Socrates famously said, “Know thyself.” Paul begins his letter to the Romans (after the greetings and his bio) with a list of all the bad things that humans are capable of–and in fact do. I think every writing I’ve read by people who have seriously taken the spiritual formation journey have experienced somewhere early on the fact that they are capable of much sin.

The same happened to me years ago. And the images still live. I was deep in meditation and suddenly before me was every type of sin (well, almost all I suppose). And I was convicted of sins I’d done, sins I’d thought, sins that I was capable of committing. It wasn’t until then that God became the most real to me.

Paul must have written Romans out of a similar experience. First he became aware of the immensity of sin and how it separates one from God. Then he began the journey to God which led to the Damascus Road experience with Jesus.

As long as we deny that we do things that are selfish, indulgent, hurtful, we will never clear the path to recognizing God. When I finally got around to reading the Desert Fathers–those weird guys who escaped to the deserts of Egypt and Syria in the first couple of hundred years after Jesus–I expected tips on spiritual insight. What I found was a guide to how to overcome layer after layer of sin that separated them from God.

By the way, I sort of dislike the word “sin.” It is perhaps overused and can become “church speak” that might lose its power over people. I have not come up with a better word that will drive home the fact that there are things you do, thoughts you dwell on that separate you from being free to live in the Spirit.

In my other “life” of process control in manufacturing, there is a phrase you can’t control it if you don’t measure it. Well, in spiritual life, if you don’t recognize the things that separate you from God, then you will not have true communion with God. You’ll be like Adam, who knew God, but he didn’t live with Him.

Just now I am studying deeply the Disciplines of Simplicity and Solitude (or Silence) from Richard Foster’s book, “The Celebration of Discipline.” These Disciplines seem to go together quite nicely. You go into solitude and silence to discover what God wants you to say and do, and them you act simply without fanfare and self-centeredness.

As I contemplate upon these, I grabbed some time from my travels this week to check the headlines. We’re in an intense political season, and this week is a big one what with President Obama giving his State of the Union address and the Republicans lining up to blast it (even before they heard it). In checking Tuesday’s headlines, I saw some congresspeople spouting off many words that were actually contradicted by other news headlines about the economy on the same front page of the newspaper.

And I thought, how can all these people get up and say what they say with a straight face? No wonder the American people by and large long for a leader who speaks simply, with force and depth. One who isn’t merely trying to score debate points or make himself or herself (although there are a noticeable lack of females in this election cycle) look better than they are.

I sincerely hope I don’t come across that way. Or that you do. Live simply. Say what needs to be said–no more. Speak from the fruits of your solitude as you seek God’s guidance.

I’m just glad I chose a different career path than that of politician.

In order to do each, you need to start in silence with a clear mind and focus on the Word. Then you read something and figure out what the writer meant. This is work. I’ll talk about that work in a later post. I’m not from the generation that began with the later Boomers and extended on where evidently people were pampered and got the idea that work is bad. Actually, work is your highest calling. Whatever your talent, you need to work at it.

Going through the hard work of study must have some beneficial result else why do it. Study leads to understanding. Understanding leads to perspective. And this leads to wisdom. Wisdom is knowing how and when to act when faced with a situation. How to interact with people who need or are seeking guidance.

Some people think study is memorizing. They learned this in school. Memorizing is not all bad, but it is not understanding. You can quote a Bible verse to someone in need, but if you have no understanding, you cannot truly guide that person to understanding the truth in the situation. Quoting a verse does not take the place of a deep, focused compassion for another where the wisdom you have gained beginning with study becomes a spiritual fruit.

Study is good. Set aside some times for concentrated study of a book of the Bible this year. Or a spiritual classic like Augustine’s Confessions. It’ll pay huge dividends both for you and for the people you interact with.

Can you sit alone in a room? Just with yourself? Without checking Facebook to see what others are doing? Without flipping on the TV to get some noise?

The psychologist Carl Jung wrote about a patient who was becoming unbearable with tension and busyness. He suggested that the patient try sitting alone in his study every afternoon doing nothing. Just experiencing stillness. After a week, the patient returned and Jung asked how it went. He said that he tried it. He sat for a while. Then he got up and rearranged books on the shelf, shuffled papers, and other busy work. Jung told him the idea was that he was to sit still and just be with himself. “I can’t think of any worse company,” the man protested.

To me there is nothing better to do to start the day than to get a cup of coffee and just sit quietly for a time. My thoughts may wander for a while, then settle down. Sometimes if I have a problem, I’ll just release it mentally, then a solution will present  itself out of nowhere–so to speak. Sometimes I just start the day calmer when I know that I’ll be facing people who are not calm and who only serve to agitate my soul. It’s easier to deal with them when you begin the day calm.

Try it. Perhaps read from the Bible first. But don’t think about the passage. Just be still and enjoy the quiet.

