Monday, November 9, 2009 at 9:51 am

The Problem With 'Hopefully.'

Posted by Chris Kamalski | Comments (5) |

It has taken me a long time to name a nagging frustration I've had in my journey of spiritual formation over this past decade, and I am only now, a year after graduation from the Institute for Spiritual Formation, able to fumble around with an initial conclusion.

Following Paul's adage in Ephesians 4 that much of the spiritual life can be imagined metaphorically as an 'undressing of the old man' (taking off a set of clothes that has become dirtied) and a 're-dressing of the new man' (putting on a fresh pair of clothes still warm from the dryer), much of my training throughout ISF and in any other avenues I have explored within the realm of spiritual formation has almost exclusively focused on the necessity of 'putting off' or a deconstructive/purgative approach to exposing the false self to the loving, transformative presence of God in us.  Having served as a spiritual director now for three years, the vast majority of my training was in helping Christ-followers become aware of their false self in relation to who they truly are in Christ, moving into awareness (and then hopefully transformative growth) with the Holy Spirit.

The problem I have is with that word hopefully.

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Friday, April 16, 2010 at 3:37 pm

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 4:23 pm

Quotes & Questions

Posted by Chris Kamalski | Comments (0) |

•  "Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire" [Thomas Merton]

• "A saint is someone who can will the one thing" [Soren Kiekegaard]

• Therefore, what is the one thing I 'should' will as a Christ-follower?

• What do my actions reflect as the 'true' (Read: Actual) things I am willing?

This is what I'm pondering tonight...Any thoughts?

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Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 2:06 pm

Is Original Sin Irrelevant?

Posted by Chris Kamalski | Comments (6) |

Is original sin irrelevant? 

Please note from the beginning that I carefully didn't ask or assume that original sin wasn't theologically accurate, nor a theological position that has served as a bedrock to much of the (healthy) evangelical tradition of the past several hundred years, as that isn't the point of asking this question nor a debate that will likely get very far in its origins.  Nor do I particularly find much interest or value in maintaining the never-ending struggle to be relevant within culture, and in fact find myself often aligning with Henri Nouwen's belief that the church of our day needs to pursue it's 'irrelevance' (a sense of being sacredly set-apart for a greater purpose and call, that of reflecting the heart of God to a world in need of an accurate sense of who God is).

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Friday, April 16, 2010 at 3:30 pm

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Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 4:17 am

I Am A Christopagan.

Posted by Chris Kamalski | Comments (3) |

Intermittently this year while living in South Africa, I've been participating in a fantastic book discussion with a group of local South African pastors and theology students around one of the seminal texts on mission written in the past 20 years, David Bosch's profound work Transforming Mission. What has made this discussion profound has largely been the fact that we are discussing one of the foundational texts of influence in the entire missional conversation (Bosch has influenced missiology as NT Wright and Dallas Willard have shifted our collective understanding of the Gospel as the Kingdom of God), written by a South African, with a group of South Africans, exploring its relevance in the context of a new South Africa.

Bosch spends much of the book tracing 5 paradigm shifts through Christian history, particularly in reference to their impact on how mission has looked throughout the history of the church.  Late in his text however, he turns the discussion towards the postmodern era, seeking to unpack the necessity of shifts in missiological strategy.  A primary focus of his words centers around the fact that with the passing of the Enlightenment period, the distinction between 'what is Christian and what is not' must be abandoned.  He writes:

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Friday, April 16, 2010 at 12:46 pm

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Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 4:57 am

The Disease of Introspection: Talkback

Posted by Chris Kamalski | Comments (2) |

Several insightful--and needed--reflections emerged regarding my post "The Disease Of Introspection" in the past few days that I think are important enough to be pushed to the front page of this blog, as a healthy dialogue is emerging regarding the merits of introspection.  I want to publicly commend Fr. Mirabile and my friend Matthew Green for pushing back regarding my initial comments on introspection, and contributing towards a robust discussion of the deep benefits of introspection.  Enjoy!

Fr. Matt Mirabile wrote this in response to my post:

I think introspection can degenerate into a disease when the quality of that introspection, the internal self-talk, has a negative quality. This is rooted in a core belief that says "I am worth-less, unlovable, unclean, defective", etc. The disease is in the root of the tree, on the level of self-belief, not in the introspection per se. In fact, how can we escape such thinking unless we look inward and bring that issue to God in prayer? Often we are unable to get behind the inner dialogue to the root. A good spiritual director will help with that. But even here spiritual direction guides a process of introspection in a contemplative way. One looks inward with God, who is the primary spiritual director.

My response to him was as follows:

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Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 12:19 am

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Sunday, August 30, 2009 at 5:07 pm

The Disease of Introspection

Posted by Chris Kamalski | Comments (16) |

 A gifted leader within our missional community here in South Africa (NieuCommunities South Africa) taught on healing prayer and its deep ability to heal the (at times) self-inflicted wounds of overly introspective behavior a few days ago, and up to this moment, I still feel deeply impacted by a particular rabbit trail he went down for a few moments.

In seeking to describe the seemingly never-ending internal struggle that I have in never arriving at a point in which I am truly satisfied with myself, he termed this struggle "The Disease of Introspection," immediately naming a familiar cycle that I find myself falling into on a fairly regular basis.  Looking back over my notes from that morning, I transcribed a combination of my own personal thoughts, as well as his words, almost verbatim.  Enjoy:

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Sunday, August 1, 2010 at 11:57 am

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Wednesday, July 22, 2009 at 4:53 am

On Becoming, Not Being

Posted by Chris Kamalski | Comments (1) |

I am reminded tonight (thanks to my dear friend Aly Taillon, who should have a blog but doesn’t!) that we are creatures who are constantly in the process of becoming who we already are  (I first wrote about that here). This is deeply comforting to me this evening, as I survey the mess that is my room, the unfinished mental checklist of seemingly endless things that will likely keep me awake far too long tonight, the internal angst I feel in trying to control and decide my vocation (We’re fooling ourselves if we actually believe we’d want God’s ability to see all that is available to us). &nbs

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Friday, April 16, 2010 at 12:25 pm

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Friday, July 10, 2009 at 6:54 am

Mechanical Robots

Posted by Chris Kamalski | Comments (3) |

I ate a Cadbury Whole Nut chocolate bar a few mornings ago.  As is true with almost all chocolate outside of America, it was insanely delicious.

'Ate' is slightly deceptive however in describing the manner in which I polished off the aforementioned bar of chocolate.  More adequate words would include: Consumed, Inhaled, 'Almost failed to breathe while shoving down one's throat,' and similar violent images of consumption.

I shoved these squares of gooey goodness into my belly because my heart had re-awakened yet again to deep desires within my soul. Desires to be a good husband some day, to live from my Original Glory in partnership with God who first intended these things to play out in my life, to create beautifully restorative images that bring healing to our broken world.  Experiencing the depth of goodness that is buried within my soul often terrifies me to the point where I allow subsequent feelings of embarrassment or shame to take over from the freedom that the Spirit encourages me to stand up within.  

Having lived in Pretoria, South Africa for the past five months, Nelson Mandela is a hero to many within this nation.  In his inaugural address to a newly-hopeful nation in 1994, Mandela called out his brothers and sisters, imploring them by saying

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Friday, April 16, 2010 at 12:18 pm

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