It cannot be that people should grow in grace unless they give themselves to reading… Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily! It is your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days.
John Wesley
Have you ever had one line from a book spark an action in your life?
Many of the books I read are impactful because of one sentence, one concept, or sometimes one word or phrase. Jean Fleming’s book Pursue the Intentional Life contained one of those sentences.
“I’m not primarily concerned about issues of aging,” she writes. “I just want to honor the Lord and be a blessing until the end of my life. So I ask questions: What does it look like to live a beautiful life in a fallen world?”
I had never thought about that question before. In fact, I didn’t think Christians could ask questions like that. The question first nestled and then exploded in my mind. It opened a huge door of opportunity with the Spirt inviting me to enter. What does it look like for me to live a beautiful life in a fallen world? Read on to discover my answer.
Jean Fleming is one of my favorite authors. Before the work/life balance of our culture spawned a self-help industry she tackled the subject in the 1980s in Between Walden and the Whirlwind (what a great title!). Want a good book on meeting with God in a daily quiet time? Check out her book Feeding My Soul. .
The story behind The Intentional Life is pure Jean Fleming. As she approached her fiftieth birthday she began collecting quotes, snippets of conversations, and bits of questions or insights from books. She collected these items on paper scraps and put all these “bits and bobs” (as my daughter-in-law Marissa describes things) in a shoe box. She labeled this “My Old Woman File.” From this shoe box emerged Pursue The Intentional Life.
Fleming’s thesis is found in Psalm 90:12: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” “Numbering my days isn’t about computing days but rather about drawing me to attentiveness, she observes.” Paying attention to life focuses me to consider what I’m investing my life in; what I’m intentional about. “I find that contemplating the end of life leads not to depression but to clarity and invigoration,” she writes. Here’s a graphic and personal example of what this means:
Setting my life in parentheses and holding it at arm’s length helps me to think critically about the direction of my life. I once asked the Lord, “If I had only one year left to live, what would be my best contribution to our church?” That question led me to gather six young moms around my dining room table twice a month for Bible study, prayer, and personal mentoring.
In contemplating the intentional life she refreshingly addresses topics few discuss in contemporary Christian books (my kind of author!). Here are her thoughts on creativity from the chapter Deep Tracks. A Scaffold of Discipline and Creativity:
It is one thing to be creative in the artistic sense, a craftsman with paintbrush or violin or hammer; it is something else to make your life art, a thing of beauty. Although Jesus was a craftsman, a carpenter, His greatest artistic achievement was a life well lived… His life, as recorded in the Gospels, is a scaffold of discipline and creativity, a work of art.
Jean captures one of my favorite subjects — lifelong learning — in a fresh way for all disciples (after all, “disciple” means learner).
The truth is that a love of learning isn’t something most people develop in old age. Most often, older learners are continuing in the direction of a lifetime. But I’ve noticed that when someone comes into vital connection with Christ, at any age, his or her mind comes along with his or her spirit. A disciple doesn’t manufacture an interest to pursue. In Christ dwell all the riches of wisdom and knowledge.”
Her wisdom shows up through vivid word pictures or metaphors. One of these is the concept of reframing. “Reframing means keeping what is important but wisely reconfiguring as necessary.” This skill and attitude serve us well as we age. With insight she concludes that “Spiritual disciplines may take a variety of shapes over a lifetime and are worth reframing as long as mental and physical health allows.”
Isn’t this a wonderful picture of how to stay healthy as we age and go through various seasons of life? The spiritual disciplines remain just as important, but we have to reframe them to fit in our current life season.
What about the sentence that changed my life?
When Peggy and I moved to our current home we settled on a one-and-a-quarter acre allotment with some existing gardens. Almost everything that came with the house and grounds were not on our wish list, but God gave us something more than what we had hoped for. That’s why we call our home “Above and beyond acres” — God’s gift is above and beyond what we imagined.
When I read Jean’s question about living a beautiful life, I was immediately drawn to our plot of land. Since I love writing vision statements a vision slowly emerged about our property: “We want to create a spot of beauty in a fallen world where people can taste the goodness of God.”
This is how we answer Jean’s question, “What does it look like for me to live a beautiful life in a fallen world?” Our answer is in creating a little spot of beauty in a fallen world so people can taste God’s goodness. Thank you Jean!
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