The Pilgrim Heart

I am currently reading Pilgrim Heart by Daryl Tippens of Pepperdine University. I hope by the end of the day to have it finished, but I wanted to write a few lines now. This is an extremely well-written and unique look at the pilgrim life of the disciple. The book is subtitled, “The Way of Jesus in Everyday Life.” Drawing from ancient and modern writers on the spiritual disciplines, Tippens paints a dramatic head and heart picture of what it means to walk in the way of the cross every day. Quoting Edward Fudge—

Tippens' vision of discipleship is not only human and personal; it is dynamic, earthy, and social. Biblical faith is embodied in a journey, Tippens insists, not in the clouds but here on the ground. It is a pilgrimage of people living in human bodies, experiencing "passion, tears and laughter" in company with others on the same journey with Jesus. "A faithful heart is always a passionate pilgrim heart," Tippens concludes, "ever on the road, ever moving forward - searching for understanding, seeking the face of God."

The spirituality for which Tippens is looking is one that seeks the heavens but has its feet firmly planted on the ground. He speaks of “a God-focused spirituality that is also paradoxically creation-centered. Tippens spends the bulk of his book exploring 14 spiritual disciplines, what he calls “practices of the pilgrim heart,” that can lead us in the way of Jesus everyday. These
include—

1. Emptying: Lessening our attachment to possessions, power and prestige.
2. Welcoming: A holy hospitality reflects Christ’s grace in everyday life.
3. Resting: Rest and solitude refresh us and acknowledge our place in God’s creation.
4. Befriending: The “mutual regard and care for souls” requires time, distance and self-sacrifice.
5. Confessing: We must tell the truth about our weakness and hear a word of absolution.
6. Forgiving: The divine activity of reflecting God’s forgiveness to other people.
7. Listening: Waiting patiently and expectantly for God to reveal himself and speak to us.
8. Discerning: Learning to think with one’s heart, head and imagination.
9. Singing: Singing is “words of faith set to music convert us, encourage us, console us, sustain us, and take us to heaven’s door.””
10. Feasting: The sharing of table fellowship and meories of the past.
11. Creating: Focus on God’s “truth of beauty” in an appreciation of the arts.
12. Reading and Story: These remind us who we are, where we are going and Who has called us and is traveling by our side.
13. Suffering: We experience the suffering of Jesus and “the fire that purifies.”
14. Seeking: The pilgrim heart is always on the pilgrimage, seeking the end of the journey.

Tippens not only writes of the quest for everyday spirituality, we writes about it very, very well! He quotes writers that I would have likely never read on my own (the college professor pointing out the holes in my education), and he often points me in directions that I found fresh and often surprising.

Edward Fudge has a great review of this book in New Wineskins. You can buy the book from its publisher, New Leaf Publishers.