Restoring the Rhythm of our Inner Life
So as I’ve been thinking and praying about what to speak on this week I’ve had this phrase bouncing around my head, “The Inner Life.” Strangely enough this does happen to me a lot where I get a shred of an idea and have to decide on what to do with it from there. That thought then developed into this idea of The Rhythm of our Inner Life and I thought hey...there’s my sermon for this week.
Then I remembered Ahren’s talk last week...actually I had to go back and listen to it again on podcast...apparently I wasn’t paying attention.
If you remember last week as Ahren talked to us for the last time before his sabbatical he referenced the idea of Spiritual Rhythms. He talked a little bit of the seasons as representing various rhythms in our spiritual lives and what we’ve been through together as a community. As we move into summer now he talked about it as a time of rest, healing, and peace. The pace slows down and for whatever reason; in the summer most of us find time to breathe a little bit easier.
If you know me of course this was an analogy that appealed to me greatly because the one instrument I actually learned how to play was the drums and then later on, percussion. Rhythm is actually something I know a little bit about so I figure this must have stuck with me subconsciously or something because I honestly hadn’t made the connection with Ahren’s sermon until I started looking around to reference something just a few days ago.
So I am going to stick with this idea though but don’t worry I’m not going to repeat what Ahren talked about...not really at least. Instead using the idea of rhythm, I want to take the warning that Ahren gave us toward the end of his talk last week about not getting spiritually dehydrated over this summer season and spend some time identifying the elements that I think might make up what I’m calling the rhythm of our inner life as believers. I think it stands to reason doesn’t it that in order for us to maintain a healthy inner life, that we have to know...or at least have a basic understanding of what that might be.
Before we get to that, let’s start with a basic drum lesson. Move to the drum set. There are three parts to a basic rock drum beat which represent the foundation on which all other beats are formed. If you can master this beat, you at least have a hope of growing into a decent drummer over time with the right amount of practice and discipline. Figuring out this beat really isn’t hard. You start with the bass drum or “the kick” if you’re in the know. It’s 4/4 timing and all you have to do is this. Play basic rock beat with kick. Simple enough right? Now to add some layers you move on to the snare drum. It contrasts to the bass drum with a higher and sharper tone. Add snare to kick. Lastly the third part of this beat to add in is the high hat which adds a higher tone yet again at a faster tempo than the other two layers. Add high hat to bass and snare.
There you go...the three parts of what’s considered the basic foundational beat of most rock drumming.
I want run with this for this rest of my talk this morning and use these three elements as an analogy of what I think are the key elements that make up the rhythm of our inner life as believers. First of all what do you think of when you hear the bass drum? To me I hear a heartbeat. It’s a deep and steady rhythm that anchors everything else that’s going on. Take it away; you’ve got no foundation...no bottom layer on which anything else can be built on. Our inner life as a believer needs that same foundation or heartbeat in order to survive. We need something to anchor us and to give us life. So where do we find this heartbeat? I think we’re all aware enough to know that our heart alone isn’t enough to sustain a successful inner life as a believer. Instead I think we find the heartbeat when we join our hearts with God’s at the moment we become a believer. Ours becomes his and there we have the source of strength to sustain us. Psalm 73:25-26 speaks of this as we read, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
So the first element of our inner life as a believer is connecting with the heartbeat of God. But what comes after that? I think that’s when we move on to the snare which represents to me the idea of consistency. Snap, snap, snap....in that basic beat I was talking about. Pulling that into the analogy of the rhythm of our inner life as a believer I think the consistent beat of the snare drum can represent the means we have to reach the heartbeat of God that is present in our lives. Consistency is important as the more we strive to reach that heartbeat the more our inner lives are sustained as the rhythm remains strong and consistent. John 15:7 says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
The question of course is how do we make that connection and maintain it? I think the obvious answer is through developing a consistent prayer life. Now this is a sermon series in itself I realize about what an effective prayer life might look like but for the sake of time I think what Richard Foster said in an interview might sum it up well. This is a little long but bear with me as I think it paints a good picture of what we might want our prayer lives to look like. “Pray as you can, not as you can't. There are many ways to pray. Of course, what I end up saying is, "Pray 24 hours a day." That is, we learn a way of living in which prayer simply pervades everything. One of the old writers said of the prayerful life, "It takes none of our time, but it occupies all of our time." I would encourage people to find ways in which prayer fits naturally into their lives.