When Jesus was tempted after fasting and praying for 40 days in the wilderness, he met each of the three temptations with a quotation from Scripture. He was hungry (probably almost starved), and the Temptor suggested that he turn the rocks into bread. Now, he could have done that. After all, he turned 5 loaves of bread into dinner for 5,000. But he just replied God says you cannot live by bread alone. He didn’t just know Scripture, he practiced it.

We all know people who are “book smart.” Engineers were famous for that in manufacturing when I started working there. They could work all manner of formulae, tell you about strength of materials with math, but didn’t always know just which alloy of aluminum would be best for an application. Or they could design a part only to discover that it was impossible to machine that part.

I guess I fear being book smart about the Bible and then getting caught not practicing it.

We took a look at how meditating on the Word of God and deeper intercessory prayer nourish and develop your soul. Next we look at fasting. Abstaining from food and drink for a period of time in order to focus your attention more deeply on God brings discipline to your body, but it also strengthens the soul. Disciplined study strengthens your mind.

You can do all of these simultaneously, of course.

As we studied intercessory prayer, someone asked about prayer as a conversation with Jesus. Doing each of the Spiritual disciplines will lead you to a life of constant communion with Jesus. That is actually the goal of practicing discipline. It’s not that you can study, or pray, or fast. It is that each practice leads you to a deeper awareness of the reality of God.

We have all noticed at some point in our life those people who live undisciplined lives. They seem lost. No direction. First they try one thing, then another. Sometimes relationships are destroyed. Or their bodies through drug or alcohol or food abuse. Or their minds through drug or alcohol abuse or simply through lack of mental exercise.

But disciplined people are those who seem in touch with God, serve others quietly with joy, are always there to listen and help.

These apply to our lives in many ways:

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”

“On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” And Vanity comes along and asks the question, “Is it popular?” But Conscience asks the question “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.”

. . .

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

. . .

“The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.”

So much Protestant worship is performance-oriented today. Singers perform, speakers perform. It’s like being a live TV audience or something. People sit passively, take it in and leave. Then during the week life happens to them. And then another Sunday and start over again.

Then there are people who are actively engaging with the service even if they are not one of the performers. Their mind and soul are tuned to the message and to God. And during the week, they actively seek out God in their daily lives and watch for opportunities to serve according to Jesus’ example.

Active or passive? It’s your choice.

Then, while studying Richard Foster’s “Celebration of Discipline,” I caught the sentence, “Prayer changes you.” And I thought, prayer changes others, too.

I’m not thinking about prayer as those short petitions to God that many people substitute for prayer. James says that you do not have your prayers answered because you don’t pray correctly. Prayer is actually work. I know, work is a bad word for many of you. But nothing is achieved without it.

Prayer and meditation practiced daily with devotion will change your life. I’ve witnessed it. I’ve seen it in others and myself. It will change your personality. It will change your orientation to life. It can change others. I have not only heard stories of people healed through prayer, I’ve also witnessed it. Not every time I’ve ever prayed, but sometimes.

Foster talks about a time when he was a pastor and was called to a house where there was a sick little girl. He went in to pray for her, and her little brother wanted to pray, too. He said OK. So they went into the room and closed the door. He said to the little boy, let’s imagine that Jesus is sitting in that other chair. We’ll see him come over to your sister and we’ll all put our hands on her and pray for her healing.

Prayer is like that. I have felt that I’m focusing the Holy Spirit on someone as I pray for them–often without words exactly, but more about a deep feeling of empathy and hope for their life. And things happen.

Try prayer in that way. Slow down and seek the presence of the Spirit. Don’t just rush to get your requests sent off to the big vending machine in the sky. Maybe you’ll change someone–and yourself in the process.

It would be as if someone came to America and told Americans, “You know all those things you have been taught about the founding and purpose of America is wrong. Actually, ….” They’d be thrown out of the gathering.

No wonder Paul had such a difficult time of it. Some of his teaching undermined the credibility of Jewish leadership in the Temple. No wonder they wanted to kill him (after they killed Jesus, Stephen and others). Try to convince your boss she’s wrong! Take that thought up a few notches in intensity when you’re trying to completely change the structure of a religion. (Think, “Out, out, you Bishops.”)

Paul would win over some of the Jews to the new Way. But not that many, evidently. And he stirred up so much hatred in the establishment, that he wound up in prison–OK, sort of a gentleman’s prison, but still not free to go.

This shows the limits of using intellectual persuasion to convince someone to change. The growth of the church is really explained in the first few chapters of Acts–especially Acts 2. It was through the lives of those who had been changed. Kind of like that famous scene in the movie “When Harry Met Sally” where the two older women looked at Meg Ryan and told the waitress, “I want what she’s having.”

Take a lesson from Acts, then. It is through how you live that people will be open to coming to Jesus. Then you can explain why. And teach the background. And help them develop intellectually as well as spiritually. Just as your children learn more by watching you than listening, so your example by how you live teaches more than your words.