Are you a list maker, a goal setter, a high achiever? Then you probably won't like this post. Are you lazy, an underachiever, wasting your potential? Then you probably won't like this post. There are some things that need to be said about spiritual growth and if you know these things it will make your spiritual journey a lot less frustrating and you will feel a lot less guilt as you walk along your spiritual journey.
1. Spiritual growth is messy - Have you ever tried baking brownies with a toddler helping? They crack eggs and more gets onto the counter than in the bowl. They have to taste what is being made when your back is turned. The dry mixture usually is poured out too fast leaving a type of fog traveling through the house. It’s a mess, it doesn't work...but usually the brownies taste pretty good and the memory is worth the hour of clean up.
In fact with my kids grown up and out of the toddler stage, I would give just about anything for a day baking brownies with one of them as a toddler. Spiritual growth is just like that, we make a mess of things. The more we try to follow the rules the more we spill, the more we create to clean up. Spiritual growth is messy because spiritual growth is all about relationships and although we would like to, we can't control other people. If we want to grow spiritually we take what we are learning from the Bible or the leading of God and try to apply it to our lives, specifically to the relationships we have. Had to forgive anyone lately? Been confronted about an issue you have lately? Had a kid get a little out of control lately? See what I mean. In order to grow spiritually you have to face difficult situations and deal with them in a grace-filled manner. If Jesus is our model, he did not defend himself, he did not promote himself, and he did not excuse himself from pain. His best friends turned on him and he loved them back. Messy, messy stuff...but the outcome is delicious.
2. Spiritual growth takes a very long time - There are no quick solutions to becoming whole. Most of us have taken a long time to mess up our lives and in my experience it will take even longer to 'clean it up.' The key to spiritual growth is not to have a goal, but to simply be on the journey. The destination is opening op our lives to Christ Jesus, it is a relationship with God. We love to create strategies and plans to advance and there is a coach for everything. I am all for spiritual coaching, but realize that in order to get to know God it takes a lifetime and having a 15 minute quite time is like taking a baby step toward God. I have been married for over 20 years and I just found out something interesting about my wife that made me appreciate her more today and love her more today. Take that a step forward, how long will it take for us to know God? God who created all, knows all and loves all? My guess is a lot longer than 20 years. The key is patient endurance, one-step-after-the other, eyes heavenward, determined to stay the course movement. Don't get discouraged, ever and you will be ok.
3. Spiritual growth has less to do with what I do, however I have to do something - One thing I am 100% certain of is that God is not going to give me a grade when I die. My son is a 4th grader in the local public schools and he is tested beyond my ability to understand it. A 45 question reading test for 4th graders is just silly. Today he had a 'benchmark' science test which would be about that same length. He loves science, does good in science, enjoys science work, but he dreaded going to school to day for the marathon test. If we look at spiritual growth like a test, we will dread it. Don't get me wrong, there is work to do and spiritual disciplines are actually life giving when engaged in correctly. Yet when we look at trying to earn a grade with God by what we read, or how long we pray, or how much we give, or how often we attend church we have missed the boat and are destined for burnout. The spiritual exercises we have are given to us as a gift to get to know God who douses us with grace, mercy and love. Lay down trying to achieve higher marks and try getting to know God. I had a teacher in seminary who told us if we fall asleep during our 'silent' prayer times, Jesus would give us a B. She said this smiling because we were all high achievers academically. I think she was wrong, I think Jesus would have given us an A.
4. Spiritual growth's goal can never be achieved - To become like Christ Jesus. That is the goal of discipleship; of spiritual formation or whatever you are calling it. Jesus is or model, but we will never achieve deity. Sorry it just won't happen, we cannot become God. Success in spiritual development is not becoming someone or something but being engaged in the process. Jesus said that he came so we could have life, and abundant, full life. He did not say he came so we could become Jesus. Our goal is to experience life with Jesus, not achieve a spiritual merit badge. Take a deep breath and read that sentence again it might just be for you.
So why attempt it? Why attempt to grow spiritually? Because there is something deep within your heart that wants to know God and get closer to God. It is there, it may be a tiny memory or flicker of desire, but you were created to know God. So get to knowing, and don't let anything get in your way.
Below are four of my favorite quotes about spiritual development. Read them slowly, don't trip over them or carelessly let them slide to the recess of your thoughts. Enjoy thinking and learning about a God who loves you no matter what, a God who you can know, who already knows you and is excited about the potential relationship you my develop.
Soren Kierkegaard - ‘Prayer does not change God, but it change him who prays.'
George MacDonald. ‘A God that should fail to hear, receive, attend to one single prayer, the feeblest or worst, I cannot believe in; but a God that would grant every request of every man or every company of men, would be an evil God - that is no God, but a demon.
Henri Nouwen - "Why should I spend an hour in prayer when I do nothing during that time but think about people I am angry with, people who are angry with me, books I should read and books I should write, and thousands of other silly things that happen to grab my mind for a moment?”
"We must pray not first of all because it feels good or helps, but because God loves us and wants our attention."
‘Sitting in the presence of God for one hour each morning - day after day, week after week and month after month, in total confusion and with a myriad of distractions - radically changes my life.’
Ann Lamont's favorite prayer - ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ And ‘Help me, help me, help me.’
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