5: Forming Habits
The Operating Theater and the Lecture Theater. Ethics is about preparation, not about situations. The heart of ethics lies in the formation of character. “In every moral “situation,” the real decisions are ones that have been taken some time before. To live well requires both effort and habit. There is a place for both. But no amount of effort at the moment of decision will make up for effort neglected in the time of formation.”
Imagination and Formation. The great majority of life is spent in preparation: this is where the emphasis in Christian ethics needs to be.
Relaxed Awareness. “In this state of awareness the actor senses no need to impose an order on the outside world or on the imagination; there is openness to both receiving and giving.” “In the popular imagination, prayer is something one resorts to in a time of crisis. To the Christian disciple, by contrast, prayer can either be moral training in the disciplines of listening to God, or it can be an experience of the grace of “being obvious” in God’s presence. The former is the prayer of effort, the latter the prayer of habit. The aim of the former is to make the latter a matter of instinct—an unself-conscious activity that becomes “second nature.” The practices and disciplines of Christian discipleship aim to give the Christian this same state of relaxed awareness, so that they have the freedom—indeed, the skill—to “be obvious” in what might otherwise seem an anxious crisis. Those with that relaxed awareness, who take the right things for granted, are what the church calls saints.”
How Worship Forms Character. In the components of worship, the Word, prayer, baptist, sharing the peace, the eucharist, and the sending out, skills for ethics are learned.
Formation and Games. Worship is compared to a game, in a favorable way.
Excerpt From: Samuel Wells. “Improvisation.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/improvisation/id473939687?mt=11