Watch Chris Hall’s Overcoming Greed with Detachment and Generosity here.
In this session, we are challenged to think about things we might be too deeply attached to. We spend time with Basil in the hope that our perspective might change as his did in the desert.
Chris invites us to reorientate our hearts; to cultivate detachment and generosity.
Small Group Leaders: Equipment Required
1. What did you hear?
The study group leader picks up the pebble and shares what resonated and what brought up resistance. One sentence for each. No comments, no questions. The study group leader then passes the pebble to their neighbor.
When a group member is holding the pebble, it is their turn to share if they want to—everyone should be given the courtesy of being listened to without judgment or comment but remember, one sentence for each. If a group member does not wish to share anything then they can simply pass the pebble to their neighbor.Some people may not be comfortable passing an object around the group. You may want to provide hand sanitizer for everyone to use before and / or after touching the pebble. However, please also feel free to find more creative ways to pass on the right-to-share-without-interruption.
2. What Are You Thinking?
After you have all had the chance to share your initial impressions you can open up the group for discussion.
a. “I think I’ll be safe if I have just a little bit more . . .”
How much do you depend on money and / or possessions for security?
It may be hard to admit the answer to this question. You might want to discuss in pairs rather than share with the whole group, or even just use the pen and paper to write it down.
b. “The more I can love what is genuinely worth loving, the less will be the temptation to love something like money or possessions too deeply.”
Do you give time and effort to loving what is genuinely worth loving in your life?
Where do you need to loosen your grip in order to focus on what matters?
c. What was your reaction to Chris’s friend who moved to Potter Street?
Are there any spaces in your life where you are in proximity with poverty and need?
3. Reflecting on Scripture
The passages this week can be summed up by Proverbs 4:23.All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
Discuss!
Finish by reading 1 John 1:5–9.
Luke 18:18–28
18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’ ”
21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
28 Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Matthew 6:19–21
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Proverbs 4:20–23
20 My son, pay attention to what I say;
turn your ear to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;
22 for they are life to those who find them
and health to one’s whole body.
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
1 John 1:5–9
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
(Discuss your experiences in the group; then you are invited to try the practices at home before the next session. Please take a copy of the study guide with you as a reminder)
Here are some ideas; do as you can, not as you can’t:
Feedback
Did you try any of the practices from the previous session? What was helpful? What wasn’t?
Silence, Stillness, Stability, and Sabbath
Once more, I invite you to a daily practice of silence, and stillness. Deliberately doing nothing can be a challenge and it can be hard to make a habit of it.
This time I invite you to also try to set aside a weekly day of rest. The practice of Sabbath, a day where you do no work or anything to secure your own well-being, is an exercise in detachment and in trust. This is an invitation to rest and letting go, not an exercise in legalism. Do as you can, not as you can’t.
Basil might invite us into the disciplines of:
Proximity
“Go to where you can. See what you need to see. Hear what you need to hear. Respond as God guides you to respond.”
Generosity
An invitation to consider—by listening to God—what you have been given and why.
Who could use your help?
Moderation
Develop a sense of moderation versus extravagance. Focus on the things that really matter.
Here are some practical suggestions from me:
Have participants pray the following prayer together at the end of the session.
Prayer of Yielding
Lord, teach me to pay attention to what you say;
turn my ears to your words.
May they always be in my sight.
Help me to keep them within my heart;
for they are life to those who find them
and health to one’s whole body.
Above all else, teach me how to guard my heart,
for everything I do flows from it.
In his book, Life of the Beloved,Nouwen, Henri J. M., Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1992).Henri Nouwen outlines three false identities that we are tempted to believe if we fail (or refuse) to accept that our primary identity is as God’s beloved.
The gut triad embodies I am what I do; the heart triad easily embraces I am what you think about me, but the temptation of the head triad is to believe I am what I have. More specifically, I am what I have—to keep me safe.Heuertz, Christopher L., The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017).
The head triad is described in detail in the Appendix to type 6, but it is the Fives who most clearly illustrate the I am what I have—to keep me safe mindset. The besetting sin of the Five is greed, or in Enneagram terminology, avarice. This may come as a surprise to Fives who often have relatively few material possessions. However, the root of avarice lies not in the amount of money and quantity of stuff we accumulate, but in the orientation of the heart toward those things. Fives live from a mindset of scarcity. Their vice of avarice arises from their putting their faith in what they have—and what they know—for security, rather than trusting in God.
