A Reading Guide for "A Testament of Devotion"

Chapter Five: The Simplification of Life

General Introduction to the Reading Guide

Should you accompany me in exploring Christian spirituality utilizing the Christian spiritual classic, A Testament of Devotion, by Thomas Kelly as a guidebook, I have committed to furnishing you with a written reading guide each week. I will present a video introduction and reflection on the chapter we are currently reading on Thursday this week.

Reading Chapter Five is the goal for this week. Chapter five is three things:

1. The single most relevant of all the five essays (chapters) included in this book.

2. Most people living in Western culture are constantly at risk of depletion and burnout because of the pace and complexity of modern-day life. Continual hurriedness and busyness destroy our bodies, marriages and relationships, emotional health, and spiritual vitality. Many of us would rather keep up this soul-sucking pace of life rather than slow down because, in part, busyness is the new badge of honor.

3. You will be exposed to a contemplative spiritual practice called the spiritual query. Within the spiritual formation world, a query is a question or series of questions used for spiritual reflection. Followers of Christ have long used queries. They are used for contemplation, self-examination, and re-examination and almost always, if not resisted, lead to deep self-awareness and spiritual growth.

Now that you know the importance of chapter five—The Simplification of Life, let me tell you three things about it as a general introduction to the chapter:

1. It was written as a stand-alone essay, not as chapter three in a book. I have said this before but Kelly did not arrange these five essays in the order they are placed in the book. So, the ideas contained in chapter five are wholly intact, not conditioned by what comes before. So, you can read this one chapter as a complete thought, with everything he wanted to say about why spiritual formation includes a call to a simpler, slower life.

2. While everything I just stated is entirely correct, the editors positioned this chapter after The Light Within (Chapter One), Holy Obedience (Chapter Two), and The Blessed Community (Chapter Three), and The Eternal Now and Social Concern (Chapter Four). Kelly's editors were close friends with Kelly who wanted us to know what he had discovered after his tragic passing at a young age. The greatest calamity of his life, his inability to pass his PhD examinations at Harvard, destroyed his dreams and hopes for the future. Kelly had been living his dream until that terrible moment. He was chasing his ambitions. It was his exclusive focus; there was little room for inclusion within a community. However, the destruction of his aspirations and desires produced the ideal circumstances for the discovery of a lifetime: there is a sanctuary inside us — the soul — where the divine person — the Living God — and the human person live in intimacy with one another. He was astounded by humans' ability to know God intimately and be known by God in such depth. Previously, he had been planning, with the help of a philosophical lens, to study the idea of God. Following his academic disaster, he found himself experiencing and encountering the Presence of God directly, or to use his word, in “immediacy.” This is described wonderfully in Chapter One.

   1. In Chapter Two, the emphasis switches from the spiritual experience of God in Christ to Christ's authoritarian claims over our lives. In the divine center where Christ resides with us and we dwell with Christ, "No remnant of reservation of 'our' rights can remain. Straddle arrangements and compromises between our allegiances to the surface level and the divine heart are unsustainable." Once Christ is known intimately, the only alternative is absolute obedience to Him.

   2. The Third Chapter delves into another implication of the experience of God: the actuality of a new kind of human community formed by the experience of God. As more people experience this profound communion with God, it must bind hearts together in a sort of fellowship that cannot be replicated by political allegiance, religious membership, or national and ethnic identity. It is a chapter that will severely confront today's disastrous culture of tribalism and hatred.

   3. The fourth chapter broadens our vision of how to live as spiritual people in a culture where wounds, darkness, suffering, and evil grows in intensity.

3. The fifth and last chapter, The Simplification of Life, will challenge you to rethink the pace and complexity of your life. Many have called hurry the devil. Many have said you must exorcise the demon of hurry from your life—if you want to have a spiritual life. Kelly shows us how to do that.

May your awareness of how to live with a graceful rhythm and pace grow as you read and reflect on what Kelly wrote in this concluding chapter to this spiritual classic. As you experiment with changing up the pace of your life, may you experience joy and life breaking out within you.

I’ve prepared a reading guide to help you get more from the fourth chapter. It has two sections: Suggestions for Reading a Spiritual Classic and Chapter Four Reading Guide. As you keep reading, you’ll find both of these sections.

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Suggestions for Reading a Spiritual Classic

First, begin with prayer

God is going to reveal Himself to you. He is going to reveal a word that will kindle your imagination. Prepare yourself for this discovery by breathing a short prayer to prepare your mind, spirit, and soul for receptivity. It can be as simple as, “God, open my eyes that I might see.” Whatever words you breathe will help center your focus as you begin to read.

econd, slow is the speed of discovery

Just as when you read a portion of scripture meditatively, select a manageable portion of the chapter and read until an insight leaps out at you. Do not intend to read the entire chapter from beginning to end in one sitting. Much will pass you by that you fail to notice. When a verse, a few words, or even one or two words strike a chord within you, pause and consider what you have discovered.

Third, ask some questions.

Here are just a few of the questions you might ask:

• Does the passage that caught my attention give me new insight into the nature of God?

• Does it explain something about the spiritual life I didn’t understand before?

• Does it tell me something about myself?

• What must I do to act on the insight I’ve just gained?

Fourth, rest quietly in the treasure you’ve discovered.

Sit quietly for a few moments before going on with your day. Be alert to the gentle movements of the Spirit. Then have an open conversation about what you have read and seen with the Lord. God loves a good dialogue. He led you purposefully to the discoveries you made just so you could have a conversation in the cool of the garden over the treasure he packed into this chapter, waiting for your discovery in 2024!

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Lastly, write down your new insights, discoveries, and commitments in a notebook (journal).

Keeping a record of what you have found, with a date and location added, will help you build a record that will reveal your life's real transformation over time.