Everyone gets a spiritual formation. It's like education. Everyone gets an education; it's just a matter of which one you get.
Interpretation
Spiritual formation is as universal and diverse as education, influenced by the experiences one encounters.
Dallas Willard's quote highlights the inevitability of spiritual formation in everyone's life, much like education. Just as individuals receive education that varies widely based on their circumstances and choices, so too does everyone undergo a process of spiritual development shaped by their experiences and environment. This underscores the notion that both learning and spirituality are integral parts of the human experience, tailored by the unique paths each person takes.
In practice
In a speech about personal development, one might quote Dallas Willard to emphasize the importance of choosing the right influences.
The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.
The first act of love is always the giving of attention.
So many people would like to have guidance from God because obviously, if you have a word from God, it's the best possible thing. But they don't relate that to life as a whole. Often they want guidance as a way of opting out of the responsibility of making decisions.
What is truly profound is thought to be stupid and trivial, or worse, boring, while what is actually stupid and trivial is thought to be profound. That is what it means to fly upside down.
The basic question 'will I obey Christ 's teaching?' is rarely taken as a serious issue. For example, to take one of Jesus' commands, that is relevant to contemporary life, I don't know of any church that actually teaches a church how to bless people who curse them, yet this is a clear command.
When I left home after graduating high school, I left as a migrant agricultural worker with a Modern Library edition of Plato in my duffel bag. It sounds kind of crazy, but I loved it. I loved the stuff. Before I knew there was a subject called philosophy, I loved it.
My contention is, first, that we should want more from our educational efforts than adequate academic achievement and, second, that we will not achieve even that meager success unless our children believe that they themselves are cared for and learn to care for others.
I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.
The books I loved in childhood - the first loves - I’ve read so often that I’ve internalized them in some really essential way: they are more inside me now than out.
Today's Little Leaguers, and there are millions of them each year, pick up how to hit and throw and field just by watching games on TV. By the time they're out of high school, the good ones are almost ready to play professional ball.
We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.
Concentration is the key that opens up to the child the latent treasures within him.
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