“I park in the back lot.”
I remember my surprise at seeing a prominent pastor park far from the sanctuary, to give someone else a shorter path to the church building. There was nothing legalistic about his spirit, nothing that would call into question the decision of a different pastor to take a different approach. He merely spoke of how easy it is for pastors to make the ministry all about themselves, and in order to guard against that mindset, he wanted to remind himself that he is a servant of the Lord and of his church. Others come first.
The Subversive Habit
This is an example of a “subversive habit.” It’s not in response to a “Thus says the Lord” from Scripture. It’s not an example of right or wrong. No, it’s a habit that subverts a lesser story that could easily become primary in one’s heart and affections. In this case, the pastor realized his own tendency to make ministry success his “primary story,” instead of the Scriptural Story that should give significance to his life. To counter the lesser story and lift up the primary one, he parks in the back lot.
For years, people close to C. S. Lewis shook their heads in consternation over his habit of answering every letter that crossed his desk. How many books might he have written had he put aside those interminable interruptions and focused on his work!
Not every writer or thinker is called to answer every letter in the way Lewis did. There’s no divine command when it comes to well known Christians answering letters. This is another example of a “subversive habit.”
Lewis’s early letters (before his conversion) are suffused with snobbery. To put it bluntly, the guy was a prig. Pride, haughtiness, and condescension show up often.
Contrast the early letters with those that came later in life. There, we see a man who, when asked about spiritual matters, took time to respond to individuals with words rich in spiritual insight and devotion. Lewis’s decision to devote so much time to letters placed him in the role of a servant to his readers. By carefully answering others’ questions, he allowed them to set the agenda for much of his writing, and this discipline subverted the instinct of Lewis to call the shots.
General Habits with a Subversive Twist
In this series, we looked at general habits in the Christian life: prayer, Bible reading, and church attendance. Nothing I’ve said here should be taken as going against those habits. They matter. What they need, however, is an edge. We need to incorporate into our general spiritual disciplines a counter-formative element, something deliberately intended to subvert the lesser stories we are tempted to live by.
For prayer, then, perhaps the discipline is not to spend a few minutes in hurried prayer in the morning, but to punctuate the day with regular times of prayer through the psalms, ensuring that your orientation is turned upward to the Lord in the midst of life’s busyness.
Church attendance might be combined with serving others. Cameron, who is climbing the ladder in the corporate world, could take a position considered “lowly” at church, in which he answers to people with less experience and education.
Identify and Adopt
Once you’ve identified your “primary story,” the key is to adopt subversive habits that counter the lesser story and lift up the Scriptural one. I gave some examples of what that might look like for Cameron, Pam, and Greg, but these were just some initial ideas. We have work to do in imagining and personalizing subversive habits to aid in spiritual formation.
Biographies of admirable Christians through the ages often include information about the practices and disciplines they engaged in—habits that seem unusual, or at least uniquely shaped to the particular needs of a person’s sanctification.
And it’s not just the well-known Christians. Spend time with a grandparent, or with a retired pastor, or with someone later in life who demonstrates the fruit of the spirit, and you’ll find a few of these subversive habits that stand out.
Subversive habits are not a silver bullet to spiritual growth. But they can be an aid in our sanctification. We do well to consider what regular practices will best help us resist conformity with the world, keep the Scriptural Story at the forefront, and chip away at the lesser stories that would capture our imaginations.
This is the ninth in a 10 part series on this subject. See the follow-up post here:
To start from the beginning of the series, go here:
