Missional Church Network

My friend Georges Boujakly continues his series on spiritual transformation:

The first key to spiritual transformation is that it is an inside job. Last week I said that this inside job requires certain efforts. True, the job is initiated by the Holy Spirit as part of his constant ministry in our lives. But the Holy Spirit invites our participation. The form of participation I want to speak to this week is paying attention to God.

Peterson’s beautiful rendition of Romans 12:2 captures the image of paying attention to God with these words:

“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

I like Peterson’s rendition of the NAS translation “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” to “Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.”

Spiritual transformation happens when we pay attention to God inwardly. Think of this as the posture that Mary adopted when Jesus came to visit her with Lazarus and Martha.

Another way of speaking of paying attention to God is in terms of contemplation. This practice in which we all will remain as novices is of major importance to inward change. I don’t pretend to know how the Holy Spirit transforms us. However, I know he does when we pay attention to God. In my book, contemplation leads to imitation. It’s almost axiomatic.

In the “Great Stone Face” by Nathanael Hawthorne, a prophecy is told about a visitor who one day will come and all will be able to recognize the resemblance to the Great Stone Face that time had etched in the cliff near the village. Ernest believed the prophecy and all his life contemplates the face so he may recognize the visitor to come. One day a poet visits and is shown hospitality by Ernest. Having come to know Ernest, and having seen the resemblance between Ernest and the Great Stone Face, the poet interprets the prophecy to the village. Ernest who has contemplated the image in the rock resembles most the object of his contemplation. Hawthrone writes:   

At that moment, in sympathy with a thought which he was about to utter, the face of Ernest assumed a grandeur of expression, imbued with benevolence, that the poet, by an irresistible impulse, threw his arms aloft, and shouted, “Behold! Behold! Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone Face!” Then all the people looked, and saw that what the deep-sighted poet said was true. The prophecy was fulfilled. But Ernest, having finished what he had to say, took the poet’s arm and walked slowly homeward, still hoping that some wiser and better man than himself would by and by appear, bearing a resemblance to the GREAT STONE FACE.

And Mary has chosen the path of contemplation and it shall not be taken away from her. Jesus knew how imitation worked. He knew that taking time, spiritual energy, humility, and surrender to pay attention to God will yield a transformation that is deeply seated, impossible to dislodge, in the inner being.

What do you understand contemplation to be and how do you think it works?