“Lord, I pray that you would bring Jews to
know Jesus Christ. I pray that you would bring Muslims to know Jesus Christ.
Finally, Lord, I pray that you would bring Christians to know Jesus Christ.
Amen.” Arthur Burns.[1]
Far from having arrived, a Christian is
someone who in this life is always on the road as “a follower of Christ” and a
follower of “the Way.” Think of three terms: Christ, Christian, and
Christianity. Conjure up all the associations each word has and you find
yourself moving in one of two directions: either from personal to impersonal or
fresh and direct to institutional, ideological, and even corrupt. For everyone
attracted by Christ, there are scores bored or repelled by “Christianity.” The
reason lies in the nature of the fallen world. With the passage of time, no
personal relationship or spiritual experience is self-perpetuated. Each must be
nourished, sustained, and fanned into flame again and again or it will die. Not
even spiritual revivals last. The natural course of entropy in things personal
and spiritual is towards decline and death.[2]
For those who live life as a journey see
faith as a journey. We are all at different stages on the way and none of us
alive has yet arrived.[3]
Paul wrote, “Be imitators of me as I am of
Christ.” 1Corinthians 11-1. Paul’s use of the word imitators is important. Modelling,
observing and copying is vital to discipleship because of the biblical view of
the way disciples must learn. There is always more to knowing than human
knowing will ever know. So the deepest knowledge can never be put into words.
It must be learned from the Master, under his authority, in experience.[4]
Imitating Christ is not a form of do-it-yourself change because it is part of
the parcel of responding to the call. Think of Ezekiel’s vision of the valley
of dry bones and Jesus calling the dead Lazarus out of the tomb. Can anyone
listen to that voice, see what it effects, and still say the hearers responded
by themselves? Do dry, brittle bones ever reassemble into a body on their own?
Can a corpse shake off death by itself? No more do we change by ourselves as we
imitate Christ. The imitation of Christ that is integral to following him means
that, when he calls us, he enables us to do what he calls us to do.[5]
You belong to God from eternity to
eternity. You were loved by God before you were born; you will be loved by God
long after you die. Your human lifetime, long or short, is only a part of your
total life in God. The length of time doesn’t matter. Life is just a little
opportunity for you during a few years to say to God: “I love you, too.”[6]
It is a fearful fact that in the early
stages of our spiritual development, we cannot endure seeing our inner life as
it really is. Denial and self-deception are things God allows us, in part to
protect us until we begin to seek him. Like the face of the mythical Medusa,
our true condition away from God would turn us to stone if we ever fully
confronted it. It would drive us mad. God helps us come to terms with our true
condition in ways that will not destroy us outright. Through the gentle but
rigorous process of inner transformation, initiated and sustained by the
graceful presence of God, we can face ourselves. And we find that change is
possible.[7]
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding
as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2Corinthians 3:18).
An intention is brought to completion only
by a decision to carry through with the intention. Robust intention can be
formed and sustained only upon the foundation of a forceful vision.[8]
God is involved and helps those who seek Him. Earnestly pray that God will work in
our inner beings to change the things that keep us from obeying his Son.[9]
Christian spirituality is often described
as a journey rather than a destination. The spiritual life is characterised by movement
and discovery, challenge and change, adversity and joy, uncertainty and fulfilment.
It is also marked in a special way by companionship, first with the One we seek
to follow and second with those who also seek to follow Christ. The Bible is
filled with images of spiritual life as a journey, with the most remarkable
illustration being the Exodus. Brueggemann suggests that life of faith is a
journey with God characterised by three basic movements: being oriented, being
disoriented, and being surprisingly reoriented.[10]
Reorientation to a deeper, richer, and less brittle faith is the potential that
lies within truly disorienting life experiences. “We know that all things work
together for the good for those who love God, who are called according to his
purpose.”[11]
God is very gentle with very young
Christians. Often the start of their Christian career is marked by great
emotional joy, striking providences, remarkable answers to prayer, and immediate
fruitfulness in their first acts of witness. But as they grow stronger, God
exercises them in a tougher school.[12]
Thus He builds our character, strengthens our faith, and prepares us to help
others.[13].
Someone who climbs Mr. Everest must rely on
years of conditioning; a crash course before the ascent will not suffice.[14]
Same with spiritual disciplines, which requires a commitment that draws on the
old fashioned notion of discipline.[15]
“Practicing the presence of God”: Offer God
your heart from time to time in the course of the day, even in the midst of
chores.[16]
Remembering God can gradually become something of a habit.[17]
In a fundamental human paradox, the more a
person reaches out beyond herself, the more she is enriched and deepened, and
the more she grows in likeness to God.[18]
Christians best influence the world by sacrificial love, the most effective way
truly to change the world. Parents express love by staying all night with sick
children. In an era that stresses self-fulfilment and self-actualisation, not
everyone would agree with Jesus’ formula that we must deny the self to follow
him. Jesus commanded, “love your neighbour as yourself.”[19]
[1] Os Guinness, The Call:
Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Nashville: Word,
1998), 106.
[2] Guinness, The Call, 107.
[3] Guinness, The Call, 112.
[4] Guinness, The Call, 85.
[5] Guinness, The Call, 86.
[7] Dallas Willard and Don Simpson. Revolution
of Character: Discovering Christ's Pattern for Spiritual Transformation (Colorado
Springs: NavPress, 2005), 69.
[8] Willard and Simpson. Revolution
of Character, 77.
[9] Willard and Simpson. Revolution
of Character, 80.
[10] Gerrit Scott Dawson, “The Christian Life as a Journey,” in Companions in Christ. Participant's Book: A
Small-Group Experience in Spiritual Formation, ed. by Willard, Dallas, and
Don Simpson (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 2001), 18.
[11] Dawson, “The Christian Life as a Journey,” 21.
[12] Philip Yancey, Reaching for
the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing
House, 2000), 215.
[13] Yancey, Reaching for the
Invisible God, 216.
[14] Yancey, Reaching for the
Invisible God, 232.
[15] Yancey, Reaching for the
Invisible God, 230.
[16] Yancey, Reaching for the
Invisible God, 205.
[17] Yancey, Reaching for the
Invisible God, 204.
[18] Yancey, Reaching for the
Invisible God, 239.
[19] Yancey, Reaching for the
Invisible God, 245.
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