{"id":3958,"date":"2008-12-31T00:30:51","date_gmt":"2008-12-31T00:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/third-way-and-spirituality.html"},"modified":"2008-12-31T00:30:51","modified_gmt":"2008-12-31T00:30:51","slug":"third-way-and-spirituality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/third-way-and-spirituality.html","title":{"rendered":"Third Way and Spirituality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adam Hamilton has a way of grabbing his reader’s attention: in his discussion of the truth about the spiritual formation of most of us, he says this: some days are good but somedays are not — on those days you feel like this: “Your faith can’t move dust bunnies, much less mountains” (139). This is the subject of chp. 16 of  Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics<\/a>\"\"<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Hamilton says something that I have wanted to say for a long, long time: “There are not secret truths” to the Christian life. As if you could read the right book, pray the right prayer, learn the right technique … and (to quote John Madden) Boom! it’s all clear and and you’re sailing on smooth waters forever and ever.<\/p>\n


\nMost of us struggle; most of us have good days; most of us have bad days. Somedays we are confident in our faith; other days we have doubts. <\/p>\n

He refers to a great poem by Dietrich Bonhoeffer that I first read in college and it stunned me. It is called “Who Am I?” (from Discipleship<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>):<\/p>\n

“trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation
weary and empty at praying
at thinking, at making, faint and ready to say farewell to it all.<\/p>\n

Who am I?
They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine.”<\/p>\n

Hamilton ends with a timely reminder of messy spirituality: “There are no secrets. There’s struggle, and yearning, and doing the things we know we should do. And in the end, there is trust. Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine<\/i>.”<\/p>\n

In the end, we live by faith — in the good and in the bad. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adam Hamilton has a way of grabbing his reader’s attention: in his discussion of the truth about the spiritual formation of most of us, he says this: some days are good but somedays are not — on those days you feel like this: “Your faith can’t move dust bunnies, much less mountains” (139). 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