Activity: The Jelly Bean Distribution

Objective(s): illustrate the breadth of Christian spiritual formation

Time: 15 minutes in the exercise, 15 minutes to debrief

Materials: enough jelly beans for each student to have 10–20 if needed. Presort them into seven separate bowls with a single color in each bowl.

When I teach this material, I usually spend a bit of time going over the human experience chart, drawing especially from The Brazos Introduction to Christian Spirituality (pp. 77–106, 352). I begin with the story of my philosophical journey and how I discovered the role of each of the “stages” of human experience. Then I talk about the series of conversions I have had in life and the different traditions somewhat reflected by each segment of the pie chart. At the end of this lecture, students have a sense of human diversity and interconnectedness and how this is illustrated within the various traditions of the Christian church.

Then I place the various bowls of jelly beans around the room so they are not all in one place. I write a color-key on the board (red = charismatic/experiencing, blue = contemplative / being aware, and so on). I make available a seventh bowl for “other” so that people have the freedom to identify with terms and aspects of human experience I might not have expressed in their language. I release the students to collect from the bowls the blend of jelly beans that they feel best represents their own current faith experience.

Then, after students have collected their beans, I have them talk about their collections in small groups. Some may have taken a few beans from one bowl/tradition to represent a recent experience. Others may have grown up in only one tradition and have lots of beans of one color. Still others may have collected many beans from one color to represent one point in time only to put some of them back later on in life. We appreciatively hear the story of each student’s fullness.

Then, I ask if any students would like to try a jelly bean of a different color/flavor. I give students the option to receive jelly beans from those who might have something to offer, or perhaps from the bowls directly.

We close with a discussion about the fullness and aims of formation. How might different groups of Christians present this same material? The experience is helpful, but the analogy can break down in spots. Where and why does it break down? What do we learn from this exercise about Christian spiritual formation?

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Assignment Set 1

1. “My Relationship with God”: A Worksheet

This worksheet is a tool to help you get a comprehensive overview of your relationship with God as it has developed, especially in its most recent “season.” This sheet will also give you new perspective on the directions in which you see your relationship with God moving in the near future. Please read the whole worksheet first and then respond to each exercise honestly and prayerfully. You need not do each exercise, but it will be helpful for you to do as many as you can. Take note where you have much to say, where you draw a blank, or where the exercise simply does not resonate. It may be helpful, after completing the worksheet, to process the experience of reviewing your relationship with God with a trusted friend or spiritual director. My hope is that the completing of this worksheet itself will be an enlightening encounter with God. You will use the insights from this worksheet further as you explore formation in this course.

Exercise 1: History of My Relationship with God

On a separate piece of paper draw a graph describing the history of your relationship with God from its beginning to the present. Show the highs and lows of this relationship. Identify (and date if appropriate) key peaks, valleys, plateaus, transitions, and developments. Then sit and prayerfully look at this chart. What has characterized your most recent “season” with the Lord? How does this season differ from previous seasons? Where does your relationship with the Lord appear to be moving now?

Exercise 2: Pictorial Summary of My Relationship with God

On a blank sheet of unlined paper, draw a picture representing your relationship with God. This picture can be abstract or realistic, black-and-white or color, Rembrandt or stick figure. The quality of product is unimportant; the sincerity of expression is important. Allow yourself to deeply feel the movement of your relationship with God as it has been taking shape in the present period. Allow that sense, that feel, to be expressed naturally on paper (if you want to use another visual expressive medium—sculpture, dance, or the like—go for it). If you want, feel free to name your artwork or to adorn it with a “life verse” from Scripture that has been meaningful to you recently.

Exercise 3: A Journal of My Recent Season with God

Go back in your mind to the most recent season of your relationship with God. Look at this period in your mind as if you were photographing it with a camera. Do not evaluate it; simply picture it. As you reflect upon this period of your relationship with God, write down on a piece of paper responses to the following questions. You need not answer them all; just address those which seem applicable to your life. Answer them in any order that seems most appropriate to you.

