Habits of Grace

We are about to start a new year. We are at the end of one thing and the beginning of something new. It has always fascinated me that the God who is eternal, who has no beginning and no ending, should make us creatures that are eternally fascinated by beginnings and endings. I suppose that is what it means to be moral, to be human. Anyway, at this time of year it is customary to think about resolutions or to buy a book on self-improvement (I haven’t looked, but a few best sellers will emerge that promise you instant improvement). I don’t think about resolutions. Heaven knows I have tried that and I am just not very good at self-improvement. That however doesn’t mean that by God’s grace I don’t want to improve, it is that resolutions seem like so much “one and done.” Then I just feel guilty. What I do like to think of, however, is “habits of grace,” or “rhythms of grace.” For our purposes let us just think of habits - the making and forming of good, no, Godly habits.I have come to this conclusion - Godliness is about forming habits. Here is the reason. The late Dallas Willard, who wrote extensively about “spiritual formation,” said this, “There are no correspondence courses in the Kingdom of God: to be a disciple is to go with Jesus in study, obedience, and imitation.” What he is saying is, no one “lucks” their way into a well-lived or noble life. While grace is never earned in the bible, the bible does talk much about the Christian life as “a path,” “a way,” or as Eugene Peterson says, “a long obedience in the same direction.” It is for this reason that information is never enough, and “truth” must be internalized and, with effort, formed into habits. A habit is defined in the dictionary as: a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance; an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary. I like that.Before I go on let’s be clear about what grace is. We receive grace freely because of what Jesus does for us on the cross. The cross saves us without our effort. Jesus does everything for us. That is what the gospel is. As the truth of the gospel gets into our heart and mind, it melts us and, out of a sense that we are accepted freely because of Jesus’ perfect record and not our performance, we move on to grow out a sense of inner fullness and love. “Habits of grace” are things that flow out of the cross and out of a heart amazed at what Jesus has done for us. They are things that do not make Jesus love us more, but things that flow out of our love for Jesus.The older writers on “spiritual formation” called these practices “disciplines.” I prefer habits or rhythms because I live my life, typically, in weekly cycles and if I know what the habits are that lead to spiritual formation I can quickly do inventory and know why or why not I am thriving, or see why I have lost my joy. Think about it like this. If you are a basketball player, there are certain things that you must do to be a good player. You have to dribble, defend, pass, score, and take care of the basketball. It doesn’t matter if you are seven feet tall or five feet nothing - everyone has to develop these skills or you will find yourself on the bench. So a coach is not being mean if he points out that you are not getting better and shows you new ways to improve. Also, the wise coach knows that the size and gift sets of different players dictate that some will be better at some skills than others, but he still must possess these skills or competencies.In the Christian life, if you are to thrive and continue to grow in grace, it is the same way. There are certain “disciplines” or “habits” that, unless you take them on, you can’t hope to grow in grace. For this reason, during Epiphany (roughly January and February) we are going to talk about “Habits of Grace.” What are the habits and disciplines I need to continue to grow in grace and become more like Jesus?This all flows out of our Vision and Purpose at St. Patrick. Our vision is what you see everywhere around St. Patrick - Loving God, Loving People, Loving Life. Our purpose is more concrete, “To make new or better disciples of Jesus who love God, love people, and love life.” That is what St. Patrick is called to do. The great win for St. Patrick is not if we build more building space, or collect more money, or get more people coming, that is not what our purpose is. Our purpose is more concrete - make new or better disciples of Jesus who love God, love people, and love life. That is it (If however we do that I suspect it will impact our size, need for building space and increase our giving!).I used to hate this idea of habits because it seemed to reduce my freedom. What I have learned with age is that habits are the only things that give you freedom and competencies! Anytime you watch a great basketball player, musician, or singer at the height of his power, where what they do looks effortless and with grace - you know they didn’t luck their way there, or just wake up one day having never developed the habits of their craft and they were a virtuoso. No, part of the thing we admire about the beauty they create is that, behind their abilities that amaze and excite us, they spent hours in hidden places doing the same thing over and over till their habits turned into instinct - something that appears to be effortless.A well-lived life is a beautiful thing. But more than that the bible says it will be a blessing to you and to everyone around you. Every life of moral beauty that we see is developed the way a great artist is developed - knowing the goal and knowing the habits it will take to get there. Get ready because for the next couple of months we are starting down a path - a long path - of obedience known and blessed.