Before taking a closer look into what the spiritual disciplines look like practically, it’s important to understand the “why” behind them. Today we’ll see:

We are what we love–and we often love the wrong things.
We learn to love God through practice.

You are what you love.

In a lecture I heard recently, James KA Smith argues that humans, rather than being primarily rational creatures, are really the sum of their loves and passions*. In other words, Smith makes the point that humans, though possessing a strong intellect, are not primarily driven by this intellect in their decision making processes. Rather, they almost always act in accordance with what they long for or desire—what they love.

A simple though revealing example of this is exercise. In my undergraduate years of college, I knew exercise was important. I had heard information, gotten fitness instruction, and had even experienced the benefits of exercise. In fact, I could give a room of kids a lecture about why it was important to exercise. Yet, I hardly exercised myself, usually employing the excuse that I was too tired or busy. Though I knew exercise was important, my passion was set on accomplishing the most I could in a day, and I consistently acted in line with that passion.**

Smith goes on to explain that what we love is shaped by our habits–what we regularly do, often without thinking. That which we regularly do is what we will eventually come to love—to have our hearts set on. This ranges from simple things like our morning cup of coffee or a weekly football watching ritual, to destructive addictions which become an integral part of daily routines.

In my journey with exercise, this came about when I made over packing my schedule a habit. I regularly put so many things in my day that it became a way of life. In fact, it felt wrong if I wasn’t doing something “productive.” As a result, things that didn’t fall in line with this ideal of productivity were neglected, things like regular exercise.

Maybe hearing this makes you hesitate—it certainly makes me think. What do the things I love and desire say about me? What about you? What if we really understood that it is these loves, these passions, that are really driving our decisions? Are we loving the right things? Remember Dallas Willard’s quote from last week:

“For it is not, truly, a matter of anything we do or don’t do. It is a matter of how we cannot but think and act, given the context of our mental and spiritual formation.”

We are what we love. We can cognitively try to change a pattern in our lives (aka “Think positive,” “Name it, claim it”), but it will be incredibly hard to sustain it for any amount of time because, according to Smith, we are driven not by our minds but by our hearts. There is good news though, as Smith goes on to explain—we can change what we love. We change by introducing new habits, which forms new loves, and eventually leads to a transformation of our lives.

By the way, Smith’s ideas make perfect sense if you take what Scripture says about God and humanity seriously. The Bible teaches that we are created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:26), and that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). In other words, we are not created in the image of the god of the Greek philosophers, who is solely rational, cold, and intellectual; rather we are molded after a Being who is love in His very essence! To me this implies that we as humans, in a very fundamental way, are designed to be driven by what we love, not just what we think.

Command

No one understood how humans really make decisions and shape their lives more than Jesus, and I think we see this in what is commonly known as the Great Commandment:

29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29–31 ESV

In these well known words, I hear Jesus saying this: “Let me make it simple for you. What God really cares about is that you love Him with everything you have, and that you love other people as you love yourself.” He tells us this because he knows what we often fail to see—we are what we love. We can know a lot about God and that can really help—but even the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who had more Scripture memorized that any one of us, failed to allow Jesus to transform their lives. Jesus knows that, while knowledge is important, our lives are not going to change until we learn to love God, ourselves, and others.

You and I don’t need to be confused about what’s important in life, or how to live our lives. Jesus summarized what’s important to God—love Him and others. He doesn’t say anything about what university you should attend, when you should get married, or about many other things. Why? Because when your love is in the right place—namely in God, yourself, and others—you will more and more make healthy and life-giving choices.

Jesus is inviting us to re-prioritize our lives around loving God, self, and other people. He wants to reorient our loves, and in this way, reorient our lives.

HOW?

As we saw today, our habits form our loves (desires). This week, begin forming one of the following habits–not for the purpose of earning something from God, but in order to allow Him to bring about real change in your life.

When you wake up in the morning, before you start doing things on your phone, spend 10 minutes reflecting on a Psalm. As you read, ask God: “What are you saying to me? How does it connect with my life? What are you inviting me into?” Writing your reflections helps.
Before starting your day, take five minutes and tell God what you’re thankful for. Take another five minutes and ask him for what you need for the day.

Modify as is helpful for your spiritual life. Becoming a spiritual spartan in a week is not the goal. The goal is to develop new habits, however small, that will begin to change your desires and eventually lead to you gradually and organically become more like Jesus.

I’d love to know how it goes! Email me at ianreyes567@gmail.com

On the journey,

-Ian

References

*James KA Smith, Culture as Liturgy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdVkXk3NADE

**I was aided by John Mark Comer’s 2017 talk at Rebuilders Conference: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rebuilders/id1462274371?i=1000437047922