Recently, my wife and I had the opportunity to stay at an Airbnb cabin for a little romantic getaway. It was an amazing opportunity for the two of us to focus on just us and the presence of our relationship. If there was one unique feature of the trip, it was this: we were so far back in the valleys and the woods of central Missouri, there was literally no cell service. And by no service, I mean none, zip, nada, not even 3G. It was an odd realization of no texts, nor Facebook, calls, emails, Google, or even weather forecasts. It made me realize that however I had thought of myself as someone not dependent on their phone, in all honesty I was shaped and influenced more by my phone than I wanted to admit. It was over those few days I found it necessary reexamine the rhythms of my daily life and inwardly examine my values and practices as a follower of Jesus.
Who or what is influencing your life and development as someone who follows Jesus? Not long ago, I came across Rich Villodas’ book, The Deeply Formed Life which seeks to explore that exact question. The book caught me off guard as I personally tend to gravitate more towards the bookish, studious, and library-oriented life rather than an inward, spiritual, touchy-feely side of faith. This means that too often I have equated proper theology and thinking with proper discipleship. Sure, I follow my Anglican Morning Prayer tradition and read quite a bit from the psalms. Yet too often, I’ve been aware that my understanding of ‘being transformed by the renewal of my mind’ has been geared more toward properly and theologically conceptualizing Jesus than relating to him. Villodas’ book was a big wakeup call for me and I hope it can be for you as well. We all must be careful of the dangerous excuses we use to compartmentalize our lives.
Rich Villodas is the senior pastor of New Life Fellowship in Queens, NYC. It’s interesting that New Life uses an iceberg as its logo. The reason is because icebergs are known for their 10% visibility above a water while the other 90% remains hidden beneath the surface of the ocean. It’s a great metaphor for thinking about how Jesus seeks to transform our entire lives and not just the 10% that’s visible to folks around us. A great similarity is the Two Cities blog and its podcast. We have our shiny educated photos, bios, and academic posturing for all our readers and listeners. Yet too often, our Two Cities presence is more attuned to the 10% visibility factor and may or may not be representative of the other 90% of our lives that the Two Cities participants can’t see. Meaning, as long as that 10% looks good, we’re set.
The Apostle Paul dealt with similar themes in his letter to the church at Colossae. How were those who had received Jesus walking, being rooted, and being built up in him (Col. 2.6-7)? I love how Villodas and the New Life team wrestled with these very same community issues. As a result, they arrived at a framework of five key life formation points that would impact people’s lives in Jesus in a deeper and more meaningful way. The objective was that each New Life community member would be called to focus on more than the shallow 10% iceberg visibility rate. Instead, these five key formation points were meant to shape the formation of entire persons, in other words, the other 90% of someone that’s rarely made public. This is an important message for all of us.
Villodas’ life transformation values are addressed one chapter at a time in his book: contemplative rhythms, racial reconciliation, interior examination, sexual wholeness, and missional presence. Following each value, Villodas devotes another chapter about how to practice each value in a deeply formed fashion. One of the great aspects of the book is that the chapters are full of authentic self-disclosures of when Villodas himself had to press deeper in order to keep on growing as rooted in Jesus. I heartily recommend Villodas’ book, that all of us would move away from shallow quick fixes and instead apply the values that will result in deeper, long-term life transformation in Jesus.
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