"What Your Body Knows About God" author Q&A + GIVEAWAY!

I’m very excited to present a Q&A with Rob Moll about his new book, What Your Body Knows About God, in which he explores how current brain research uncovers our God-given need to connect deeply with each other and with God. The book weaves together both the intricacies of human physiology and personal experiences in an honest, approachable style. Rob is an editor-at-large with Christianity Today and serves World Vision as communications officer to the president. Rob, his wife Clarissa, and their four children live in the Seattle area. He also happens to be my childhood friend, and I have many fond memories of Wednesday night youth group hosted by his parents at their home. He’s generously and thoughtfully answered my many questions, so enjoy reading Rob’s responses below.

Emily: Who do you feel will benefit most from reading this book?

Rob: My main audience is Christians who want a deeper prayer life or those who are interested in the connection between science and faith. That's not really a demographic that you can identify with a pollster and target a book to, but I think a lot of Christians want a deeper connection to God through prayer. This book, I hope, is a fun and encouraging way to understand how we are designed for that kind of connection.

Emily: You did a boatload of research on brain chemistry and behavior, much of which you've featured in the first section of the book. Which studies' conclusions surprised you the most?

Rob: Reading Andrew Newberg's research on the brain and spirituality was key. One thing he found was that an area of the brain that is stimulated by prayer is also involved in social interaction. So people who pray can increase their sense of care for other people, their compassion. For me it was astounding to read this research that said loving God helps you to love your neighbor, which as Jesus said, are the two greatest commandments.

Emily: One of the most powerful chapters in your book for me was when you described Clarissa's crisis of health, which almost tipped you toward a crisis of faith in your thesis that God perfectly designed us to connect with him and other believers. What has helped most to restore your confidence?

Rob Moll, author of What Your Body Knows About God 
Photo by Alissa Clark

Rob: Learning how God has also designed us to respond to suffering. Yes, our bodies are often broken. As healthy as prayer and spirituality are, it isn't a magic formula for everything going perfectly. Things go wrong, and we are designed to respond to people's suffering. My favorite study was one that sought to determine which of two different treatments would best help MS suffers. It turned out that the MS suffers who provided the treatments were helped the most! Helping others, we help ourselves.

Emily: To rewire our brains for the better, you argue for regular, focused times of prayer. You've also shared your own habit of praying quietly as your children drift off to sleep. Do you have encouragement for other harried parents of young children who long to spend time with God, but struggle to do it regularly?

Rob: I was complaining once to a friend about all the demands of being a parent, and she told me, "Well, it makes you holy." I try to embrace that. Spirituality isn't only in the quiet moments and special times with God. Spirituality is also the work of parenting. Our goal isn't to feel peaceful with God, our purpose is to be like Christ. Find the time you can to talk with God; quiet yourself when you have the opportunity. But remember that God gave you those children too, and he is with you as you parent.  

Emily: In the second part of the book, you focus on the importance of spiritual disciplines such as multi-sensory worship and acts of service. Can you describe some other disciplines you and Clarissa practice on a regular basis? 

Rob: Sometimes, I need to change my perspective and see what I'm already doing as a discipline and sometimes I try to add a small ritual to my life. We read children's devotional books to the kids every night. We have a weekly prayer group at our house. We try to say the evening prayer from the Book of Common Prayer on a regular basis. I try to fast in some form during Lent.  I have been wanting to memorize Scripture, but that's been difficult for me.

Emily: You dedicated this book to several youth leaders from your past who helped you learn to pray. Having grown up in the same church movement as you, I know the Anglican tradition is in many ways very different, yet you seem to treasure aspects of both. Can you describe your former church's approach to the spiritual disciplines vs. your current church's approach? How do they differ and what have your learned/gained from each?

Rob: Yes, the church movement I grew up in was very "low church" compared to even a low church Anglican congregation. However, my church growing up did teach me to pray in a deep and intentional way, something that isn't really taught in many churches today. I learned to focus my mind in a way that I could be present with God. The Anglican tradition creates this kind of space in its services, too. While it isn't spontaneous in the same way as what I grew up with, it still allows for the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts through a structured service that becomes very meaningful.

Emily: What do you hope pastors and church leaders take away from your points about genuine community and spiritual disciplines? How should the studies you've presented inform the way church leaders minister to or guide their flocks?

Rob: Our connection to other people is an absolutely essential part of our spiritual life. We need churches that connect us to others, not ones that put on a show. Too often our churches are more geared toward attracting attendees than creating disciples. Smaller churches with better connections produce more active, engaged, committed Christians. They grow faster and have more converts. People who are more connected socially give more and volunteer more.

If you enjoyed Rob's insights here, be sure to check out What Your Body Knows About God, as well as Rob’s first book, The Art of Dying. For a chance to win your very own copy, comment below to be entered in my drawing! Unlike most of my ways to lure traffic to the blog, this give-away is open to anyone in the continental U.S. :)

"50 Ways to Pray" by Teresa Blythe

I've been using 50 Ways to Pray: Practices from Many Traditions and Times by Teresa A. Blythe to help structure my devotional time in the morning. After reading Seeing is Believing, by Greg Boyd, I was intrigued by the concept of imaginative prayer and other prayer traditions outside my range of familiarity. The book is arranged into chapters focusing on various types of prayer, including biblical reflections, contemplative practices, lectio divinas, life reflections, discernment processes, body prayers, prayers of the imagination, reflections on media and praying for others.

