Things Above

In this episode of the Things Above podcast, James Bryan Smith continues a conversation with Chris Huertz about the Enneagram by exploring the holy ideas and virtues of each type. These components offer a map to our soul. Holy ideas are the first truths we have to tell ourselves. Virtues are our unobstructed views of reality. In regards to the Enneagram, our basic fear tells us things will never be okay. We contend with fear in two ways: Our type’s passion and fixation. Our type’s passion is how our heart suffers and our type’s fixation is how our mind tells our heart, “This makes sense, keep doing that.” Understanding these aspects of the Enneagram provides helpful insights about yourself, as well as others. You can explore more on the Enneagram and its impact on our spiritual formation by reading Chris’s book, “The Sacred Enneagram.”

Chris and his wife, Phileena, served with the Word Made Flesh community for nearly 20 years, working for women and children victimized by human traffickers in the commercial sex industry. His vocation has taken him to over 70 countries working among the most vulnerable of the world’s poor.

If patience is a virtue, why are we in such a hurry? When it comes to our faith, this can be really frustrating. In this episode of the Things Above podcast, James Bryan Smith discusses our frequently unmet expectations when it comes to spiritual growth and how we can understand God’s timing in our lives. Because the truth is, slow growth offers us eternal strength.

Most of us are in a hurry when it comes to our spiritual growth. Miles Stanford wrote about this in his book, Principles of Spiritual Growth. He says, “It seems that most believers have difficulty in realizing and facing up to the inexorable fact that God does not hurry in his development of our Christian life. God is working for and from eternity! So many feel they are not making progress unless they are swiftly and constantly forging ahead.”

If we were to grow rapidly, we might begin to believe it was due to our own strength. However, God wants us to know that, without Him, we have no strength. Some of the greatest characters from the Bible, such as Moses and Paul, waited years for God’s strength to be formed in them before they were able to accomplish great things. In other words, our souls take a great deal of time to mature.

Dallas Willard said, “Our souls are massive, and they grow slowly.” When we understand and accept this, we receive the patience we need to trust the process of maturity and growth.

People tend to rely on their own effort in times of need – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. For some reason, praying to Jesus is often a last resort. In this episode of the Things Above podcast, James Bryan Smith discusses our common approach to problems and offers a much better way of dealing with them – through prayer.

One of Smith’s favorite books, simply titled “Prayer” by Ole Hallesby, offers some basic truths about prayer that have greatly shaped his prayer life. Hallesby starts by quoting Revelation 3:20 which says,

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in, and with dine with them, and they with me”

Hallesby explains why this verse is so central to how we understand prayer. He writes, “To pray is to let Jesus come into our hearts. It is Jesus who moves us to pray. He knocks in order to move us to pray. It is not our prayer which draws Jesus into our hearts. It is not our prayer which moves Jesus to come to us. All Jesus needs is access. He enters in of his own accord. And he enters wherever he is not denied admittance.”

What a beautiful thought. When we are moved to pray, are we aware this comes from Jesus himself? It is amazing how subtle Jesus is. He knocks, ever so gently. Praying lets Jesus into our needs because it gives him permission to employ his powers in the alleviation of our distress. So the question for today is, Will you give Jesus access to your needs?

Key verses include Revelation 3:20

It is safe to say that no one likes pain. In fact, when we experience pain, most of us do all we can to remedy it. In this episode of the Things Above podcast, James Bryan Smith says that, while pain is not something anyone wants, pain is a necessary part of life. Pain alerts us to something that is wrong and something that needs to be healed. This is true for us physically, emotionally and spiritually. Another benefit of pain is that it can lead to the development of our character. C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”Following Dallas Willard’s emotional funeral, Jim recalls reading a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer about the pain of grief that we feel for the loss of those we love and the desire for it to go away. But Bonhoeffer counsels against making the pain go away. He writes, “Nothing can make up for the absence of someone we love, and it would be wrong to try and find a substitute; we must simply hold out and see it through. That sounds very hard at first, but at the same time, it is a great consolation, for the gap, as long as it remains unfilled, preserves the bond between us. It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; God does not fill it, but on the contrary, God keeps it empty and so helps us to keep alive our former communion with each other, even at the cost of great pain.” Key verses include 2 Corinthians 12:9

In this episode of the Things Above podcast, James Bryan Smith talks about a time when he saw a bumper sticker that read, “Fishing is my life.” After giving this some thought, Jim surmised this man believed his source of existence is fishing itself. This was not hyperbole. It was a statement of being. The reality is, fishing did not bring him into existence, nor does it continue to make his heart beat and his lungs breathe.

