This past Christmas our extended family opted for each person receiving one main present through a Secret Santa lottery. I’ve used my gift almost every day since then: it’s a cup with a built-in heating unit to keep my tea always hot. No more frequent trips to the microwave to keep reheating the same cup!
I doubt my kids’ generation are impressed, but my cup comes with a phone app (what doesn’t these days?) which invites me to set the exact temperature at which my cup will constantly maintain my tea. Amazing!
As I pondered my cup recently, I imagined a similar apparatus that kept my spiritual temperature at a constant level. Even the name of the cup (Ember) evokes the idea of glowing spiritual fires within me.
How great would it be! I could smooth out my spiritual ups and downs and instead “program” my life for spiritual consistency! Why not be consistently in tune with God? Why not an app to avoid Peter-style mistakes, let alone the occasional doubt or question with no satisfying answer?
Then my imagination took me a step further. As a local church pastor for much of my life, wouldn’t it be great if I could dial up whatever level of spiritual intensity I desired in my people? It is every pastor’s dream!
I could easily imagine punching up the spiritual fervor for a few weeks when the annual stewardship campaign rolled around. Or simply flicking my finger across a screen to dial up greater spiritual maturity so people dealt with conflict in a Christlike manner.
Of course, it’s not just imagination.
The Christian marketplace is chock-full of products and programs promising “guaranteed” formulas to manage, control and grow personal spiritual growth.
And it’s true for groups as well. An all-pervasive, interlocking eco-system of social media and TV have certainly wired direct connections into many Christians’ brains, at least in America. Prompting sub-sets of Christians to react in outrage toward some people or issues while supporting other people and ideas seems as easy as pushing the right buttons.
In the Bible, however, it’s clear that spiritual growth is not so easy.
The Apostle Peter is likely closer to the mark for most of us. He indeed has spiritual lows, moments where he fails utterly; yet he also reaches spiritual heights of insight and dedication (“you are the Messiah!”) It’s not a process that can be tightly managed and controlled, but more like an adventure following a path through a forest.
For Jesus himself, spiritual growth is never like running a machine (even one with a well-illustrated operating manual.) Jesus’ images spiritual growth are mostly from agriculture; it is planting seeds and watching them grow inevery variety of soil , weather, and circumstances. For Jesus, spiritual growth is not following detailed blueprints, but more the wisdom to know where to build your house (see Matthew 7).
And even Jesus–God in the flesh!–is not the bloodless, always-impassive, never smiling or scowling figure seen in much art and early movies. He is a fully emotional human being. We see many examples in the gospels, with the following just the tip of the iceberg:
Jesus is ecstatic at his disciples’ success (“I saw Satan fall from heaven”), is many times deeply moved with compassion for the hurting and laughs and enjoys time with children. He even tells jokes!
Jesus grieves at his friend Lazarus’ tomb (“Jesus wept”), is angry with moneychangers in the temple or the pharisees (“you den of vipers”) and is deeply burdened the night before his death (“Father, if it is your will, let this cup pass me.”)
Yet for some, this full, rich, emotionally-varied life of the Jesus we see in the pages of the gospels has not penetrated a worldview which imagines God as a collection of divine attributes: impassive, immutable, omniscient, etc.
While teaching theology part-time in the US and then full-time in Ethiopia, I went on my own journey along with my classes in deeper exploration for how we know God. Rather than beginning with divine attributes, I came to understand that if we truly believe God is a Person, then God must first-and-foremost be known personally as well
“God is known personally–as a person is known–through personal encounter, and never as an object which we scrutinize.” Stanley Grenz, Theology for the Community of God
Would you not agree that deeply knowing your spouse or best friend is much more like an adventure into unknown country (making new discoveries along the way) than following step-by-step instructions operating a machine?
- Persons surprise us! (Yet at times disappoint us.)
- Persons can be understood. (Yet at times be can baffling.)
- Persons can feel warm and close. (Yet at times might feel cold or distant.)
(We must always remember, of course, the analogy between God’s Person and human personhood is not limitless. Even the best human persons are fickle and flawed, while the Person of God is not. Human persons are “created in the image of God;” God is NOT created in our human image, despite our best attempts to do at times.)
So what’s the point? How might you “take your next step?”
If we envision our spiritual lives as something to be managed or controlled, we open ourselves up hucksters (including some who speak of “discipleship”) who wish to control us by selling us formulas, methods, leaders and movements.They promise us exactly what some of us crave: an end to our spiritual up’s and down’s. They tell us:
Instead, envision yourself on an adventure (with others) all getting to know a Person better.
- Knowing any person (even God), includes both up’s and down’s.
- Knowing any person (even God), includes both breakthrough insights and moments of confusion.
- Knowing any person (even God), includes feeling moments of both closeness and distance.
If we expect both up’s and down’s in our spiritual journey, we won’t be surprised when either come our way.
Think of spiritual growth as nurturing fertile seeds, not pushing buttons on a machine.
I really like everything stated.
The idea about the mindset which is needed to have is there is ups and downs in life. So no surprise is very true.