Five Things We Can Learn From A Monastery

Today in Ocheltree Shepherding Group, we had a discussion about Chapter 4 of Randy Harris' book, Soul Work: Confessions of  a Part-Time Monk (Leafwood Press, Abilene, TX, 2011). The chapter, entitled "Five Things We Can Learn From A Monastery", is based on a book called Finding Sanctuary, written by the abbot of a monastery.

In the words of Randy Harris:

"(The book) argues for getting a saner life by adopting monastic values. I want to offer ten monastic values that you don't have to go to a monastery to practice, that will help bring a sanity and sanctuary to our lives."

Here are the first five of those values, along with excerpts from Randy Harris' book:

1. Silent Listening: "When you worship the living God, your first action is not to speak, your first action is to listen, because God is at home and he might actually have something to say The reason you keep talking when you worship an idol is because the idol is not going to say anything. The only thing that's going to be generated is going to be human." (p. 53)

2. Reflective Prayer: "Jesus walked away from hurting, needy people in order to pray. You've got to give yourself permission to do that, because that's the only way you will ever pray." (p. 54)

3. Liberating Obedience: "There's only one way you know if you're going to be obedient, and that is to obey. You can't figure that out in theory. That can only be done in practice." (p. 57)

4. Humble Service: "Basically, humility amounts to seeing yourself correctly. It has to do with not valuing yourself too much or too little." (p. 59)

5. Covenantal Community: "And that's what community does. It's the place where we encourage, nurture, and teach one another what it means to be the new creature. It's the place where we get the support we need to do that." (p. 63)

Stay tuned for the next five monastic values.

--Posted by Mama O.