Experiments in Truth 2011
Posted: January 25 2011
Spring comes to the California coast, it seems, in January, as the winter rains turn parched hillsides to verdant green. The new year often awakens a desire for newness to come to our lives. Experiments in Truth is a Learning Lab we offer starting next week that is about seeking healing change and a new rhythm of life. Belowyou will find a short description, along with a longer narrative excerpt from my new book, Practicing the Way of Jesus, to be released by IVP in June.
You can sign up to participate in Experiments in Truth here.
David sat at the table with his head down, telling his small group that he had gone on yet another drunken weekend bender. “I feel like I’ve been struggling with the same issues for so long– I can’t tell if I’m making any progress.” The “accountability” David got from his group focused primarily on his mistakes and failures. But being aware of our problems and confessing our missteps can only take us so far. To really get momentum we need support and a plan for what we can do to pursue life in the kingdom of love. Transformation requires intentional new choices that translate our vision and ambitions into bodily actions. This is a spiritual secret that has largely been lost in recent times.
We all have things in our lives we wish to change. The solidarity of a group experiment can provide the resolve to make the changes we haven’t been able to make on our own. Several years ago we began a series of shared practices to address the disparity we often feel between how we want to live and how we actually live. Through a learning lab we call Experiments in Truth we invite one other to make simple but dramatic changes to our normal habits over thirty or forty days. Out of all the experiments we’ve done, participants say this is the one that has brought about the most transformation in their lives.
The first session begins with a provocative question, “Name one thing you could do over the next 30 or 40 days that could change your life forever?” Each person, through a careful process of discernment, identifies an area where change is needed and then commits to a dramatic shift– something they will stop and something they will start to address this area of concern. After we’ve committed to our experiments, we meet once a week to check-in on our progress. Here are a couple of examples of personal experiments in truth:
As a young professional, Kyle was used to working hard and playing hard. Part of his office culture was going out after work for a late dinner and drinks nearly every night of the week. Over time this habit made Kyle feel unfocused, distracted from God and guilty about how much he regularly overspent on entertainment. For his forty-day experiment he decided to abstain from drinking alcohol or dining out and vowed to go to bed every night at a specific time. Over time, Kyle realized that the absence of alcohol made it easier for him to pray and the money he saved by not eating out allowed him to give a full 10% of his income away– and he generally felt more freedom and at peace.
Over the years that Brandon and Rebecca had been married they struggled to make physical intimacy and time together a priority. Their needs for emotional support and sexual closeness often went unsatisfied. They decided that for their forty day experiment they would commit to having sex at least three times a week. What they discovered was that pursuing more regular sexual intimacy required them to communicate better, which had positive effects in many other areas of their relationship. By the end of the forty days they were experiencing more unity, romance, trust and fun than at any other time in during the seven years they had been together.
Kristin recognized that she masked a deep sense of insecurity through an obsession with fashion, shopping and meticulous grooming. For her experiment she made a vow not to shop or wear jewelry or make-up for two months. Shifting her attention away from her appearance and clothes helped her focus on developing peace and inner beauty. People immediately began to notice a dramatic change in her disposition and affirmed her natural radiance. (Note: Other participants have struggled with the opposite issue, a lack of self-care, and have experimented with giving more attention to their physical appearance).
The first step to designing an Experiment in Truth is to examine your life. Spend some time in solitude asking God to reveal where transformation is most needed. A second step is to explore the pattern and root causes for the issues you’ve identified. A third step is to decide what new practices to adopt to address the issues you’ve identified. Once you’ve identified what to start and what to stop, a fourth step is to commit to your plan. This is where the ancient wisdom of vows is instructive. I might want to love God and people and feel a strong desire to do so, but without a commitment to specific practices these are just sentiments. We show what we really believe and value by what we are committed to actually do.
One of the reasons we call these “experiments” is that we are testing what changes actually make a positive difference. The goal is never to create an extra layer of rules that we use to judge ourselves or others by. We need practices of abstinence and engagement that are specific to the places where reinvention is most needed in our lives.
Spirit of the Creator,
we surrender
To the reign of love
In every currency of being
Body, mind, feelings, time,
in purpose, possessions and belonging
Make us alive to the power
that is making all things new.
