Relational Practices with God

Robots & Disciplines

An ancient robot was commissioned by King Philip of Spain in 1562. The king’s son had fallen down the stairs and hit his head, rendering him blind, swollen, and near death. In desperation, the king knelt beside his son’s deathbed to make a pact with God: “if you heal my son and do this miracle for me, I will do a miracle for you.” And then…the prince got better!

Not only was he healed but he reported being visited by a monk in his dreams who told him he would be okay. Everyone believed that it must have been Diego De Alcala, a local, well-known monk who died about 100 years earlier. So King Philip, who now has to come good on his pact with God to produce a miracle, decides to commission a mechanical version of San Diego (yes he’s that San Diego).

He contacts a renowned clock maker who makes a 15 inch tall monk with a rosary and cross who can be wound up and then slowly walk and move his mouth and make symbolic gestures such as kissing the cross. This robot is still around today; it’s in the Smithsonian, in perfect working order.

It was a machine that was built to pray; in a time and culture when you could pay money for people to pray repetitious prayers for you. Prayer was about diligence and rituals; and this robot was the best at praying according to this way of thinking about spirituality. It was the gold standard of spiritual discipline…and it was a robot.

Many Christians still have hauntingly similar mentalities regarding spiritual disciplines. I have spoken to so many Christians who feel guilty and inadequate because they can’t live up to this robotic standard, or they are burdened in the pursuit. Something is wrong with how we approach spirituality. Even calling certain practices “spiritual disciplines” hints at this way of thinking.

Relational Practices

My wife and I take an hour long walk together every day and it has developed much greater intimacy and unity in our marriage. We could call this a “physical discipline,” which is technically true, but that would undermine the significance of it. It’s not the walking that is important so much, but the relationship that it cultivates. And if you speak to any couple that you respect as unified and close, you’ll find that they have certain habits of togetherness.

This is how we should think about spiritual disciplines, as relational practices with God. In fact I think it would even be helpful to talk about them this way. We aren’t just aiming at becoming spiritually disciplined, we are aiming at cultivating our relationship with God. When you are practicing intimacy and togetherness with Jesus, it flips the script; pride and pragmatism are removed and any guilt or burden is either lifted or altered in a positive way.

Spiritual disciplines are often viewed as a means to attaining something. They are used as techniques for self improvement or, on the darker side, they are used to earn God’s favor. But a genuine relationship is an end in itself. Communing with God, in the varied ways that we do it, is our grand calling, not a means to some other end. He already loves us and is with us and in us through faith, we don’t have to earn his favor. He is the one who is at work in us to will and to work for his good pleasure, so we lean on him and trust him, beholding his glory and receiving his grace.

This has been such a key insight for me, and a stirring shift in my thinking. Particularly the historic abstinence practices of silence, solitude, fasting, and sabbath are only appealing to me as relational practices with Jesus, but for so long I viewed them through the lens of spiritual discipline and found them nearly impossible to keep in any consistent way.

So it’s not that we should do away with these historic practices or even deemphasize them. It’s that we should emphasize Jesus way more; and the beautiful truth of his gracious nearness that cannot be earned or attained, but can be experienced and enjoyed! Because if we give up on these practices, our God is gracious and he will forgive us. The question is, do we want to commune with the lover of our souls and be a part of a genuine relationship of mutuality, power, and glory?