January 22nd, 2025
by Jacob Hess
by Jacob Hess
The Walls
The theologian G. K. Chesterton has a wonderful analogy about walls. He posits the question of whether the walls that hem in children on a playground restricts or expands their freedom to play. Imagine if a playground was surrounded by a cliff on every side. Would the children feel more free to play with surrounding walls or if the walls were knocked down, leaving the danger of falling into the precipice? The answer seems obvious enough. Of course the children would feel more free to play with the safety that walls provide! Chesterton makes his point when he writes, “…doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground.”
God reveals Himself through Scripture (doctrine) and gives us spiritual practices that help us keep in touch with Him and what He is up to in the world (disciplines), but how often do we neglect these gifts in day to day life? I’m no exception! I often open my email before I open my Bible. Some days I spend more time watching YouTube videos than praying. But what’s the big deal? Why are the spiritual disciplines like corporate worship, prayer, meditation on Scripture, and service to those in need so important?
Chesterton points to the truth. The restrictions of these practices actually set us free to be the people God always meant for us to be. You can think about it like learning to play the piano. If you want the freedom to play whatever you want on the ivory keys, you have to restrict your time and attention to practice! It’s no different in your journey with Jesus. Do you want to grow in your love for God? Do you want to have more patience or a deeper love for others? More joy? It’s God who grows these things in us, but He gives us the spiritual disciples as our way to devote our time and attention to the work He wants to do in our lives to make us more like Jesus.
The Freedom
Paul says in Galatians 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” In America we have a strange idea of freedom. We define freedom as an absence of restraints, the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. Paul here is giving the opposite definition. Christ sets us free from the bondage to sin and death, but this doesn’t mean an absence of restraints, it means taking on the right restraints, the ones that fit with the person God made us to be; the restraints that keep us living for our deepest desire to know and be known in relationships of selfless love instead of being enslaved to the many desires that lead us deeper and deeper into self-absorption.
Christians have always had to work at their faith by taking on the restraints of spiritual disciplines, but we are fighting an uphill battle today. Most of us spend hours on our phones everyday, consuming digital content that has a formative effect. The practices of Amazon erode our patience, the practices of social media deaden our compassion and vulnerability, the practices of YouTube keep us on the search to be entertained rather than to give our lives away in service to others. Everywhere we look someone or something is trying to form us away from God and the way of His Kingdom. This means, more than ever, we must give ourselves to the right restraints, for, like the children and their playground, there is a true precipice promising to swallow up your time and attention.
Think over your life. How do you use your time? What has captured your imagination? And what spiritual practices could you add to your life that would redirect your time and attention back to the God who loves you? Jesus has done the definitive work. He has set you free through His death and resurrection. The Spirit does the definitive work. He connects us to Jesus and makes us more like our Savior. And the Spirit invites us to join Him in this work through the spiritual disciples. Practicing them will be difficult, but I assure you, as they become habits that shape your life toward God and others, you will see them as walls that set you free.
The theologian G. K. Chesterton has a wonderful analogy about walls. He posits the question of whether the walls that hem in children on a playground restricts or expands their freedom to play. Imagine if a playground was surrounded by a cliff on every side. Would the children feel more free to play with surrounding walls or if the walls were knocked down, leaving the danger of falling into the precipice? The answer seems obvious enough. Of course the children would feel more free to play with the safety that walls provide! Chesterton makes his point when he writes, “…doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground.”
God reveals Himself through Scripture (doctrine) and gives us spiritual practices that help us keep in touch with Him and what He is up to in the world (disciplines), but how often do we neglect these gifts in day to day life? I’m no exception! I often open my email before I open my Bible. Some days I spend more time watching YouTube videos than praying. But what’s the big deal? Why are the spiritual disciplines like corporate worship, prayer, meditation on Scripture, and service to those in need so important?
Chesterton points to the truth. The restrictions of these practices actually set us free to be the people God always meant for us to be. You can think about it like learning to play the piano. If you want the freedom to play whatever you want on the ivory keys, you have to restrict your time and attention to practice! It’s no different in your journey with Jesus. Do you want to grow in your love for God? Do you want to have more patience or a deeper love for others? More joy? It’s God who grows these things in us, but He gives us the spiritual disciples as our way to devote our time and attention to the work He wants to do in our lives to make us more like Jesus.
The Freedom
Paul says in Galatians 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” In America we have a strange idea of freedom. We define freedom as an absence of restraints, the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. Paul here is giving the opposite definition. Christ sets us free from the bondage to sin and death, but this doesn’t mean an absence of restraints, it means taking on the right restraints, the ones that fit with the person God made us to be; the restraints that keep us living for our deepest desire to know and be known in relationships of selfless love instead of being enslaved to the many desires that lead us deeper and deeper into self-absorption.
Christians have always had to work at their faith by taking on the restraints of spiritual disciplines, but we are fighting an uphill battle today. Most of us spend hours on our phones everyday, consuming digital content that has a formative effect. The practices of Amazon erode our patience, the practices of social media deaden our compassion and vulnerability, the practices of YouTube keep us on the search to be entertained rather than to give our lives away in service to others. Everywhere we look someone or something is trying to form us away from God and the way of His Kingdom. This means, more than ever, we must give ourselves to the right restraints, for, like the children and their playground, there is a true precipice promising to swallow up your time and attention.
Think over your life. How do you use your time? What has captured your imagination? And what spiritual practices could you add to your life that would redirect your time and attention back to the God who loves you? Jesus has done the definitive work. He has set you free through His death and resurrection. The Spirit does the definitive work. He connects us to Jesus and makes us more like our Savior. And the Spirit invites us to join Him in this work through the spiritual disciples. Practicing them will be difficult, but I assure you, as they become habits that shape your life toward God and others, you will see them as walls that set you free.
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