Thanks to the Holy Spirit, and Richard J. Foster, I've recently dipped my toe into the waters of various Christian disciplines. Unlike my previous toe dips, this time it's on the deep end of the pool, and I have every intention to jump in, or at least slowly acclimate myself to the water.

Yes, by God's grace this lifelong endeavor will not be a superficial pursuit. Its exciting to learn the value of such disciplines as fasting, prayer, study, simplicity, solitude, etc. I'm intrigued now by writings of Christians throughout the centuries. To borrow a phrase from Justin Martyr, "What anybody has said about truth belongs to us, the Christians."

(Of course, Justin was talking about Christianity in relation to philosophy, and while it's a controversial statement in that regard, I think he's right. I also see real and true correlation between the best of Christian thought being something that has accumulated, through various Christian writings, throughout the centuries. I think it's likely erroneous that we spend so much valuable time pursing the latest and greatest of the Christian writings, rather than the treasures that are in print from throughout the centuries. Of course, that's something that I'm barely learning to do myself. The attraction of modern advertising campaigns is easy to get sucked into, even with Christian literature.)

In case anyone's curious about where to start with something like this, The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence is a good place to begin.

[Also published on The Mind's Eye.]