David G. Benner - Desiring Gods Will (The Spiritual Journey)

The Spiritual Journey

W hen applied to the spiritual life, the metaphor of a journey is both helpful and somewhat misleading. Helpfully it reflects the fact that the essence of spirituality is a processspecifically, a process of transformation. Unhelpfully it obscures the fact that we are already what we seek and where we long to arrivespecifically, in God. Once we realize this, the nature of the journey reveals itself to be more one of awakening than accomplishment, more one of spiritual awareness than spiritual achievement.

There are, however, two very good reasons to describe the spiritual life in terms of a journey. First, it fits well with our experience. We are aware that the self that begins the spiritual journey is not the same as the one that ends it. The changes in identity and consciousnesshow we understand what it means to be me and our inner experience of passing through lifeare both sufficiently profound as to be best described as transformational. The same is true for the changes in our capacity for love and the functioning of our will and desires.

The second reason is that the spiritual journey involves following a path. Much more than adopting a set of beliefs, a path is a practice or set of practices that will characterize our whole life. Following this path is the way we participate in our transformation. It is the way we journey into God and, as we do, discover that all along we have already been in God. It is the way our identity, consciousness and life become grounded in our self-in-God and Gods self-in-us.

Christian spirituality is taking on the mind and heart of Christ as we recognize Christ as the deepest truth of our being. It is actualizing the Christ who is in us. It is becoming fully and deeply human. It is experiencing and responding to the world through the mind and heart of God as we align ourselves with Gods transformational agenda of making all things new in Christ. It is participating in the very life of God.

This trilogy describes the foundational Christian practice of surrender, how this practice emerges as a response to Perfect Love, and the changes this produces in our identity, will and deepest desires. Each of the three books focuses on one of these strands while interweaving it with the others. Together they serve as a manual for walking the spiritual path as Gods heart and mind slowly but truly become our own. The Spiritual Journey trilogy includes:

Surrender to Love: Discovering the Heart of Christian Spirituality

The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery

Desiring Gods Will: Aligning Our Hearts with the Heart of God

DESIRING GODS WILL

Aligning Our Hearts with the Heart of God

DAVID G. BENNER

Foreword by THOMAS H. GREEN, SJ

www.IVPress.com/books

To my fatherGordon Benner

and my brotherColin Benner

who have both taught me much

about desiring Gods will.

Contents

Foreword

by Thomas H. Green, SJ

S t. Ignatius Loyola, to whom David Benner refers frequently in this very helpful book, composed the first formal retreat in the churchs history, the Spiritual Exercises, in the sixteenth century. His small manual contains the classic rules for discernment of the diverse spirits at work in our lives, that we may recognize and follow Gods voice despite the many conflicting voices (the world, the flesh and the devil) that we hear.

While David Benner gives some basic introductory guidelines in his final chapter for the actual process of discerning, his real topic here is, as the title indicates, desiring Gods will. Before we can discern we must be properly disposed to do so. In fact, the whole dynamic of Ignatiuss exercises is to bring the retreatant to that open, listening attitude in which real discernment is possible.

David Benner, being both a psychologist and a spiritual director, has a unique perspective in assisting the contemporary pray-er to achieve that true openness which is essential for genuine discernment. As he explains, the real choice we all face is between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of self. He then explains the many ways that we can become trapped in the kingdom of self, and the many ways the choice of the kingdom of God is today countercultural. His numerous experiential examples, drawn both from his own life and from the lives of those he has directed, give us concrete insight into the challenges we ourselves may face.

Benners sources are truly ecumenical, in the best sense of that word. He cites many of the great masters of spirituality, past and present. The book thus achieves a happy balance of tradition and contemporary relevance, seen by recalling that St. Ignatius himself begins his Spiritual Exercises (#23) with what is known as the Principle and Foundation. He tells the retreatant that our only end is the glory of God and our own salvation. Everything else on the face of the earth is, and must be used as, a means to that sole end. Ignatius does not claim that this is an easy stance to achieve. The whole of the retreat is to help the retreatant to come to that disposition. And that, I believe, is precisely what David Benner is proclaiming in contemporary language: the challenging call to choose the kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of self.

Preface

Willing Gods Way

T his is a book that I resisted writing for months. I thought I had written enough about willfulness and surrender. I wanted to move on to other topics. I started another book but was unhappy with where it was going, troubled in my spirit. It was clearly my agendathe fruit of my willful planning and resolve. How discouraging it was to again be reminded of the strength of my lust for self-determination and control, my deeply ingrained preference for my will over Gods will.

I wish I could write about things that I have finally and solidly learned, things that are once and for all behind me. But my experienceand, I believe, the truth about the spiritual journey in generalis that past challenges and struggles are never fully behind us in this life. The route for the transformational journey of Christian spirituality is never direct. Typically it involves revisiting territory through which we have already passed, and doing so over and over again!

Doing things my way comes naturally for all of us. Egocentricity and self-control are fundamental dynamics of the human soul. We know we are supposed to surrender to Gods will and may genuinely want to, but most of us continue to face the almost irresistible tendency to assert our own will. We overhear Jesus prayer in the garden of GethsemaneNot my will, but thine be donebut have trouble honestly making it our own.

This book is an extension of ideas presented in the two previous books in this trilogySurrender to Love and The Gift of Being Yourself. Surrendering to Gods will makes little sense if we are not first convinced of the depths of Gods love for us. But surrender is far from complete, and we have yet to unwrap the gift of our true-self-in-Christ until we are fully convinced of the absolute trustworthiness of Gods will. Learning to prefer Gods way to ours and discovering our identity and fulfillment in Gods kingdom way demands that we know Love, deeply and personally. Only then will it be possible to choose God with the totality of our being, not just our will.