I’m taking the opportunity on this Good Friday 2016 to launch a new feature on the blog called Friday Thoughts on Faith. On Fridays, I will take some time and space to explore what it means to live as a person of faith in modern times. I’m proud to launch this new feature with a piece called, Cultivating Capacity,  and to introduce a new page on the site where I will archive and share these posts. Like, Share, and Follow freely!

Cultivating Capacity

“…cultivating a capacity to live in the image of God.” Luke Eldredge

I read this line recently in an article from &Sons Magazine and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. The article, titled An Ordered Life, is an examination of the virtues of the monastic life. This was brought on, in part,  by the young author’s foray into an experiment in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

I will confess to being more than a little envious. I am becoming more obsessed by the minute. I, too, have long shared the author’s fascination with the cloistered life.

As I sit with this idea of Cultivating Capacity, I feel as though there is deep revelation in this phrase for me. I might even be tempted to think it was just me and my lack of sleep, returning as I was from chaperoning an overnight Middle School trip and sharing a hotel room with four 6th grade boys. I might think that, except that as I read it, I was immediately compelled to share it with my friend, Mike.

Mike and I are in very similar stages of life. Both have kids in High School and Middle School. He still has one in Elementary school, too. Both pushing 50. Both striving daily to get this post modern evangelical life right – balancing career, family, faith and trying to have some semblance of a life. And we both are often stressed out. Both often speaking of missing the deeper things of God in the hurry to keep up. Both struggling to do it right.

We are brothers in arms, he and I. And I know we are not alone.

As soon as I shared the article with him, he wrote me back saying he had often pondered some of the same things. I began to wonder, what would it look like to cultivate a capacity to live in the image of God in the midst of this life I am already living? What if, in spite of my many challenges, issues, and battles – I became more and more intentional about making room for the life of God in me? What if it doesn’t have to be something that happens only on spiritual retreat or for the few who are called to a truly monastic life? How can I bring this idea to life when I wake up in the morning?

So I started asking myself this question at the start of every new activity or next thing in my day. How can I use this to cultivate a capacity to live in the image of God? Right now, as I’m folding this laundry, pumping gas into my car, driving my sullen and silent teenage daughter to church, or coordinating schedules with my wife – where am I living out the image of God?

And I started asking Mike that same question. Because if you are going to reorient your life, it’s infinitely easier with a friend. Especially one who is walking alongside you on that road already.

It’s not as difficult as you might think. Nor as easy as you might hope.

So it is that I find myself writing this post and you find yourself reading it. I don’t think either one is an accident. Maybe you’re reading this because you’re my mom (Hi Mom!) or one of her friends. Or maybe you clicked on the link by mistake from somebody’s random Facebook post. Whatever the circumstances,  the Bible says that deep calls to deep in the Psalm 42. (That entire Psalm sets great context for this post, by the way.)

The deep life of God is crying out to the deep places of your heart. It calls to mine as well. That is why I want to explore this idea of Cultivating Capacity together. I will share on this page what I am learning about this concept, strategies and tactics I’m using to make that space in a very crowded modern life, and offer what encouragement I can as you take your own journey.

Start today. Right now. On this Good Friday, don’t simply rush through your day to get to the weekend. Find a time and a space to reflect on what this day represents and ask yourself, “How am I living in light of the sacrifice that was made for me?”