Living in The Right Direction

Many people think that a “spiritual Christian” is mystical, dreamy, impractical, and distant. When he prays, he shifts his voice into a sepulchral tone in tremolo. This kind of unctuous piety is a poor example of true spirituality. To be “spiritually minded” simply means to look at earth from heaven’s point of view. The spiritually minded believer makes his decisions on the basis of eternal values and not the passing fads of society.
~Warren W. Wiersbe (1929- )

Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.”
~ Jesus, King of the Universe, in John 4

Oh beloved, it is true. We are apt to make our walk with Him merely about us. And in doing this, we miss the point of the walk altogether. For there is a truth in the Gospel that, at first, seems harsh. The Gospel is not about us. The Gospel is the good news about what Jesus has done.

Now, most surely, we are the recipients of a portion of this goodness. And the goodness we receive is so massive that it seems – to us – to be the whole dose. But it isn’t. For the Lion’s share of the fulfillment and goodness and glory and honor and praise belong to the One who has given the Gift in the first place.

It then seems to us, as we miss the point altogether, that we need to set about improving our own Christian experience. We look for ways to improve how we think and learn and feel and receive the blessings of G_d in our lives. We take up again the insane rhythms we danced to before we came to know Him – somehow expecting different results.

And then we take this weak mess of a perspective, and ruin it altogether. Somewhere along the way, we get convinced that since we are now so well-prepared, we might as well go out and do a bunch of things to make G_d happy.

Suddenly though, each of us who have taken this path, have quickly found that it is not the path He has laid before us. We start down it, thinking that things are going to go great. And they do not. For the gargantuan work of the believer is simply not possible to accomplish. Read this again beloved: The Christian Life is impossible.

Can we see it?  Read the passage again.  What filled Jesus up?  His Father making Him feel good, and then Jesus trying real hard to make His Dad happy?  No.  Jesus was filled by waiting in the presence of His Father as The Father showed Jesus what needed to be done, and then doing it in the power of The Holy Spirit. 

And the difference here is everything.  For now, what is happening is that the will of G_d is actually being carried out. And as such, G_d can and will put His strength (read inexhaustible wealth and joy and strength and power) into the completion of the work. Oh yeah, G_d will allow us to try to do things for Him on our own, but this fool of a writer is sure that it looks to Him like we are infants with boxing gloves trying to do some sort of delicate surgery.

What if we truly began to walk like Jesus walked?  What if we simply counted on both the direction and the power to go in the right direction to come from The Father, in the power of The Holy Spirit? What if we tried it?

Some have.  And the world is a different and better place. Let’s join them.