The Deeply Formed Life: Five Transformative Values to Root Us in the Way of Jesus

by Rich Villodas

I’ve also witnessed a kind of dichotomizing of faith where the emphasis is on the outward at the expense of the inward. For instance: In some conservative traditions, transformation is about getting the right theology in one’s head while overlooking the inner work God wants to do. In some progressive traditions, transformation is about right action and engagement within the world but often at the expense of personal humility and mercy. In some Charismatic and Pentecostal traditions, transformation is about getting the right experience but without the deeper work of loving well and exploring our inner worlds.

“Rich, you have a gift for reading the dustcover of a book and being able to give a thirty-minute presentation on it. But you also have a curse. The curse is, you will be tempted to believe that you can live your life off your gifts and not do the deep work of character formation. Your gifts can take you only so far. But there are no such limits when it comes to a life marked by deep character.”

We are not transformed from the outside in; we are transformed from the inside out. One is transformed by saying yes again and again to Christ’s self-giving, poured-out, redemptive love. We receive it and are to be formed by it.

I had found something for which my soul was thirsting.

A deeply formed life is a life marked by integration, intersection, intertwining, and interweaving, holding together multiple layers of spiritual formation. This kind of life calls us to be people who cultivate lives with God in prayer, move toward reconciliation, work for justice, have healthy inner lives, and see our bodies and sexuality as gifts to steward.

Although this might sound like an impossible standard, I believe that by God’s grace, the presence of the Spirit, and the support of the body of Christ, we can all intentionally and incrementally move to a more comprehensive view and practice of life in Christ.

As we seek to follow Jesus, we need to harness a multilayered approach of Christian identity and mission.

Contemplative rhythms for an exhausted life.

Racial reconciliation for a divided world.

Interior examination for a world living on the surface.

Sexual wholeness for a culture that splits bodies from souls.

Missional presence for a distracted and disengaged people.

First, the practices don’t save us or make God love us more.

The practices have personal and communal elements to them.

The practices are best held together in a community where we are surrounded by different people who powerfully bear witness to an area of formation in which we might not be so strong.

The practices are meant to complement and enliven such core spiritual practices as Sunday worship, receiving the sacraments, hearing the gospel preached, and gathering with others for prayer and friendship.

Practices are not just about what we do; they’re also a means of reframing how we think and see.

The practices ta...

The lack of margin is debilitating. We are worn out. In all of this, the problem before us is not just the frenetic pace we live at but what gets pushed out from our lives as a result; that is, life with God.

He tells us, “It merely reveals the nothingness from which I was trying to give in the first place.”2

Dr. Koyama was trying to convey that if we want to connect with God, we’d be wise to travel at God’s speed. God has all the time in the world, and as a result he is not in a rush.

God. N. T. Wright similarly affirmed, “It is only when we slow down our lives that we can catch up to God.”4 This is the paradox of contemplative rhythms.

Dallas Willard famously said, “Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day.”5

We desperately need a way of thinking and living that isn’t captive to the powers of efficiency, speed, and performance. We need a way of living according to a different understanding of time and space. We need the treasures of monastic imagination.

As pastor Ken Shigematsu stated, “Every one of us has a monk or nun ‘embryo’ inside of us.”6 Deep in our souls, we crave space with God that is defined by silence, stillness, and solitude.

straightforward. In every activity in which you are engaged, remember that God is present and offer your heart to him in prayer.

His ability to “practice the presence of God,” difficult as it might have been, was still more attainable because of the structure and rhythm of his life.

the monastic distinctives of prayer, silence, and solitude.

Let me offer brief sketches of Moses, David, Mary, John the Baptist, and Jesus.

González further wrote, “The narrow gate of which Jesus had spoken had become so wide that countless multitudes were hurrying through it—many seeming to do so only in pursuit of privilege and position, without caring to delve too deeply into the meaning of Christian baptism and life under the cross.”8

In short, the way of worldly power, values, and priorities can easily take precedence in our lives, with Christianity being either complicit in the perpetuation of the world system or irrelevant in the social landscape.

We are called to have our lives shaped by a different kind of power, pace, and priorities, offered to us by God.

I sometimes imagine a scenario in which someone is locked inside of a supermarket and dies of starvation. Can you imagine? You might say this is impossible. Yet in our spiritual lives, this happens every day. Whether we know it or not, we are locked inside the supermarket of God’s abundant life and love. It’s all available to us. Even so, people are spiritually starving. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

God is committed to our transformation. He is not in the business of simply improving our lives; he wants to infuse them with his life. Every day, he moves toward us in love, reaching, seeking, and pleading with us to pay attention.

These four contemplative practices are silent prayer, Sabbath keeping, the slow reading of Scripture, and the commitment to stability.

Silent prayer is one of the greatest gifts we have to experience a deeply formed life in Christ. At the core of silent prayer is the commitment to establish relationship with God based on friendship rather than demands.

In basic terms, silent prayer is the practice of focusing our attention upon God through the simplicity of shared presence.

The difference between mindfulness and silent prayer is communion with a person. The object of mindfulness is often better psychological and physical health (very important things), but the object of silent prayer is communion with God.

Contemplative, silent prayer causes us to lay down our preoccupations, for a moment, to tend to the presence and invitation of Jesus, yet this is often a challenging practice.

Here are four ways forward to cultivate a life of silent prayer.

Focus on Relationship, no...

Attitude is key: we must recognize that silent prayer is not a technique to master but a ...

Normalize Boredom

Silent prayer is often uneventful; it’s what I refer to as normalized boredom.

Think of boredom during silent prayer as an act of purification.

Silent prayer is often something I want to avoid because it forces me to exorcise the demons of excitement, stimulation, and distraction.

Reframe Distractions

Perhaps the issue with Martha is not her busyness but her lack of inner attentiveness. As West African theologian Robert Sarah wrote, Jesus rebukes Martha, not for being busy in the kitchen—after all she did have to prepare the meal—but for her inattentive interior attitude, betrayed by her annoyance with her sister…. Christ tenderly invites her to stop so as to return to her heart, the place of true welcome and the dwelling place of God’s silent tenderness, from which she had been led away by the activity to which she was devoting herself so noisily.1

Our distractions become invitations to return, ever so silently, back to the center of God’s heart.

Remember That God Is Always Waiting with Open Arms