• What experiences of God characterized this season of your relationship? Were there any particular times that you sensed intense closeness or distance? Was this time dry, rich, mixed? How did you respond emotionally to God’s work in your life? Could you identify this as a time of passion, love, joy, peace, anxiety, grief, anger, or another feeling? Was there a kind of “mood” that characterized the period? Did your awareness of God itself change in this period?
• How has your understanding of God developed in this season? Have there been any particular personal Bible studies, classes, sermons, seminars, books, tapes, or the like that have had a significant influence on your understanding of God? How do you see God now: as a father, a helper, a judge, etc.? Where do you see your comprehension of the mystery of God taking you in the future?
• How might you characterize your relationship to the groups and subgroups that compose your church or religious community? Do you feel more or less a part of your religious community? Why? Do you feel your associations with various religious groupings or movements shifting? Are they growing more or less solid? Why? Summarize your feelings and reflections about your religious community.
• What activity has characterized this season? What have you been involved in? Have any new activities developed from your relationship with God in this season—activities of devotion, service, quest, or other similar acts? Have there been any particular sins of which you have become aware during this season or which have demanded hearty repentance and attention? How might you characterize your ongoing activities at work or at home?
• What relationships (if not covered above) have played an important role in this period? These need not be pleasant or satisfying relationships, simply important ones. Were there any new relationships introduced, any relationships broken? Where do you see your relationships moving now? Where does your relationship with God bear on these developments?
• How might you characterize your physical life in this period? Was health or illness a significant factor in this season of your relationship with God? Do any particular events come to mind with regard to diet, athletics, sex, and the like?
• Was this a time when you had a strong experience with respect to any creative aspect of life? What did you find yourself creating during this season? Were there any crafts, projects, art forms, or outings that brought you into yourself, into relationship with God, or that expressed relationship with God? How has the creative side of life expressed or reflected your relationship with God during this season?
• Were there any events that took place during this period that were particularly striking or dramatic or meaningful? Was there a single event that drastically changed the course of your life experience (for example, a tragic accident or winning the lottery)? If so, how has this event affected your relationship with God?

Note: You may be tempted to give lengthy commentary on the movements of your life in this period, especially if the act of reflection has given you new insight. Jot these insights elsewhere and save extended commentary for the next question. The comments and insights are very important and will be discussed. But for this exercise, just “photograph” the season.

Exercise 4: Evaluation

Now you may feel free to comment on or analyze the relationship you have previously described. How did this period of your life get on? Are you pleased with your relationship with God? Unhappy? Where was God most present during this season? Least present? Why? How do you feel you stand with God now? Where was God’s invitation to you most keenly felt? How did you respond to this invitation? Try not to be too self-critical in this evaluation. Just be honest. A comparison with some virtues, gently but firmly applied, might help.

• Consider the following virtues: a prayerful life, a Spirit-filled life, a Word-centered life, a holy life, a compassionate life, and a life of ministry. In which of these virtues do you find yourself the strongest? The weakest? Can you explain?
• Consider again: a clear, constant awareness of God; a profound experience of God; a deep understanding of God and his ways; and an obedient response to God. In which of these virtues do you find yourself strongest? Weakest? Can you explain?

Exercise 5: Summary

When you have finished, reflect once again upon the whole of your recent season without looking at its individual components. Is there a word, a phrase, or a picture that would sum up the whole of your relationship with God during this time? Where do you see yourself in relationship with God right now? Include your insights into this final reflection as you summarize your present understanding of your relationship with God.

2. The “Two Locker Rooms” Exercise

As you will notice in this course, desire is an important component of Christian formation. What we desire—and how we desire—sets the stage for the ways that we interpret, and even notice, the presence and action of God in our midst. In particular, we evaluate the decisions and the experiences of life better when we are wholeheartedly given over in a desire for God’s will to be manifest on earth through us. One exercise that facilitates our wholehearted commitment to the way of Christ is Ignatius of Loyola’s meditation on the “Two Standards.” In it we review the plans and concerns of Christ and the enemies of Christ. It is a good meditation, but it is based on a late medieval understanding of military practice. Over the years, I have found it less than helpful for many who cannot put themselves in the setting of medieval warfare. So I have recast this meditation in the context of modern locker rooms. Most of us are familiar with sports contexts and can imagine what it might be like to be a fly on the wall as two teams prepare for the big game.

So listen to this audio file as I lead you through this meditation. Spend a moment in prayer at the close of the meditation. Then write down something of your own experience of the exercise. What happened? What did you notice? How were your own desires affected? Where did you have difficulties and why? How might repetition of an exercise like this influence you or others in your sphere of influence?

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Assignment Set 2

1. Academic—Naming the Aim

In chapter 3 I discussed the aim of Christian spiritual formation by describing a number of terms used by various Christians. In this assignment you will have the opportunity to explore more fully just how different streams of Christianity express the aim of formation. Your assignment is to read at least three of the samples given below (or others if it is appropriate) and to evaluate them by summarizing each of their perspectives, comparing their approaches to formation, and stating how you yourself might describe the aim of Christian spiritual formation in dialogue with the resources you consulted.