Rebecca DeYoung puts it like this: “Avarice is dangerous because when we are in its grip, we believe that the things we own are ours and that we have control over them and, therefore, control over our lives.”Konyndyk DeYoung, Rebecca, Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2009), 134.
This is illustrated in the Five’s tendency to catastrophize if things don’t go to plan. If there is an unexpected bill, for example, the Five might start worrying excessively about not being able to pay the mortgage and losing the house—even if there is enough money in savings to cover the expense.
We will look at Fives in more detail below. However, this looking for security, the provision for our needs, outside of God is common to us all.
Sixes seek security in their position, in belonging and in vigilance. What they have to keep safe are rules, a defined role and someone to look to for guidance.
Sevens make plans and connections with people to avoid pain. They have distractions to keep themselves from confronting anything that might not be comfortable to confront.
The mindset of the gut triad is orientated toward a perceived scarcity of grace and justice in the world
Eights genuinely seek justice but may mistakenly enact vengeance instead. They hide their weaknesses and vulnerabilities and avoid dependence. They go all out for what they want and, in that way, take it upon themselves to provide for their own needs.
Nines acting from a mindset of scarcity are likely to prioritise others’ needs over their own to the point where they cannot even identify their own desires. It is as if keeping harmony in the group or the relationship keeps Nines safe.
Ones may agonise over the right thing to do with their money and possessions—as if they fear there may not be sufficient grace available if they get things wrong. Is it “right” to give money to a beggar whom you suspect will spend it on alcohol or drugs, for example? This concern to be “good” can also lead to a parsimonious attitude toward spending on themselves or their family.
In the heart triad, the mindset sees love and worth as scarce and needing to be earnt.
Twos may use money in the service of others—to try to buy love and attention. They too may be reluctant to spend on themselves but may also reward themselves if they have been very hard working, but not—in their view—adequately appreciated.
Threes covet possessions as trophies of success. It is the success and the appearance of success that may be valued rather than necessarily the possession itself.
Fours feel that they are lacking something that makes them unworthy of love. They long to be truly seen, but feel they are not. Therefore, they avoid the ordinary and invest in things of taste and sophistication—or outright eccentricity—in order to stand out.
5: The Observer/The Expert/The Thinker
Fives feel good about themselves when they feel they have insight, sufficient knowledge or understanding. They think of themselves as perceptive and would be mortified if you thought otherwise.
A Five might well say:
“Let me look into that and I’ll get back to you.”
A Five is unlikely to say:
“Let’s have a time of sharing.”
Fives have a quiet inner strength, are undemonstrative, undemanding, polite, hospitable, wise and gentle people who tend to avoid big groups if possible. They are extremely observant but are happy not being seen themselves.
Fives have an ability to both explore and expand ideas and can be analytical while being open minded and non-judgmental—all of which makes Fives innovative and inventive. Fives particularly like investigating unknown territory—finding their own niche where they can be confident of being expert. And indeed, Fives have the focus and patience to pursue an interest or a research agenda long term. This can be extremely fruitful but may also simply manifest as an obsessive collection of some sort.
Fives want to avoid emptiness, helplessness, and incompetence. They resist demands made on them as they fear being overwhelmed or drained. They live with a narrative of scarcity.
This leads to the vice of the Five which is avarice, hoarding their resources including emotion, time, and knowledge.
When Fives do feel foolish or incompetent, or threatened, they may withdraw even more from society, avoiding interaction, and losing themselves to daydreams or fantasy. They avoid further pain by distraction—sliding down to the unhealthy aspects of the Seven. Fives are also expert at dismissing others with well-aimed words, being fluent in both sarcasm and cynicism.
Hope comes for the Five in engagement with more than just thoughts:
This could involve:
Fives have deposed God as provider of all that is needed and instead strive to be self-sufficient. “They have lost sight of the truth that God is super-abundant and generous. He is omniscient (all wise) and gives wisdom to anyone who asks.”Widdows, Becky and Margi Walker, God-shaped people, UK Enneagram course.
When a Five opens up to the undeserved grace of God they can trust in God’s abundance and his competence. When they grasp the fact they are loved without limit, the virtue of detachment grows. Virtuous Fives can give of themselves, engaging with the world physically and emotionally, because they can let go of outcomes and trust in their omniscient Lord to provide for their needs.