John Ortberg. The Life You Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997, 2002.
Someone recommended this book to me years ago. He said that the
title was a bit cheesy, but that it is a really good book that he found
to be helpful to him in his Christian life. Years after my friend’s
recommendation, I decided to read the book, probably because I was
looking for guidance on how to see and to live the Christian life.
Writing from my current perspective and where I am, I found the book
to be all right. Ortberg is well-read, and that comes out in his
writing. Have I decided to make any significant changes to my life
after reading this book? Well, mostly no, but I am open on some things.
Let me share a bit with you about myself. Over the past four years, I
have prayed each day for at least ten minutes. At first, I just talked
to God, sharing what was on my mind. Later, I was finding my prayers
to be rather aimless and self-centered, so I decided to incorporate the
reading of Scripture into my ten-minute prayer time. I initially felt
that I had to comment on the Scriptural passage I was reading for most
if not all of those ten minutes. Then, I got to the Book of Psalms and
found that I had a hard time finding something to say about the Psalm
passage I was reading, so I just read the passage then commented on
whatever I wanted (usually my life) for the rest of the ten minutes. I
did not want to fall into a pattern of not absorbing the Scripture,
however, so I decided that I would read a passage, say at least
something about it, and then talk about what I wanted. My ten minute
prayers currently vary. Sometimes, I interact with the passage during
all of the ten minutes. Usually, there is a mix between commenting on
the passage and commenting on other things. When I find that I have
nothing to say, I look at a list of people to pray for, which my church
provides every week, and pray for people on that list. But don’t think
that I don’t pray for people otherwise: I do.
I tend to have a sense of accomplishment when I get through a book of
the Bible. On hard days, or days when I am enthusiastic about God or
my reading of Scripture, I may add another ten minutes of prayer time,
or another. Moreover, my reading of Scripture is rather academic. It
consists of me noticing puzzling details and looking up commentaries to
see how they iron those details out, or drawing conclusions about the
ideology of the writers of the biblical books, comparing it with the
ideologies of other biblical writers. I would say that the Bible seems
rather human to me when I read it, not as inerrant. Yet, it also
appears to me to have a divine power or authority to it, but I cannot
quite pin down where the human ends and the divine begins, and vice
versa. Do I get any guidance from the Bible on how to live my life? I
would say yes, on some level: I struggle with practical ramifications of
biblical passages, and I learn about humility, discipline, and love and
compassion for others.
Overall, I would say that I am satisfied with my current practice of
doing devotions. Or, at least, I am hesitant to change. Ortberg gave
me things to think about: about not being afraid to go slowly through
biblical or devotional readings if one feels a divine encouragement to
linger, to talk with God for five minutes each day about whatever, etc.
On the first suggestion, I will probably continue my practice of
meeting a schedule in my biblical reading. Still, I do wonder: I go
through these biblical books so fast, and I forget pieces of what I read
and learned. I read Leviticus a year or so ago, and I cannot tell you
what I learned from that reading. Is there a place for being slow and
steady in my reading of Scripture? Ortberg talked about chewing on a
single verse or passage throughout the day, especially if that passage
is relevant to what one is concerned about. I am open to that.
In what ways was I challenged or encouraged to change in my reading
of Ortberg’s book? Well, I am encouraged to ask the Holy Spirit for
guidance on how to interact with people before I interact with them. I
also know that I have a problem with approval addiction, desperately
craving acceptance from others. Ortberg says that is a problem because
that can prevent people from speaking truth to power, or saying things
that people do not want to hear. I am not particularly concerned about
that, at least not right now. I just do not want to feel like garbage
when I am rejected or ignored by others.
The book also had good stories. Ortberg referred to a psychologist,
Milton Rokeach, who wrote about his attempts to deal with three people
who thought they were the Messiah. Ortberg wrote about this in his
chapter on humility, on realizing that the universe does not revolve
around us personally!
These are my thoughts about how I interacted with the book, from
where I am right now. Others may have a different experience. I may
even have a different experience with it were I to reread it years
later. I will not linger in it right now, though, but will move on to
another book!