I laughed at a coupon book we got in the mail last week. On the same page of this book were two half page adds right next to one another. One add was for a local fitness center with coupons and information about their personal trainer. Right above that was an advertisement for CiCi's Pizza Buffet. How ironic! To add insult to injury, two pages later they did it again. This time there was an ad for a weight loss center next to an ad for a Chinese buffet!
We want to be physically fit and free to gorge ourselves at the same time.
Sadly, this can be a metaphor for our lives with God. We want to be spiritually fit on the one hand and free to indulge in whatever catches our eye on the other.
When this doesn't work we never seem to understand why. For some reason, many of us have bought into the lie that we can solve any problem, including a spiritual one, by just having more. So we embark on a whole lot of consumption - food, clothes, toys, pleasure, etc. - hoping to fill the holes in our lives. Spiritually speaking, some of us fill our lives up with lots of religious observances and acts of piety, but never seem to fill the spiritual void that we know exists.
Alan Hirsch said, "We plainly cannot consume our way into discipleship." (The Forgotten Ways, pg. 45)
Whether we are aware of it or not, the only answer for us is found in surrender. We must become people who surrender our lives to Jesus in faith, trusting that He can care for our eternal soul and that His ways are the best ways for our present life as well. In that surrender, in that giving up of our agenda, we begin to realize that the answer we are looking for has been there all along. It is in the simple, day-to-day, following after Jesus. It is in inviting His Holy Spirit to control our lives and lead us to do what Jesus did and say what Jesus said in every aspect of our lives. That is the path to being spiritual fit for real.
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Really interesting, lot to think about. Will have to read the book,The Forgotten Ways, mentioned here.At my age,have many thoughts on the subject, but doubt that this will be the direction that Mr. Hirsch will take! Actually, the last two sentences of the post....well,if we followed that, what a difference it would make. Seems to me that we, as Christians,live as close to the edge as possible, then expect God to bless the efforts we make on His behalf.Reminds me a little of the discussion of the physical fitness thing at the beginning of the article.Great thought, "...to do what Jesus did and say what Jesus said in every aspect of our lives." Great aspiration!
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