Christians can easily forget that God has us on a SERIOUS road to develop our faith. And no believer wants to miss discovering the full plate of blessings God wants us to enjoy in this life. But “SERIOUS SPIRITUALITY” can seem impossible.
But I know first-hand that Serious Spirituality IS possible because God showed me how to do it.
The first step is to acknowledge that Serious Spirituality is fraught with tension from dual forces dancing in the dark—SUCCESS and FAILURE.
Of course we want to SUCCEED in developing a deep faith and do not want to FAIL in meeting God’s expectations. That two-headed tension makes Serious Spirituality difficult to activate when we are in a hyper-extended state of neutrality. Afraid to commit. Afraid to veer out of the safe lane. Afraid to go for it.
The opposite of success is failure. And we do not want to fail. We do not want to fail ourselves. We don’t want to fail family and friends. And we certainly don’t want to fail God.
That is why we must stare down REALITY and acknowledge the FAILURE chapter of this story. Why we must then banish that word forever. And why we must quickly jump to the SUCCEED side of the coin and yield our heart and will to God.
We do NOT know what “SUCCEED” looks like and we shouldn’t know. Cannot know. Only God knows. And whatever it is we will praise him.
You may be thinking about FAILURE in worldly terms. You know, not succeeding. But the definition of FAILURE for this story is, simply, not going ALL IN.
Serious Spirituality is NOT about succeeding or failing. It is about COMMITTING.
I ask God to give me the courage to do whatever it takes to live with Serious Spirituality.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Are you being serious about your faith? What one thing could you do in the next week to begin that trek?
“May you, his people, always be faithful to the Lord our God, obeying all his laws and commands as you do today.” 1 Kings 8:61-63