Each exercise begins with a short paragraph of background into the practice's origins. Blythe gives the intention for the exercise, a step-by-step description of the exercise and a tip for overcoming common difficulties or distractions.

I've only made it through the first two chapters so far.  I don't normally post about books I haven't finished yet, but since I don't use the book every day, I'm working through it at a prayerful snail's pace. So far, this book has led me to hold an imaginary conversation with the midwives in Exodus 1, create my own psalm, craft my own personal prayer of the heart, and to get comfortable with silence.

I'm still looking forward the exercises on imaginative prayer, reflecting on life, prayer walking and art as prayer. Several of the exercises in this book are meant to be done with a partner or in community, so I've had to skip over them, in hopes that I'll find someone to join me in these prayer experiments. Additionally, I read carefully, but skipped over a few of the prayer exercises, such as praying with beads or icons. I felt Blythe made a good case for why using tools while praying did not necessarily confer idol status onto them, but the thought of "not making a graven image" was too distracting for me to complete these exercises fruitfully.

Overall, I'm really grateful to have this book. It packs in so many ideas and suggestions for expanding and deepening my understanding and experience of prayer.

Review of "Seeing is Believing" by Greg Boyd

I was interested in Greg Boyd's Seeing is Believing: Experience Jesus through Imaginative Prayer in part because I enjoyed Boyd's thoughtfulness in his other writings, but also because I've been sensing I need to go deeper in my prayer life lately. Boyd's premise is that using our imaginations while communing with and resting in Christ is not dangerous, fanciful or juvenile as Westerners are conditioned to think. Instead, our imagination is actually the way we behold Christ and reflect Him from one degree of glory to the next (2 Cor 3:18). Likewise, Boyd argues we can only really know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6) by using our imagination to envision Him. Creating a mental image, and fleshing it out as completely as possible by using all five senses, Boyd argues, is essential for transformation. It is our feelings that influence our actions far more than mental knowledge. A vivid memory of our experience shapes us more than a memorized list of information.

Perhaps because I grew up in a church tradition that mistrusted both feelings and the imagination as vain, self-serving, and fleshly, I still feel some trepidation exercising my own imagination in prayer times. Boyd calls these times "resting in Christ," in contrast to the deceptive, try-harder, hide-your-faults mode that many of us instinctively perform during prayer.

So what does this actually look like? 
Boyd recommends using a form of "cataphatic spirituality" (you can Google it) in order to retreat to an inner sanctuary with Jesus where the words of scripture come alive with vivid sights, sounds, feelings and even aromas and flavors if possible. On page 98, Boyd describes how transformation by the renewing of the mind can take place while experiencing the truth of 1 Corinthians 6:19, that we are a temple of God because we're indwelt by His Spirit:

"...imagine in vivid detail what you look, sound, and feel like when you perfectly manifest this truth. Run it through your mind like a virtual-reality movie in which you are the main actor.  Experience yourself incarnating this truth 'with all five senses.' Ask the Holy Spirit to help you accurately and vividly play out scenarios in your mind that reflect real-life situations in which you typically feel the most empty or powerless. Only now see yourself in these situations perfectly manifesting God's truth that you are a walking, talking version of Solomon's temple, filled with all of God's glory!"

Boyd instructs Christians to take every thought and memory captive by running imagination "movies" with different verses that declare the reality of who we are in Christ. What the Bible says about believers looks starkly different than how the world sees us and how we usually view ourselves. To this, Boyd says: "Take it on faith that the you who responds to situations in ways that manifest the truth that you are a temple of God, filled with God's love, joy, and peace, is the real you. Commit to seeing yourself as God sees you, regardless of how it feels" (99).

Beyond claiming Bible truths, Boyd uses imaginative prayer to help believers heal from painful experiences, such as abuse or great loss, by instructing believers to revisit their painful memories and envision Jesus in those situations with them. Over time and repeated re-plays of the memory, Christians can undo the deceptive message and replace it with a more freeing one.

My take-away:
I love the idea of really visualizing what scripture says about who we are. Bridging the disconnect until my default conception of myself comes into line with God's view makes so much sense.

The last three chapters of the book describes three people for whom imaginative prayer was a way to heal deep wounds from the past. While this was interesting, I felt the examples had such dramatic and traumatic childhoods that I really couldn't apply the examples to my own largely happy upbringing. It's not that I don't have memories or experiences that have contributed to a deceptive mindset, but I'm not entirely convinced my petty little memories of disappointment or rejection are "big" enough to devote to this process of re-working through imaginative prayer.

Overall, this book opened me up to what seems just a fragment of the huge body of various prayer practices within Christian tradition. I'm excited to keep exploring!

