On the Hevel Level - A Blog About Nothing

It’s natural in the midst of this pandemic to ask “Why Corona Virus?”  There may be an answer to that question, but I don’t have it.  I have heard some proclaiming this is God’s judgment, and others wrestling with the question “Is this God’s judgment?”   This pandemic has been one of those big storms of life that won’t soon be forgotten.  The reality is there will be more storms after this one.  We could make our best attempts to be people who answer the why question, sorting out what is God’s judgment. Or, we can accept that storms beyond our control will be part of our future and decide how to live in response.   What comes to mind for me is the wise and foolish builders from Matthew 7.  Those who listen and put into practice the words of Jesus will experience storms and survive them with their house on the rock.  Those who do not have a foundation built on putting the words of Jesus into practice are positioned for a crash when storms ...

At the church I attend, we are in the midst of a sermon series on Spiritual Formation called “Forming Habits that Form Us”.  While this series has been going, I started reading a book that has helped frame the topic and I find that I’m better able to benefit from what’s being preached.  The introduction of the book  You are What You Love  by James Smith [i]  has a concise way of describing “the why” of spiritual formation.  It says that the bottom line of being human is answering the question "What do you want?”.  Another way to say it is “What do you love most” or even “What do you worship”.  Along the same line of thinking, the early church leader Augustine is known for describing the human plight as coming from our disordered loves.  According to him, we've promoted the wrong things to the place of our ultimate desire.  The aim of discipleship is to put our heart in order. Some forms of “discipleship” are aim...