Search Me, know my heart and thoughts—see if there is any offensive way in me” Then I waited, listened and wrote down what came to mind. Then I prayed through each of them like this:

“Lord, I confess the sin of ___________. I ask you to forgive me for this sin, yielding to it, and the resulting pain that I have caused to others and myself. I renounce the sin of __________ and break its power over my life, the life of my descendants, through the power of the Cross of Jesus. I receive your freedom and grace God in the name of Jesus.“

One of the most meaningful aspects of this process was praying that the power of these sins be broken not only in my life but over my descendants. My desperation for freedom and forgiveness was heightened by the image of Ella and Foster struggling with my sinfulness. As I laid each item at the cross, I did so with authority and desperation, putting myself in Christ’s hands. The shame though, made me doubt my freedom.

As I rested with God and listened for him, I cried out, “Where is the spirit?!” At that moment my body shook. It was as if he was making his presence known. “OK Lord, you are here, what do you have to say?” I replied meekly. The words to Nothing But The Blood began to play in my head. I put the song on through my laptop and soaked in it for a while.

First, I was struck by the line, “Nothing can for sin atone, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” I was released from lingering thought that I had to earn my freedom, but working hard enough or even feeling hard enough.

The second thing that struck me was the ludicrous line, “How precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.” I was walking around the room and had stopped in front of a mirror at the time. I was struck that Jesus made me white as snow… this face that I was looking at, the soul behind those eyes, white as snow! I started to laugh. It was ridiculous and wonderful. His blood, on that cross that give the power I prayed for to give me freedom, his blood has made me white as snow.

Now I feel grateful to the point of sorrow and hopefully expectant for the freedom that comes from his hand.

Inner healing

Healing Care, Healing Prayer: Helping the Broken Find Wholeness in Christ by Terry H. Wardle

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars


In Healing Care, Healing Prayer, Terry Wardle offers Christian caregivers the neglected key to emotional health: spiritual transformation. The wisdom of this book is astounding and perhaps unnoticed by many.

For transformation to occur, Wardle insists that the caregiver be transformed first. The caregiver’s attention to intimacy with God is foremost in his or her responsibility. This is a truth that has been central to my own spiritual development. I must grow in intimacy with God, because he is the source, the power behind all transformation, and because those I lead will become as I am.

From there Wardle goes on to set up a framework for understanding inner healing. His visual of an onion with layers moving from the skin of our life situation, through our dysfunctional behaviors, deeper to our emotional upheavals and lies we embrace and finally through those to the underlying wounds, gave me some practical steps for dealing with what I saw as a frightening process. Like Scazzero(Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Unleash the Power of Authentic Life in Christ), Wardle calls us to face our strong emotions and wounds that we have hidden away in order to function. To my surprise, though I cannot identify any major trauma in my life, I found approaching the unfathomed water of my emotions daunting.

I resonated with Wardle’s use of scripture. I didn’t find him building arguments too many times by psychoanalyzing characters of the Bible, a practice that always strikes me a bit hollow (perhaps it is the approaching of the scripture through the lens of the helping discipline rather than finding the transforming power the stories have to offer in themselves). Rather what stuck out to me was the way Wardle took us to scripture for healing. He offers us the truth of scripture to combat the lies that bind us, but more impressive to me, he takes us to the psalms to find our voice to express our emotions in prayer. I love the psalms. I find myself weeping as I pray them, often. Indeed as I was resisting the work of entering into my emotions and having them out with God, I found I was staying away from the psalms as well, leaving me hollow, and searching for ways to deaden the pain I feared.

Over the past few weeks I have been seeing in many new ways the need for the healing Wardle talks about. I have found myself frustrated and overwhelmed. I found myself doubting that I had the strength to go through this myself let alone lead others through it. My experience has been twofold: I have faced resistance in entering into these waters for my inner healing and I have struggled watching a friend spiraling away.

Becky and her husband came to live with us a few months ago. We invited them for two reasons, one for them – so they would have a place to live, and one for us – so we would have another couple to share the journey of discipleship. Over time we realized both of these things were not working. They started spending their time – days and nights – at other people’s houses; obviously they didn’t need a place at our house. What was worse though, is that they no longer joined us for devotions or showed up a church. Becky went back to drugs, and had fits of anger. I am convinced that she is significantly demonized, and the wounds I am aware in her past are enough to break any heart. She left her husband and our house in the last couple weeks. As much as I have preached healing and deliverance the last few months, I am upset that things could fall apart in our own house so deeply. I am angry with those who have wounded her, and with Becky for her choices, and with God for not breaking through.

