Sunday, June 28, 2015
Perseverance: A Lost Art
“Depth comes when I must persevere; when things don’t come quickly and easily. The struggle brings a work ethic and a tenacity that may not surface any other way.” -Tim Elmore, Artificial Maturity
Tim Elmore discusses in his book, Artificial Maturity, how culture, parental upbringing, and the church has provided youth with artificial maturity. Artificial maturity is like fools gold; in that it looks good on the outside (straight A’s, made some decent choices, star athlete, leads the youth group, etc), but internally the student lacks emotional maturity. The maturity to process the information they take in and using wisdom to guide their lives. Even more, they lack a real depth in how they approach life. Most of their lives are built around a virtual world where everything is given to them or created for them. As he puts it, “Too often we condition them to be brilliant consumers, not contributors.” Thus, the world they live in becomes nothing more than to take from and not to give back; a world where everyone can be a star with the perfect note on The Voice or a funny video on YouTube. Why? Because the mindset is these things are for me and ultimately about me. In reality, they can’t handle when life doesn’t go their way because they haven’t been given opportunity to walk through it properly. This is especially evident when life does not come easy as it has been created for them to be.
So, Elmore provides one of several “hurdles” that young people face today: convenience. Young people today have trouble facing the struggles of life, even more, making sense of the troubles and evils of this world because they live in comfort. What does this mean for our youth in our churches today? What does this mean about a biblical characteristic of perseverance in life? The reality is that young people will not and cannot grow if things come to them easily. For example, my son is attempting to learn to tie his shoe. He is struggling with it and very much desires that my wife or I tie them for him. Is it easier for us and him? Certainly! Does it help him in life? No! Perhaps tying a shoe seems like a lesser skill. After all, many shoes today come with no laces, Velcro, or slip on. Why? Convenience was cleverly marketed and now a skill is passing by. Even more, what does it teach my son? If it starts with tying his shoe, what happens when the next hard struggle comes along? The point is that as a parent I must allow my son to struggle with hard things in order to teach him to work through hard things. It’s counter-intuitive as I wish he not have to struggle. However, it is not reality! Life is hard and he must learn to navigate.
Scripture speaks of the principle of and characteristic of perseverance. In Romans 5:3-5, Paul speaking to Christians under intense trial, persecution, and struggle; provides a reason that perseverance through it all is good. First, Paul says “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.” Paul is saying struggle actually creates perseverance in a person, particularly the believer. Parent, youth leader, mentor, family member, do you allow some struggle in the life of your youth to help create perseverance? Are you willing to?
Paul continues and states that endurance/perseverance leads to character and character to hope. Perseverance creates character or depth of a person through the struggle, the pain, the hurt, etc. Does this mean that young people will need us who are older to rescue them? Sometimes it does. Many times what they really need is for adults to walk alongside them through the struggle; to process the information and experience they are taking in to learn, grow, and develop strength to their faith. Without hard experiences and the help of adults, our youth will remain in a place of shallowness. They will become walking fool’s gold. Plus, when a young person is able to walk through a struggle of life and overcome, that perseverance will provide hope for the future. It builds in them a mindset that I have overcome before and I can do it once again. (Help them remember their successes as well.)
What does this mean? How do we take on this issue in youth ministry and at home? Practically, Elmore offers two great examples I want to share:
1. Choose a project to collaborate on that requires effort and tenacity. Perhaps it’s climbing a mountain or biking a long distance. Maybe its a science project you can work on together. Then, throughout the project, talk over the value of working hard and enduring unglamorous attempts at succeeding.
2. Sometime this year, allow your children to fail at something. This is counterintuitive, because most of us want our kids to “win” or succeed. When they fail, however, use it as a teachable moment and talk over the value of failure—of things’ being hard and how it makes success even sweeter in the future.
I would add to these examples a few other ideas:
1. Every failure, struggle, hardship is a teachable moment for our young people. We as adults must develop a mindset to walk them through it. Perseverance is cultivated, much like an art form.
2. Evaluate yourself and your depth of perseverance. If you feel like you lack in this characteristic, that is okay. It takes practice and time to develop. You can still walk your young people through something as you do.
3. Start early in their life if you are able. We must discern what to shelter our children from, but we cannot shelter them so much that they miss opportunities to learn perseverance. If your children are older, now is the time to work through this.
4. Perseverance is not found in our own strength, but in Christ and the Holy Spirit. Thus, we must develop an assurance and identity in Him who is our ultimate perseverance. This means lots of prayer, learning to trust, reading of Scripture, and seeking guidance from those who have traveled these roads before us.
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Spiritual Bulimia?
By using bulimia as an example for a condition of a spiritual walk; I am in no way desiring to belittle or make light of a condition that plagues so many emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I simply recognize a harmful condition in people that can be seen in one’s spiritual walk as well. Bulimia is characterized as an eating disorder by the person binge eating and the rid the food consumed by either vomiting, using medication to make the food consumed to be expelled, or excessively exercising to maintain a particular body weight. How do we see this spiritually?
