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11 Pull up Bar
http://www.maywoodbaptistchurch.org/flighttraining/11%20Pull%20up%20bar.mp3 All Show Notes: http://www.flighttrainingpodcast.wordpress.com
Special Thanks for This Episode:
Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart, 1981 p.27-28
Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 1998
Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Music used under Creative Commons. Something Elated by Broke For Free. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Something_EP/Broke_For_Free_-_Something_EP_-_05_Something_Elated
This Episode Show Notes
Episode 11
First time facing the pull-up bar…
Hated it, avoided it, because it showed me something true about me…but I prefered my own story about myself.
Henri Nouwen: [||||| added] “In solitude I get rid of my scaffolding: no friends to talk with, no telephone calls to make, no meetings to attend, no music to entertain, no books to distract, just me—naked, vulnerable, weak, sinful, deprived, broken—nothing. ||||| It is this nothingness that I have to face in my solitude, a nothingness so dreadful that everything in me wants to run to my friends, my work, and my distractions so that I can forget my nothingness and make myself believe that I am worth something. ||||| But that is not all. As soon as I decide to stay in my solitude, confusing ideas, disturbing images, wild fantasies, and weird associations jump about in my mind like monkeys in a banana tree. Anger and greed begin to show their ugly faces. I give long, hostile speeches to my enemies and dream lustful dreams in which I am wealthy, influential, and very attractive—or poor, ugly, and in need of immediate consolation. ||||| Thus I try again to run from the dark abyss of my nothingness and restore my false self in all its vainglory.
The task is to persevere in my solitude, to stay in my cell until all my seductive visitors get tired of pounding on my door and leave me alone… ||||| The struggle is real because the danger is real. It is the danger of living the whole of our life as one long defense against the reality of our condition, one restless effort to convince ourselves of our virtuousness. Yet Jesus ‘did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).|||||
That is the struggle. It is the struggle to die to the false self. ||||| But this struggle is far, far beyond our own strength. Anyone who wants to fight his demons with his own weapons is a fool. The wisdom of the desert is that the confrontation with our own frightening nothingness forces us to surrender ourselves totally and unconditionally to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Challenge: Spend 3-4 hours this week in solitude and silence. Go to a place you can be alone, whether in nature or indoors. No books, music, electronics…You are looking to let go of your false-self and surrender to Jesus
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By Jake Taylor
4.5
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http://www.maywoodbaptistchurch.org/flighttraining/11%20Pull%20up%20bar.mp3 All Show Notes: http://www.flighttrainingpodcast.wordpress.com
Special Thanks for This Episode:
Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart, 1981 p.27-28
Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 1998
Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Music used under Creative Commons. Something Elated by Broke For Free. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Something_EP/Broke_For_Free_-_Something_EP_-_05_Something_Elated
This Episode Show Notes
Episode 11
First time facing the pull-up bar…
Hated it, avoided it, because it showed me something true about me…but I prefered my own story about myself.
Henri Nouwen: [||||| added] “In solitude I get rid of my scaffolding: no friends to talk with, no telephone calls to make, no meetings to attend, no music to entertain, no books to distract, just me—naked, vulnerable, weak, sinful, deprived, broken—nothing. ||||| It is this nothingness that I have to face in my solitude, a nothingness so dreadful that everything in me wants to run to my friends, my work, and my distractions so that I can forget my nothingness and make myself believe that I am worth something. ||||| But that is not all. As soon as I decide to stay in my solitude, confusing ideas, disturbing images, wild fantasies, and weird associations jump about in my mind like monkeys in a banana tree. Anger and greed begin to show their ugly faces. I give long, hostile speeches to my enemies and dream lustful dreams in which I am wealthy, influential, and very attractive—or poor, ugly, and in need of immediate consolation. ||||| Thus I try again to run from the dark abyss of my nothingness and restore my false self in all its vainglory.
The task is to persevere in my solitude, to stay in my cell until all my seductive visitors get tired of pounding on my door and leave me alone… ||||| The struggle is real because the danger is real. It is the danger of living the whole of our life as one long defense against the reality of our condition, one restless effort to convince ourselves of our virtuousness. Yet Jesus ‘did not come to call the virtuous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).|||||
That is the struggle. It is the struggle to die to the false self. ||||| But this struggle is far, far beyond our own strength. Anyone who wants to fight his demons with his own weapons is a fool. The wisdom of the desert is that the confrontation with our own frightening nothingness forces us to surrender ourselves totally and unconditionally to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Challenge: Spend 3-4 hours this week in solitude and silence. Go to a place you can be alone, whether in nature or indoors. No books, music, electronics…You are looking to let go of your false-self and surrender to Jesus