Practicing Our Scales

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INNtöne Jazzfestival 2021 | Wikimedia Creative Commons

My wife and I used to lead a small group for young adults ⏤ the Friends and Followers group. I often talked about the need to ‘practice our scales.’ That meant returning to a short list of essential statements that would (hopefully) guide our formation. The idea was that if we really worked at practicing these ‘scales,’ they would become embodied. Lately, I have been studying Hania Rani’s piano genius. I share an example below. Imagine if our walk with Christ, representing his kingdom in the world, were as practiced and pure as Hania Rani’s fingers on the piano keys.

The Life Gauges through postures

Our understanding and discussion of the Life Gauges can be helped by practicing their associated postures.

HUMILITY
Fall to your knees. Bow before God. Raise your hands to the sky. This is a posture of humility. It’s a posture of surrender—we are thoroughly defeated by overwhelming love.
Confession: God is great. God is good. And God is near.

RESPONSIBILITY
Extend your arms forward with open hands, palms up, in a posture to receive. Now pull your arms toward your body and close your hands in a posture of grasping, taking hold.
Confession: Good stewards of God’s grace.

ACCLIMATION
Stand facing one direction, then turn 180 degrees and face the other direction. Reject what the world says about you (and others) and how the world wants you to live. Turn and accept what God says about you (and others) and the way of life he offers. This is a picture of ongoing repentance.
Confession: People like us do things like this.

IMITATION
Return to your ending posture of DISCIPLINE—grasping hands close to the body. Now reverse the DISCIPLINE posture, extending your arms forward, opening your hands and turning your palms upward. This is a posture of release, of generosity. Freely we have received. Now, we freely give.
Confession: We so love the world that we give.

MISSION
Extend your arms forward as if reaching around a barrel, about to give a bear hug. This is a posture of gathering—guiding people to the life they were created to live. It’s acting as a shepherd—corralling people into a place of acceptance and shalom.
Confession: Our story for God’s glory.

Summarizing the Life Gauges

Imagine we are simultaneously enrolled in five discipleship ‘colleges’. The ultimate objective of our education is fluency in the culture of God’s kingdom.

HUMILITY | WORSHIP GOD
God is great. God is good. God is near.
We grow in our knowledge of God and our humble dependence on him.
(Mark 12:29-30, Acts 24:14-16, Romans 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 6:16, 1 John 5:21)

RESPONSIBILITY | ATTACH TO JESUS | CO-REQUISITE: HUMILITY
Good stewards of God’s grace*.
We grow in our readiness to receive and take hold of the God-given position, authority, responsibilities, and resources available to us only in Christ.
(Matthew 7:7-8, Luke 13:24, John 10:27, John 15, Romans 11:16-22, 2 Corinthians 9:8-11, 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, Ephesians 2:8-10, 1 Timothy 1:3-4, 1 Peter 4:10)

ACCLIMATION | LIVE FROM GOD’S KINGDOM | CO-REQUISITE: RESPONSIBILITY
People like us do things like this.
We grow into our God-given identity and we adapt to God’s ways.
(John 15:19, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 4:4-7, Galatians 5:16-26, Colossians 1:13-14)

IMITATION | LOVE THE WORLD | CO-REQUISITE: ACCLIMATION
We so love the world that we give.
We grow in our expression of self-denying, others-oriented love.
(Matthew 5:43-45, Matthew 22:37-40, John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 13)

MISSION | PERSUADE OTHERS | CO-REQUISITE: IMITATION
Our story for God’s glory.
We grow in our discipleship influence on people and on every sphere of culture.
(Matthew 5:13-14, Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 18:4, Acts 19:8, 2 Corinthians 5:11, 2 Corinthians 5:20)

ALL BY THE HOLY SPIRIT
Not by might, nor by our power.
We participate in God’s government by his power and appointment.
(Romans 8:13-14, 1 Corinthians 2:13, 1 Corinthians 6:11, Galatians 3:3, Galatians 5:16-25, Ephesians 2:22, Ephesians 3:5, Philippians 3:3)

*The word 'grace' used here to mean: the unmerited God-given desire, ability, and resources to participate in God's economy (purpose, plan, activity) as His beloved.