Spiritual Growth & Personal Responsibility - Part 2

For way too many Christians today, life gets in the way of faith.  When this happens, spiritual growth is rare.  We run from home to the gym to school to work to practice and then to meetings and finally, to bed only to get up the next day and do it all over again with minor tweaks.  Part of this challenge is that we live in a world that considers and even demonstrates faith as one option in life that is rarely exercised.  We are fed a view of success in life and it usually doesn't include commitment to faith as vital.  What this view of success does include is a hefty dose of 'me'.   

So many followers of Jesus are trying to cram their already full lives with faith and there is little to no room available.  As the guilt of not being 'spiritual' enters our lives we sprinkle in a couple hours a month of sitting in rooms with nice music and words from the Bible to stir up our spiritual selves.  We desperately crave for something deeper but we cannot figure out how to squeeze any more time out of our life so we can have more of Christ.  We make attempts at increasing our spiritual selves by signing up for daily one verse pop-ups on our computer screens or we read 'Our Daily Bread' while we do our daily duty in the bathroom.  We may turn on a radio station that plays music with Jesus lyrics and feel the soothing of our souls.  All of these things are good, yet we know they are not enough.  These may appease our conscience for a while, but the hunger, the hunger born from the Holy Spirit stirs us for a more active and/or deeper faith in the creature and lover of our souls.  This battle rages in part because Christ is one aspect of our life instead of being our life!  

If we begin thinking about faith as one part of who we are, we will never find enough room or time for a healthy amount of Jesus.  We must begin by seeing ourselves first as followers of Jesus.  After all, we are said to be aliens and strangers (1 Peter 2:11) on the earth.  This world is not our home.  When we begin by seeing ourselves as children of God and our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), our perspective can change.  When Christ who is our life (Colossians 3:4) is central, we can then begin to fit life into our faith.  When Christ is central, we can choose to submit our time, money, energy, priorities etc. to Him and let His Word and principles dictate how we ought to live.  When life on earth is our priority, life will dictate if and when we have time for faith and that foundation is out of sync with Jesus' principles (Matthew 7).

Abraham Lincoln once said, "Every man...is responsible for his own face."  Each follower of Jesus must fight against the seduction of our culture to put life first and to fit Christ in.  Life can be cruel and will often work hard to keep little to no time for the things of Christ.  Christ, on the other hand, is full of mercy and grace and desires us to have a life that is full of meaning and fruit.  Christ will always help us to sort our priorities to help us be the best people possible for the community He has placed us.  Each person must choose if their life will be centered around life or Christ.  Every person should take personal responsibility to think deeply and choose wisely.

I would lie to hear you insights.

Get out there and cast some seeds.