Feedom of Simplicity: A Money Experiment

As I mentioned Sunday, I wanted to take some time to mention some of Foster's specific proposals for living a simpler, more God-centered life. I was surprised how specific he got in the second half of the book. Indeed, Foster himself cautions readers not to seize on any of his proposals as rules by which to judge or control others. He warns against "our tendency to turn any expression of our simplicity into a new legalism. How quickly we calcify what should always remain alive and changing." Yet, in his defense, the author says that to resist laying down any practical guidelines means we reinforce the legalism of the status quo. New Testament writers like the apostle Peter felt the liberty to address issues of their time and culture (braided hair and fancy robes anyone?) as excesses unbecoming for a Christian. Just as Peter spoke to particulars of his day, "our task is to discern what constitute ostentatious elitism today, and speak to that situation" and to "walk the narrow path of precision without legalism."

I thought I could just clack out a round up of practical tips I gleaned from this book, but I've been working on this post for a couple of hours now (with numerous interruptions from the littles) and I think I might just have to digest this book more gradually over several posts. Foster launches a discussion of specific financial steps we can take toward simplicity with the topic of voluntary poverty. This was a little jarring, even from where I sat reading in my modest starter home and stained decade-old sofa. Foster said that choosing to live with nothing was akin to pulling off the Band-Aid all at once. It hurts, but then once you're free of possessions, you don't really have to think about what to keep or give away. Simplicity, right? Of course, this lifestyle, adopted by Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa, needs to be born out of a specific calling from God. So, for the rest of us, Foster proposes:

A tiny experiment in voluntary poverty that many of us could do with genuine profit as God prompts us. We can go through our home, find one possession that we value, and consider, "Am I growing too attached to this object? Is it becoming a treasure to me?" Having examined our hearts before the Lord, let us give it away. We must not rationalize by saying, "But after searching my heart I know that it is clearly not a treasure to me, and so I don't need to give it away." If it is truly not our treasure, we will not mind in the least giving it away; and if it has become our treasure, we will want to give it away for our soul's sake. Also we will pray for the person who receives our little gift, that it will be a blessing, and not a hindrance, to his or her walk with God.

So, my immediate thought is that this little experiment, if applied to everything we own, would ultimately lead to voluntary poverty as every item we own is either a treasure to be severed or not a treasure and therefore easy to give a way! But I decided to try it anyway.

 A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a review of Becoming, the magazine Bible for women, and mentioned that I planned to give it away. Well, I'm ashamed to say it has sat on a little table in my living room ever since. It is clearly not a treasure to me, and yet, I never took deliberate steps to give it away, as I felt moved to do! Happily, my good friend, Tracey, is coming over after work to pick up the bible and bring it to jail with her, where she ministers to women hungry for God. I'm praying that this magazine, thick with simple articles and scripture, will feed one or many women-- I believe that the Spartan environment in the jail makes many of them hungry to read.



So, my next tiny "experiment" is a little different. I've decided to forgo buying Stephen's kindergarten pictures. I take tons of photos of all three of my sons, many of which can be seen on one of my other blogs, The Daily Munchie. I was filling out the envelope for the photos, due today no less, when I realized that I don't have to purchase a photo package. It's not a sign I don't love my son or want to capture memories of him at each milestone. And my relatives won't love me any less if I give them candid shots of my sons instead of the posed, somewhat awkward portrait the professional took. Now, don't get me wrong, I like to support local businesses and believe that artists, like portrait photographers, do important work. But I decided to listen this time and to get into the "divine Center," and I found out I don't need to possess those photos after all.

Refections on "Freedom of Simplicity" (Part 1)

I've mentioned in previous posts my interest in simplicity. Lately, I've been pondering how I can simplify my life, pare down my possessions and live more purposefully. Over the last year or so, I've also been grappling with social justice and how to live a good life without diminishing the lives of others.

I stumbled upon Richard J. Foster's Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World while searching my library's ebook catalog for another book with "simplicity" in its title. I devoured this book in three days and feel like God must have arranged it that way!

"Freedom of Simplicity," despite being originally penned in the late 80s, felt so current and resonant to me. Foster spends the first portion of the book putting the idea of simplicity within the context of discipleship and seeking the kingdom of God first. He emphasizes the need for having a single eye for Christ (Matt 6:22) and striving to find ourselves in Him, or in obedience to the "Divine Center," as he puts it. The author takes readers on a whirlwind tour of Christians through out history who practiced the spiritual discipline of simplicity to show that intentional living and Christian minimalism aren't new concepts. I found myself highlighting the names of theses saints who went before, eager to learn and read more about their lives.

After a rather lengthy disclaimer that simplicity will look different for each individual based on the specific place, time and ministry in which God has placed them, Foster takes a risk and opens up a world of specific examples of what simplicity might look like in our lives. He touches on the culture of consumerism, materialism, busyness in order to be approved by others, unsustainable habits, exaggerated speech, social injustice and environmental destruction, all of which prevent Christians from a simple, single, effective walk with Christ.

I won't lie, some of his proposals made me squirm... especially the chapter on finances, but through it all, I felt my heart nodding slowly in agreement. I want to unpack some of the things Foster writes in my next post and some of my own ideas spurred by the practical suggestions he offers for living blamelessly in the world, but not of it. I would love to get together with some good friends and digest this book in community... anyone interested?