I’ve been reconsidering the two diagnostic tests I offered below; I’m concerned that they may be misunderstood. It would be especially ironic if a test, which was meant to encourage “spiritual health,” sent people down the most popular bad habit in Western Christendom: transactionalism.
We put all sorts of prices on God’s favor. The check-ups weren't meant to say “Those other guy's costs are ridiculous; Come see our more enlightened rates!” No; not at all. The items listed were meant to be included in the Owners Manual- not on the Sales Sticker.
In each of the quizzes, God’s preemptive love and forgiveness are assumed. They both came in Jesus Christ.
In each of the quizzes, God’s preemptive love and forgiveness are assumed. They both came in Jesus Christ.
"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people." Titus 2:11 (ESV)
It seems to me that Spiritual health isn’t about securing or keeping his love and forgiveness. Rather it’s about more fully enjoying and understanding that love and forgiveness. Spiritual growth is about truly knowing the one God-Who-Is and the creation that reflects his eternal existence as Giver, Gift, and Gifting. The proposed check-ups were meant to help me discover whether growth in that "awareness" was taking place.
Spiritual maturity is about seeing reality as it really is… and feasting in it. It is not about having the right change for the Divine Vending Machine. Knowing (in the most biblical, incarnational, nuptial sense) is the point, not obedience.
Thank you Michael for reminding me.
2 comments:
I still remember the words at my own baptism- "buried in the likeness of his death...raised to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus". Amen
The coming season says so much about what kind of proper test we should have. I wonder if the saints were so serious about Lent, because they thought of it as a type of test. St. Francis confessed to breaking his Lent and whipped himself naked in front of his congregation;kind of speaks very loudly of how someone feels.
Lent for me symbolizes that pilgrimage full of prayers and the desire to pass a test and be found faithful; rather to be called faithful.
It is almost as if I desire to earn what it is I am called to be. Lent is an outlet for that desire, though it is more than just that.
Though I may fail, in the end I learn, like Job, that the Devil was only a tool for placing me back on my face again. I learn that all my good efforts are shown for what they really are and I have experienced the hand of God on my life.
The temptation is inevitable, pain will come, and doubt must happen. "Doubt must precede every deeper assurance; for uncertainties are what we first see when we look into a region hitherto unknown, unexplored, unanexed. In all Job's begging and longing to see God, then, may well be supposed to mingle the mighty desire to be assured of God's being.(Unspoken Sermons of George MacDonald 242)"
Within the test, I find the nearness,but am not aware of it yet. We wonder why we have been forsaken. In the end we know the nearness. But more than that I learn to wish the experience again and again if it means the nearness. I wish to be burned in the future, because I have tasted it in the past and present.
Like Job's test, and Jesus', we hear at the end of Lent, God calling us son's again. We know Him better because we have walked in his likeness. He knows us better when , seeing our own sins are able again to repent, lift up our hearts, and be thankful.
We see that the test is the journey of His footsteps; His journey that we must walk, (sometimes he drags us along +) and at the end of that test we gaze upon the Messiah crucified, dead, buried, and resurrected; we see our faces superimposed our names written above "Behold.... We enter Him, we enter the Church glorified and called by our new names Easter morning.
"Spiritual maturity is about seeing reality for what it really is." Well, that certainly struck a cord in my heart today! Thank you for the gentle reminder. May the Lord's presence and inspiration dwell richly within you.
Cheers!
- Jo
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