"Resolved: that all men should live for the glory of God.
Resolved second: that whether others do or not, I will."
Jonathan Edwards
What does it mean to live deliberately?
I first came across this proposition in Henry David Thoreau's Walden, where he writes, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." We spent a long time in high school English class on what those words meant, and what the philosophy and intention behind it was. Wrapped up in Thoreau's statement is an intentionality of action; his experiment in stripped-down living at Walden Pond was his chance at living that intentionality of action. We spent time parsing the philosophy, but also looking at the etymology: the word "deliberately" contains the word "liberate."
What of Thoreau's deliberate living lead to his liberation, his freedom? I think he would say it lead him towards a casting off of the worldly systems and social constraints towards a purer existence. He made his own living, made his own furniture, and lived simply and richly. He broke out of the mold.
I think there's a necessity of living deliberately towards something. As Christians we live deliberately towards "glorifying God and enjoying Him forever" (which, sadly, was not Thoreau's goal behind his intentionality). There needs to be an ends towards which we are purposing our means. I think of spiritual disciplines like reading our Bibles, praying, fasting, and mortification of the flesh. Are we to practice these disciplines in order to be the best Bible readers, to develop the most eloquent prayers, to become the most intense fasters, to be the best starvers of our flesh? Or are we to practice these disciplines because it will help us to know Him more?
Can we know Him more, and move towards our chief end, if we do not set spiritual disciplines and practices into place? Have any of the saints been able to drift into a deep communion with the Lord? Our direction can be found in 2 Chronicles 7:14: "...if my people who are called by My Name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." According to the Lord there is a deliberateness required on our part: to humble ourselves, pray, seek Him, and repent. There is a job that we must do.
Jonathan Edwards, the Puritan preacher of New England's Great Awakening, set about in 1723 to make a list for himself of disciplines and practices he would accomplish in order to keep aligned to his deliberateness. He would read them each week, and attempt to follow them. They were called his resolutions, because at the beginning of each statement he wrote "Resolved." Writing a list of spiritual disciplines is one thing, but writing a list of things to be resolved about seems quite another, for resolve suggests a kind of "no turning back," a kind of deliberate commitment that one has made up their mind to undertake, that will be hard to reverse. Thus are Edwards' resolutions. I would call them Edwards' commitments, his efforts against stagnation of his faith.
Edwards' resolutions were not so that he could brag about his accomplishments, or about gaining a particular religious office or making a certain amount of money. They were in order to get him towards his chief ends: Glorifying God and enjoying Him forever, and to walk rightly according to the tenets of the Christian faith which, through humility, obedience, and sanctification, will lead to a conforming to the image of Jesus which will result in...glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. And living deliberately liberates us into this.
If we don't have these disciplines in place, there is an urgency to begin today! Again, there is no such thing as drifting into deep communion with the Lord.
What spiritual disciplines do you have that draw you closer to the Lord?
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