Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Christian Life
Kevin Greer
Oct 5, 2010
I've read 100% of John Ortbergs book “The Life You've Always Wanted”.
John Ortberg's book, The Life You've Always Wanted, is primarily a practical resource
for 'ordinary people' to implement spiritual disciplines, (what is), or practices, that will greatly
affect their lives. The purpose of this goal is spiritual transformation, which he calls morphing.
Before we discuss the spiritual disciplines, it's first important to know what Ortberg views as
true spirituality and what pseudo, or fake spirituality, means to him. On page 30 Ortberg
writes, “The great danger that arises hen we don't experience authentic transformation is that
we will settle for what might be called pseudo-transformation. We know that as Christians we
are called to “come out and be separate,” that our faith and spiritual commitment should make
us different somehow. But if we are not marked by greater and greater amounts of love and
joy, we will inevitably look for substitute ways of distinguishing ourselves from those who are
not Christians.” The idea is that, unless we are transformed by the inside out by spiritual
disciplines, then we are not growing spiritually at all. In fact, all we do is divert our attention to
external things for spiritual superiority. He continues, “If we do not become changed from the
inside-out—if we don't morph—we will be tempted to find external methods to satisfy our
needs to feel that we're different from those outside the faith. If we cannot be transformed, we
John makes it clear that the purpose of his book is not to give the reader a list of must-
do things in order to grow spiritually. He lets us know that the discipline itself is not the end of
the goal, but the means to the end. On page 45, Ortberg writes “..a true indicator of spiritual
well-being is growth in the ability to love God and people. If we can do this with out the
practice of any particular spiritual disciplines, then we should by all means skip them. We are
free of having to impress God or anyone else with our spiritual commitment.” Essentially,
spiritual disciplines are 'training grounds' for our every day lives. Sometimes, doing less is
more: “It is possible to spend every waking moment 'practicing spiritual disciplines' but doing
them in such a way as to make us less rather than more loving. In that case, of course, we
would be better off if we did none at all.” Our goal is to conform to the image of Jesus Christ,
Now that we've defined what the goal of spiritual disciplines are, what fake spiritual
disciplines or pseudo-transformation is, and the fallibility of spiritual discipline as an end rather
than a mean, let's look at what authentic spiritual transformation includes. 1) Do we have a
preoccupation with appearing to be spiritual? Do we try to say spiritual sounding things, for
something that makes us superior to others? “As soon as we start to pursue virtue,”
Bonhoeffer states, “we become to wonder why others aren't as virtuous as we are. (p36). Are
approachable, or less? Would we give the same attention and importance to a homeless guy
on the street as to a fashion model? 4) Are we growing weary of spiritual growth? Are we
trying to conform ourselves to boundary markers or a religious subculture? These things are
“not a compelling enough vision to captivate the human spirit.” Finally, 5) Are we measuring
our spiritual life in superficial ways? Do we consider reading the Bible and praying as the only
means to spiritual growth? Do we measure our spiritual growth by how many entries we make
to a journal, how many pages of the Bible we read, or how fast we read them?
The benefits of spiritual disciplines for the ordinary person are as follows: by training
our minds and our hearts and our souls to be more loving, more joyful, more at peace and
still, we are exercising mind, body, and soul, to be able to utilize these qualities in every day
life more readily and easily, allowing us to live more like Jesus. “The need for preparation, or
training, does not stop when it comes to learning the art of forgiveness, or joy, or courage. In
other words, it applies to a healthy and vibrant spiritual life just as it does to physical and
intellectual activity. Learning to think, feel, and act like Jesus is at least as demanding as
learning to run a marathon or play the piano.” Essentially, spiritual discipline can be related to
something. “Spiritual transformation is not a matter of trying harder, but of training wisely...
something.” He discusses the Athenian games, and how a competitor, before being able to
even enter the contest, must go through at least 9 months of training, or else he would be
rejected immediately. “That a competitor would strive for the crown by simply “trying really
hard” apart from training was unthinkable. (44). Essentially, training is consistent, disciplined
action that builds upon each prior training session, session by session, to build one's skill or
ability in something.
