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Spiritual practices, being/doing, and prayer

Lynne Baab • Tuesday September 5 2023

“I am trying to learn from a Congolese pastor at my church who reminds us, ‘We are human beings, not human doings.’ Yes, there is a rhythm between being and doing. Thank you for the reminder that the being comes first. Inhale, then exhale.”

My friend John wrote that comment on Facebook in response to my post a few weeks ago about the purpose of Christian meditation. Oddly, the same day that I saw his words, I had a conversation with my friend Lisa who said similar words about that particular blog post. Lisa said we have to be careful in approaching...

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First post in a new series: Spiritual practices and prayer

Lynne Baab • Tuesday May 16 2023

Toni, in her forties, fasts frequently. Sometimes she stops eating all food and consumes only water and tea, sometimes she gives up a specific food or category of food, and sometimes she fasts from various forms of media. Her fasts usually last between a day and a week, although sometimes she fasts longer. When she feels led to start a fast, she usually has several prayer requests in mind that she’s hoping to pray for in the time freed up by the fast. She has found that over the course of her fasts, her prayers shift not only to new topics...

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Holy Spirit disruptions: Choosing disruption through spiritual practices

Lynne Baab • Wednesday August 11 2021

I got to preach ten days ago at our church in Seattle. (The whole service is recorded here.) When the senior minister contacted me about a month ago to ask me to preach, he told me the assigned passage for August 1 was Jesus with the children (Luke 18:15-17). Because I’ve been writing blog posts for two months about Holy Spirit disruptions, I immediately thought about the ways Jesus disrupted things in that incident. The passage is clear that he disrupted the disciples’ priorities on who should be welcomed into Jesus’ presence, but he also gave a fresh, radical, and enigmatic perspective...

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Holy Spirit disruptions: We are God’s beloved

Lynne Baab • Tuesday June 22 2021

If you read your Bible, pray, fast, keep a Sabbath, or engage in other ways of drawing near to God, then God will love you more. Right?

Have you ever believed that? Does a part of you still believe it?

For six years in a row, March through May, I have taught a masters level course for Hope International University, a Christian university. The topic of the class is leading groups into communal spiritual practices. After a week of definitions of spiritual practices and categories, I spend the whole second week, one week of eight, on the motive for spiritual practices, and one...

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