The more I use the word, the larger it is. 

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“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” – Phillipians 1:6

We live in a culture obsessed with goals and objectives. It isn’t important where you are as much as where you are going and how long it will take you to get there. It is this ambitious spirit that has propelled America, by God’s grace, to the top of the world economically, with all the rights and priviliges appertaining thereunto.

The problem begins when we apply this to spiritual formation. Most of us “know” that there will never be a moment when we have spiritually “arrived”, but often this realization can be as daunting as comforting. We still imagine a standard or a road map to where we want to be and drown in the resulting reality that we have a long way (infinite really) to go. Others may suffer an opposite problem. They may set the bar so low that apathy results.

What are the categories we are trying to succeed in? I can think of several:

• Sin: what we struggle with
• Service: what we do
• Spirituality: how “close” we feel to God
• Effectiveness: how effective and utilized by God we feel.

All of these areas are important. It is important that we are realistic in assessing the sins we struggle with, the service we are or should be doing, how “in tune” we are with the Holy Spirit, and how we observe God working through us. Certainly these are all aspects of a spiritually healthy person.

However, this list is not only not inclusive, it is also not God’s list. God is not reviewing our score each day, subtracting points, rewarding good behavior…punishing bad. He isn’t deciding to reveal Himself to us based on our own merit or how we fit into our own grading metrics.

It is a mostly human tendency to chart progress over time. We are very intimate with time and its effects on us, so it is natural for us to try to fit our relationship into those parameters. However, is this a logical thing to do?

It is not.

As believers raised from death to walk in newness of life with Christ, is our relationship with God temporary or eternal?

It is rarely our inclination to apply the standards of relationship with God to our relationships with other people. We are rarely concerned with things like quantifiable progress.  We simply get to know the other person by spending time with them. We enjoy their company. We open up with them and they with us.

How is our relationship with God really any different? As we pray and mediate, our we simply thinking magical thoughts or saying magical incantations or are we communing with the Creator in a relationship with Him? Is God concerned with what you did or were yesterday or is He concerned with what you are doing and who you are today?

Imagine if we tried to make our earthly friendships as complicated as we tend to make our relationship with God. The result would be a complicated, unenjoyable mess…it would literally choke the life out of those friendships.

We have been welcomed by God through Jesus as friends and brothers. (John 15:14, Hebrews 2:11) 

No, we don’t deserve it. Yes, it is unthinkably generous, but we are called to live in the reality of that truth. We are not called to hold God at arms distance and develop our own ways of measuring success. We are simply called to abide in the love of Christ.

If we do that, the rest will follow. As we learn to love Christ and obey His commandments (the evidence of that love), the rest will follow suit. 

We are not alone in this effort either. God is active and sovereign in our relationship with HIm. He is able to protect us from our own decisions and weaknesses, and accomplish His will in us…even if we are not aware of what that will is. (We rarely are.)

Think about the times and ways God has blessed you…the times you have known clearly what He wanted you to do. Were those times when you were especially righteous? I doubt it.  They were probably times when you were especially open to Him.

We are in a covenant relationship with God on His terms. Live in those terms. Don’t invent your own. In other words: focus on the driving, not the destination. God is able to handle the destination.

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” - John 10:24

Be honest.  How many times, while reading the gospels have you also wished that Jesus would just come out and say it:

“Hi, I’m Jesus, I’m part of the Trinity, co-equal and one with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  I’m the promised Messiah, the Christ. This is how it all fits in with Old Testament prophecy and this how I can help you…”

This seemingly would help you and me in many ways. Debates about Jesus’ divinity would be so much more simple and systematic theology would be a breeze. Right?

This is not what the scriptures afford us, however. So often his accusers insult him and ask him directly “Who are you then?” and Jesus responds with cryptic word plays or statements that can be taken in multiple ways.

Example from John 10 [paraphrasing]:
Jesus: I and the Father are one.
Crowd: *picking up stones* You just said you’re God!
Jesus: Doesn’t Psalms say “you are gods”?
Crowd: Doh!

This happens many other places in the gospels. Jesus constantly frames his truths in parables and obscure biblical refrences.

The obvious question is….why? Why would He do this? Is there a rhyme to His reason? Does He simply have a knack for riddles? Is he protecting Himself (i.e., is He afraid of the consequences of speaking plainly?)

Jesus answers these questions for his disciples (and us) in Matthew 13:

This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

‘You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

Contrary to what you may have been told, Jesus did not come to make the gospel simple or easy. He came to reveal God’s truth to those who were honestly seeking, honestly listening, honestly trying to discern the truth.

He provided die hard skeptics just enough rope to hang themselves, while giving those with open hearts the keys to the kingdom of God.

This is confirmed elsewhere as Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a pearl, a treasure buried in a field, etc.  God has provided us with everything we need to find Him. Likewise, the wicked have everything they want to avoid Him.

I will close with this beautiful passage from 1 Corinthians:

Where is the one who is wise?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the debater of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.