There are lots of ways of praying. One writer talks about "flash prayers." You just give a flash prayer as you're on the elevator going to the next appointment. You might pray about your work. You might pray about your children. These are important prayers that you give before God.
The people who speak of an hour a day are probably referring to a time when you might have the Bible in front of you. That's a very important thing to do. But, maybe once a day is a difficult thing. How about just once a week in a little more extended way and see what you learn from that. How about an afternoon once a week in which you simply give this time to God and learn, and prayerfully go through the Bible. Or maybe you want to pray with God as you take a walk in a park, and that can be a prayer walk. If you miss a day, God isn't going to zap you. That isn't how God works.
Just don't turn it into a system, a legalism. Prayer is a living relationship. And so the idea of one hour a day is just a way of saying, you know, get acquainted. You spend time with your spouse because you love your spouse, because you want to be with your husband or wife, and that's the same way with God. We spend time because that is part of the love relationship.
We must never be discouraged by our lack of prayer. Even in our prayerlessness we can hunger for God. If so, the hunger itself is prayer. One writer said, "The desire for prayer is prayer, the prayer of desire." In time, the desire will lead to practice, and practice will increase the desire. When we cannot pray, we let God be our prayer. Nor should we be frightened by our hardness of heart; prayer will soften it. We give even our lack of prayer to God.”
Let’s leave this section with a good word of caution from Matthew 26:41. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
The last element of that fundamental drum beat of course is then the high hat. Now I’ll admit I’m likely stretching the limits of this metaphor but I liken adding the high hat to the mix being like adding the element of mystery to our inner life as a believer. Bear with me here. Without the high hat, the beat that I showed you earlier is plodding, boring and quite frankly uninteresting (demonstrate quickly). When you add in the high hat though something changes—the beat goes from plodding and uninteresting to something with depth and even an element of texture. Why? It’s hard to explain really...it’s a bit of a mystery. All we’re doing is adding another element with a different beat and tone but the difference is there. It makes the rhythm complete.
Moving this idea over to the idea of the rhythm of our inner life as a believer, the idea of mystery I think is crucial because takes that rhythm from being potentially mundane to one that can be full of beauty, depth, and texture. You know Scripture does actually refer to there being an element of mystery to our faith on several occasions. In talking about the qualifications of a Deacon, Paul writes to Timothy that they must, “...hold(ing) the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.” (1 Tim 3:9 NKJV). Later on in the same chapter he writes in verse 16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.”
Again realizing this is a topic in itself; let’s simply acknowledge the possibility of mystery being the final element to the rhythm of our inner life as a believer. I think Brennan Manning completes this thought well when he writes in his book, The Furious Longing of God that, "The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creation. Not to make people with better morals but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friend, is what it really means to be a Christian."
To finish this up there’s a couple of things to consider about the basic rock rhythm that we need to mention that also completes this analogy of our inner life as believers. First of all is that for the beat to work it has to be done together. All the elements are interconnected...each one working in conjunction with the other. This is the same for the rhythm of our inner life as a believer. For it to be in balance, those elements have to be in unison. This is where the caution from Ahren last week to not let ourselves get spiritually dehydrated during this season is so important. While we may be connected to the heartbeat of God as a believer, without a consistent connection to Him, and an embracing of the mysterious truths of our faith, our rhythm will eventually fall apart.
The second thing to consider is that what makes all this work is the Holy Spirit that lives inside each one of us. He is the connector between the elements of the rhythm of our inner life. He connects us to the heartbeat of God, He walks with us to inspire the consistency of the prayer life we need, and He is the one that reveals us to the mysteries of our faith. He is the one that gives us our sense of timing and puts the elements together so they form the rhythm that will sustain us. Let’s finish today with a final scripture that ties this all together. Thinking of the role of the Holy Spirit here 1Corinthian 2:6-14 reads, “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”
Let’s pray...
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