See, for example:

• Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev (Russian Orthodox) on deification (The Mystery of Faith: An Introduction to the Teaching and Spirituality of the Orthodox Church)
• John Calvin (Reformed) on sanctification (Institutes of the Christian Religion III.III.10–16)
• J. C. Ryle (evangelical Anglican) on holiness (Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots)
• John Wesley (Wesleyan) on perfection (Wesley’s Works, vol. 6, sermon 40, on “Christian Perfection”)
• J. Heinrich Arnold (Anabaptist) on the kingdom of God (Discipleship)

2. Personal—My Portrait: Intellect, Emotions, Will

Throughout your reading of this book you will have the opportunity to reflect on your portrait: who you are and who you are being formed to become. Our style of being influences how we are formed in Christ and how we might encourage our formation in Christ. In this assignment you will explore the dimensions of intellect, emotions, and will.

Ask yourself, “Who am I?” Are you more intellectual or more emotional? Are you a “doer” or a “thinker” or a “feeler”? You might want to take an online test to find out. (See here for a feeler-thinker test, for example. For a test with a wider range of options, see here.) Or you might just want to reflect on the way you respond to people or interact with your environment. Summarize what you learn from your reflection.

Then consider how this aspect of your personality might affect your spiritual formation. What aspects of the fullness of formation might come easy for you, and how do you experience this? What practices, what experiences, what relationship arrangements might be difficult for you? Do you need to soak yourself in the ministry of the Spirit in your areas of natural strength and comfort? Do you need to stretch yourself into unfamiliar territory? Either is possible. What might you need to welcome in order to respond to the fullness of God’s invitation for you right now?

3. Spiritual Practice—Meditating on “Heaven”

One aim of our spiritual formation is to be joyfully present before God for eternity. We may think of heaven as the place (or dimension) where God dwells currently or as the place where we go after we die. Or we might think of heaven in terms of a new heaven and a new earth—a resurrected and re-created universe we share with God forever. In any case, when we think of heaven we are contemplating the consummation of our life and a “standing before God” that is the climax of all that we have done and are. This is truly the end of Christian spiritual formation, in all the senses of the term “end.”

Christians throughout the centuries—though less commonly now—have made a practice of meditating on heaven. My favorite example of this is found in the Puritan divine Richard Baxter’s The Saint’s Everlasting Rest, where he leads our imagination to the point where we have such a vivid sense of heaven that we can cry, “Methinks I see a glimpse of glory! Methinks I hear the shouts of joy and praise, and even stand by Abraham and David, Peter and Paul, and other triumphant souls! Methinks I even see the Son of God appearing in the clouds and the world standing at his Bar to receive their doom; and hear him say, ‘Come ye blessed of my Father’; and see them go rejoicing into the joy of their Lord!” Some focus on death, others on judgment, and still others on the glory of God.

In this assignment your attention will be on the completion of your spiritual formation into the person and gospel of Christ. Set your gaze upon the joy set before you (Heb. 12:1–2), on the sound of the “well done, good and faithful servant” you will hear from the Master (Matt. 25:21–23), on the prize for which God has called you (Phil. 3:14), on the crown of righteousness you may receive at the end of your good fight (2 Tim. 4:7–8). First, through reading Scriptures or through your own educated imagination, gain as vivid a picture of heaven as you can visualize. What do you see? Who is there? Picture the vast expanse, the details of the terrain, the events taking place. What do you hear? What do you smell? What do you feel? Spend some time walking or sitting, just “being” in heaven.

Then imagine the presence of God with you (if you have not already). What is God’s presence like? How do you respond to God? More particularly, picture yourself with God reviewing your own formation. You may want to imagine this interaction as if you were to die tonight. On the other hand, you may want to imagine this interaction as if it were the end of your best life: a life you want to be leading after reading the chapter. What do you want to say to God at the end of it all? What does God say to you at the end of it all? How does God speak to you about your own formation?

When you have concluded the meditation, record any thoughts or feelings that are worthy of note. Then, drawing from what you have read in the chapter, see if you can describe (1) what we might learn about our relationship with the aims of formation through this practice, or (2) how a practice like this can contribute to your formation in Christ. (Some Christians have made a practice like this a regular [annual?] practice.)

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