At the same time I recognize the pain in my own life. I see the dysfunction in my behavior: my relational fear and my seeking pain killers to avoid confrontation. I recognize lies that both Elaine and I have believed: that we are born to mediocrity, that we suck and are lazy. I recognize the emotional upheaval in my life, as I start to feel the despair and grief that lurks I back away from it, afraid of where the pain will take me. I have come to the place where I have asked God to reveal to me the wounds that have caused this. All the while this process has been difficult, I have resisted it at every step, and since my class work is bound up in this process, my grades have suffered as a result. All in all, Wardle has been right about each step. I hope he is right about the outcome as well.

The practicality of his model is a great strength in Wardle’s work. From giving the caregiver the well to draw from in intimacy with Christ in the beginning to leading the caregiver through the layers of pain to the root, he stands as a guide. My favorite part is when coming to dealing with the deep wounds. The wounded one explores the wound in the context of prayer and asks Jesus to reveal where he was in the scene when the wound happened. I want to go there.

Due to my resistance, I had to re-read the last few chapters to really comprehend what Wardle was getting at. The arguments make rational sense, but making the emotional connection to what he is saying has been surprisingly difficult.


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The Book Of The Dun Cow revisited

The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had to reread this book after Peter Scazzero made reference to it in Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Unleash the Power of Authentic Life in Christ. I love the rhythm of the Liturgy of the Hours as it is prayed in the monastic setting. The power of Chanticleer's Canonical Crows in the fight against evil was not something I saw the first time I read it. That was long before I began my journey with praying the psalms. The book took on a new and richer meaning for me this time around.


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relinquishment

Today didn't start off too well, except of course that it is our Anniversary! My beautiful wife of, now, eight years was an anchor to my soul through my trials and tribulations.

I arrived at the coffeehouse today to prepare for the Rotary Club coming over to see the place and have lunch and coffee. When I came in, Mary, the building's owner had rearranged all the furniture. She had all her stuff on the main floor and relegated mine to the stage. I felt betrayed after the last couple days of discussion with her had not prepared me for this, in fact she said she liked what we had done. I was angry and disappointed, a feeling that hung like sorrow in my throat all day - a day I was supposed to be celebrating!

My vastly romantic plans was to take Elaine to the Taize service in Saginaw. Well, it was out, and it was free, so Elaine agreed. One drawback to the evening was that we found no sitter. The kids held up admirably but still, not romantic. The service, however, was the cure I needed. God was gracious to me and extremely romantic. Wave after wave of his presence came over me. I couldn't help but tremble, then sheepishly look around to see if anyone had noticed my unseemly convusion. Elaine even asked me pointedly "What are you doing?!" What could I say? It wasn't I who was doing anything. It was like the Holy Spirit was tickling me. It was a great time with a great God, great friends, and the best wife ever.

Thanks God for all that, especially Elaine!

Sons of God

Sons of God by Rebecca Ellen Kurtz

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
This story has an imaginative premise and action and romance, what more could you ask for? How about a decent editor? I feel bad for Rebecca Ellen Kurtz. She was let down by her editor on her debut work. The numerous errors in spelling, grammar and formatting became distracting.

One also has to really work to suspend disbelief when imagining the characters. Kurtz struggles to give them their distinctive voices. Whether Norse, Celtic, or European, the voices come off sounding like an American attempting a Scottish accent. Even her ancient Middle Eastern Heroine sounds more like a 21st century American girl.

If you can manage to muscle through the distractions, Kurtz’s exploration of Nephalim lore in various ancient traditions is intriguing. The defects of this novel are easily attributed to the author still trying to find her voice. The shallow theology also betrays her rawness. Kurtz is a diamond still in the rough. She needs a good editor to tease out her best.

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Patheways to healing

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash the Power of Authentic Life in Christ by Peter Scazzero

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Scazzero’s six healing pathways serve as a good summary of the way of contemplative spirituality that marks good spiritual formation. The value of his treatment isn’t in saying anything new but in providing a perspective on these practices through the lens of emotional health.

He picks up on elements of St. John of the Cross (the dark night of the soul), Ronald Rolheiser (the paschal mystery), and the rules of Ignatius and Benedict. He cast these ancient truths in language that is easy for a layperson. I can see using this book with someone new to the rich traditions of spiritual formation.

The path that has proved the most powerful to me over the last years is truly that of rhythm. The Divine Office and Sabbath have been anchors to me, and dear friends.

Recently I read over my rule of life again, a practice I ought to make part of my rule too (reading it over periodically), I was reminded of the practices that I find valuable and note the ones I have missed.

Right now I am exploring the healing path, Scazzero calls “Going back in order to go forward.” In a conversation with my mom I sensed the pain of hurts that go all the way back to her youth group. I could see how that pain would create the ongoing challenges she faces. I wonder how the pain I have felt as a wee lad is still influencing me. I am getting into the genogram, to see what I can see.




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