3. In my travels, Iâm finding four great
hungers:
1. For a fresh understanding of the
biblical narrative - a new theological
framework. (A New Kind of Christianity)
4. In my travels, Iâm finding four great
hungers:
1. For a fresh understanding of the
biblical narrative - a new theological
framework. (A New Kind of Christianity)
2. For a fresh framework for mission.
(Everything Must Change)
5. In my travels, Iâm finding four great
hungers:
1. For a fresh understanding of the
biblical narrative - a new theological
framework. (A New Kind of Christianity)
2. For a fresh framework for mission.
(Everything Must Change)
3. For a fresh view of Christian identity
(upcoming)
6. In my travels, Iâm finding four great
hungers:
1. For a fresh understanding of the
biblical narrative - a new theological
framework. (A New Kind of Christianity)
2. For a fresh framework for mission.
(Everything Must Change)
3. For a fresh view of Christian identity
(upcoming)
4. A fresh approach to the spiritual life.
(Naked Spirituality)
7. The word naked in
the title suggests
that weâre seeking
to strip away the
distracting
externals of
âorganized
religionâ -
and focus instead on the
development of our inner life, our
most intimate life, our life with God.
8. Like all living
things,
spirituality is
dynamic.
As individuals
and as faith
communities,
over time
we mature.
We develop.
We evolve.
We change.
9. Many of us have
experienced
patterns of change
or seasons of
development in
our spiritual life ...
distinct stages that
leave their mark on
us, like rings on a
tree.
10. New stages do
not replace
older stages,
but rather
embrace and
extend them.
11. Every stage
is good and
As I see it, beautiful in
its own
each stage in way.
a life with
God depends
on the earlier
stages.
12. Each new stage opens up new soul-
space and expands our capacities
for love - so we can love God and
neighbor more fully. Isnât that
what true spirituality is about?
13. After we complete the four stages once, we go
through them again and again, each time at a
higher or deeper level.
14. Of course, a four-stage
framework like this is only a
tool. Life itself doesnât come
neatly divided into stages.
But for many of us, just as a
year has four seasons, the
spiritual life unfolds season
by season.
15. In each stage, weâll consider three
spiritual practices appropriate to that
stage. And weâll root each practice in
one simple word.
3 2
4 1
16. 3 These practices are like 2
postures of the heart - ways
we open ourselves to God,
ways we mature in the
spiritual life, season by
season, stage by stage, step
4 by step. 1
30. Second is
thanks,
the essential
practice of gratitude.
31.
32. The distribution of discontentÂ
"Consumer society, by constantly
making us aware of what we don't have,
instead of making us thankful for what
we do have, has turned out to be the
most efficient system yet devised for the
manufacturing and distribution of
unhappiness."Â
Â
146. Finally comes the practice
of contemplation, of
simply and silently being
with, for which there is no
word -
only the gentle sound of
your own breathing...
147.
148. God
and I have become
like two giant fat people living
in a tiny
boat.
We
keep bumping into
each other
and laughing
(the Persian poet HaïŹz)