In Colossians 3:4, Paul uses the same phrasing as the bumper sticker: Christ is your life. Jesus is the true and genuine source of life, not just for Christians but for everyone. Earlier in Colossians, Paul also said, “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” From this it’s clear: Jesus is not only the source of everything, but all things are held together by him.

In addition to the giver of our biological life (bios), Jesus is the giver of our spiritual life (zoe). We receive zoe when we receive Jesus by faith: “But these are written that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:31). The life we were designed to possess (true, eternal life) is a gift from Jesus for this life, not merely the next. Many Christians miss this and consequently miss out of the richness of life here on earth. So, what is the source of life? It’s Jesus.

Key verses include Colossians 3:4, John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:16-17, John 20:31, John 10:10

In this episode James Bryan Smith sits down with speaker and author Chris Heuertz, for a Things Above Conversation. Chris and his wife Phileena served with the Word Made Flesh community for nearly 20 years, working for women and children victimized by human traffickers in the commercial sex industry. His vocation has taken him to over 70 countries working among the most vulnerable of the world’s poor. In their conversation, James and asks Chris about his recently released book, "The Sacred Enneagram" and the impact it can have on our spiritual formation.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Does God cause Suffering? In this episode, James Bryan Smith unpacks the passage from Luke 13: 1-9 to help find an answer to these questions. During his time in seminary, James met a man named Ben who taught him a valuable story about the grace and mercy of God. We are all in need of second chances, big or small, but each day Jesus says to us “Come follow me.”

The thought from above for this episode is: we are wired for worship. In this episode James Bryan smith unpacks a sermon from his long time friend John Ortberg. Smith explains that we have become so jaded to the joys and wonders of our life that we have nearly lost the capacity to say wow. So many of us live as if God has not done anything for us today. This kind of thinking will never help us. It is not what we were designed for. Deep inside of our souls we are longing for that which naturally lead us to say, wow, which is to say, will lead us to worship. Smith goes on to explain that because our joy naturally overflows into praise we are wired for worship.

In this episode of the Things Above podcast, James Bryan Smith offers this thought from above: God is the most joyous being in the universe. Unfortunately, this seldom enters our minds. Instead, we imagine that God is mad about everything. This false narrative is influenced by a gospel narrative that tells us Jesus took our beating to quell God’s insatiable anger.

In the Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard offers a better narrative that is also very true. Dallas says, “It is a great and important task to come to terms with what we really think when we think of God.” A question people find themselves wrestling with is this, Is God angry or is God full of joy? Dallas goes on to say, “We should, to begin with, think that God leads a very interesting life and that he is full of joy. Undoubtedly he is the most joyous being in the universe…Great tidal waves of joy must constantly wash through his being.”

Can you imagine this to be true? What is God REALLY like? To find the answer, we have to look no further than Jesus. Because anything that we say about God the Father must match or be in complete accord with what we see and hear from Jesus.

Dallas affirms this idea by saying, “Now, Jesus himself was and is a joyous, creative person. He does not allow us to continue thinking of our Father who fills and overflows a space as a morose and miserable monarch, a frustrated and petty parent, or a policeman on the prowl. One cannot think of God in such ways while confronting Jesus’ declaration ‘He that has seen me has seen the Father.’ One of the most outstanding features of Jesus’ personality was precisely an abundance of joy.”

Are you satisfied with your prayer life? In this episode James Bryan Smith explains this glorious thought: Jesus is praying for you. Smith references Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:34, and 1st John 2:1 to help explain this glorious thought. He goes on to explain that Jesus is taking our prayers and sanctifying them. The pressure is off for us to create “perfect prayers” or be perfect in our prayer. Through Jesus our prayers are perfect and sanctified.