Each chapter lists a specific spiritual discipline. The book is written in a way where one
can skip through and select a single chapter to focus on. There isn't a build-up on the prior
chapters. It's a practical book. The spiritual disciplines listed, based on chapter titles, are as
follows: Celebration, Slowing, Prayer, Servanthood, Confession, Receiving Guidance from the
Holy Spirit, Secrecy, Reflection on Scripture, Developing your own Rule of Life, and
Experience of Suffering.
One Spiritual discipline that really hit home for me as something that I should utilize
and implement in my life to become more like Jesus is the practice of disciplining my mind to
view life from a Biblical perspective. My history is in psychology and philosophy, and much of
desires and needs, and personal goals. Ortberg talks about the New Testament characters
who who were engaged in “eschatology thinking.” He defines by following, “That is, they
viewed all events in light of the Resurrection and the ultimate triumph of the risen Christ.
Essentially, I've slowly replaced thoughts and the vocabulary of my thoughts to those that are
Biblical and Christlike. As a practical example, I started using words like Joy, service, sin,
suffering, trial, temptation, love, victory, free, and holy to describe experiences in my life
(through introspection). In reality, as David Martyn Lloyd-Jones says in his book “Spiritual
Depression: It's Causes and Cures“, we are in a “constant, never-ending conversation with
ourselves.” Therefore, the best practice we can do to grow in our thinking is to speak to
ourselves, instead of listen to ourselves. To do this is to improve our thinking, and renew our
mind, and the means to this is to preach the Gospel to ourselves. This is illustrated beautifully
The psalmist begins by asking his soul, “Why are you downcast?” He is acknowledging his
depressed state of mind. Instead of speaking terms found in pop-psychology to make him feel
better, (for example, an affirmation as discussed in the New-age psychology if The Secret, “I
am successful, happy, and complete.”), the Psalmist responds to this event by telling his soul
to rejoice, proceeded by reminding himself of putting his hope in Christ, for the Christ has
risen! Essentially, the psalmist is viewing his thoughts and his mind from a Christ-centered
view. This concept has radically changed my life as I've been implementing it into my personal
The next spiritual discipline that has helped me is the act of solitude. As a Ozark
student, I am constantly surrounded by people. I wake up and I see people in the bathroom
showering, and immediately I go to class and I usually run into some friends walking to class,
only to sit down in a full classroom ready to take notes. Then, I walk between classes to the
next class with people. This cycle continues until lunch, where I sit down with people. It's only
until after all my classes are done that I return back to my dorm. It's then that I have the time
to be alone for a short while. My roommate Robbie is usually either asleep (he naps often),
resting before his next class, or gone entirely. I use this time to either sleep or sit in solitude. A
practice of mine that I use is meditation on Christ with a repetition of phrases. Lately I have
been saying “Lord Jesus Christ, take me, break me, and make me yours.” and also “Lord,
Savior of the Universe, have mercy on my soul.”. Ortberg quotes Francis de Sales in the
metaphor that even a clock needs time for resetting: “There is no clock, no matter how good it
may be, that doesn't need resetting and rewinding twice a day, once in the morning and once
in the evening.” This metaphor is that we need rest and solitude to perform well in community.
Ortberg mentions the benefit of solitude from the perspective of conforming to the image of
Christ: “Solitude is the one place where we can gain freedom from the forces of society that
will otherwise relentlessly mold us.” He discusses Jesus' need for solitude and the times in his
ministry when he left people in order to be alone: in the beginning of his ministry, Jesus went
to the wilderness for an extended period of time, at the end of his ministry, he went in the
garden of Gethsemane for the entire night, when he heard of the death of John the baptist,
when he had been involved in healing a leper, and after his followers had engaged in minsitry.
There is no other convincing argument that solitude is healthy and essential to the argument
that Jesus did it multiple times and even commanded us to do it when praying: Matthew 6:5-
6 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have
received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to
your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward
you.”