I am studying a book concerning leadership and how to develop habits of one’s self spiritually as a leader. The application drawn from the book/study led me to reflect upon myself and Christians in general on how we approach spiritual growth. So many people today are biblically and spiritually illiterate and starved. Why? I wonder if we have a case of spiritual bulimia. I see far too many (myself included) who “over consume” on spiritual things only to later expel it without regard. It may seem strange to think one could “over consume” upon spiritual ways to grow, but it has less to do with the actual ways and more to do with how we approach them. Here are some ways I see this manifest:
Sunday Consumption
What is the purpose of attending church on Sunday? For the Christian it should be the time we collectively worship our God, Lord, and Savior for who He is and what He has done. In addition, we attend to study the Scripture collective and learn from those God has placed in a position to teach. For many though, we make Sunday our binge time. We “load up” on God by making ourselves feel good by worshipping (Him or us?), hearing a sermon or lesson that encourages us and gives a little advice on how to navigate life, then finally carry on with the week where we expel what we have taken in. Perhaps Sunday’s binge gets us through Monday, but when the rest of the week comes about we are starved. Therefore, one simply uses the program(s) of church, particularly Sunday’s, to fill up self. Again, the events/programs that take place on a Sunday are not bad, but how do you approach them? We should come away refreshed and renewed after worshiping our Lord and Savior and hearing what His Word has to say, but to what end?
Conferences/Camps
Similar to Sunday Consumption we use conferences and camps in a similar manner. We load up on “spiritual food” that may last us several days, weeks, or even months only to expel it. Many times we go looking for “food” that is rich. Perhaps it is found in the worship team that leads or the special preacher/speaker everyone wants to hear. Thus, we look to the next “big thing” in a conference or camp to binge once again. I do not believe that conferences and camps are bad. In fact, I believe they are a necessary component of American Christianity, however, they should not be used as a binge and purge process. Our spiritual walk/growth cannot be dependent upon the people who lead in these events. Does God allow growth to happen at events like this? Absolutely! Again, to what end do you approach events like this?
Church Bible Studies
Church Bible Studies are for those people who binge on Sunday, purge by exhausting themselves senseless in all areas of their lives and then create one more thing to their list like a Bible study. Similar to the bulimic who exercises excessively to ward off extra pounds, so does the spiritual bulimic in their service. Their intent is not to hinder spiritual growth, but they are doing too much. Thus, they find one or two Bible studies or groups that they can binge on and then continue their unhealthy exercise. Specialized Bible studies are important to one’s growth and even necessary. But, to what end do we add them to our lives?
Inconsistent Devotional
Inconsistent Devotional is less about quantity in number of devotions one has and more to do with what takes up our devotional time. Many devotional materials out are helpful, but they are treated as the focus instead of the Word. The result is malnourishment. While those who suffer with bulimia can consume various foods; the spiritual bulimic can binge on spiritual food that offers no value. It is the Twinkie. It looks good, smells good, and even tastes good, but does nothing to add nutritional value to ones life.
What Does Scripture Say?
Scripture never paints a picture of the spiritual walk of the believer with a binge-purge mentality. Spiritual growth should be a process, one that is as slow or fast as it needs to be as the Spirit works in the life of the believer. Many times we develop a mentality that we should be super spiritual by a certain time in our lives. We set ourselves up for failure because most goals are simply unattainable. Honestly, Scripture tells us perfection is the goal, but perfection found only in Christ, not of our own doing. I believe that is the key to a binge-purge spirituality: works based spirituality. The things mentioned above are necessary for the process of spiritual growth to happen, but they are not the end themselves. They are simply a means to the end. Therefore, we can and should develop strong habits that bring about spiritual growth and are less dependent upon a binge and purge process.
Everyday, All Day (Deut. 6:6-9; Psalm 1:2, 88:1; 1 Thess. 5:16-17)
Our growth and pursuit of spirituality in God is an all day everyday experience. This does not have to be grandiose revelation from a devotional time, but simply experiencing God throughout the day. Famous writer, Brother Lawrence discusses “practicing the presence of God,” a practice not readily done today. His basic concept is that we can recognize God in anything we are doing from simple mundane tasks to larger more complex ones. For example, one can simply have a moment with God washing the dishes as our hearts are attuned to His voice and presence. Even more, God is there when we have a big decision or difficulty at work. How do we practice this presence of God? Paul says in 1 Thess. 5:16-17 to rejoice always and pray without ceasing. The intention is to always have God on our mind and heart as we navigate everyday life. Thus, we have less need to “binge” upon God to fulfill some deep need because we have “purged” of Him to “get through the day.” Instead, His very presence provides life that sustains always.
Meditation (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2, 63:6, 77:12, 119:15, 145:5)
Meditation is a process of thought, reflection, and application of the Word or who God and listening to the Spirit as He presses the focus of your meditation onto your heart. From that wisdom flows ways to navigate life, encouragement,and a hope to anchor yourself to fully. Meditation should take place upon Scripture, words of wisdom from other believers, worship music, and our God and who He is and how He has worked in our lives. Find creative ways to keep a verse before you throughout the day, or how God has worked in your life, or an attribute of who He is. The ultimate goal of meditation is permeation in our life and walk.
Consistency and Constancy (Phil. 2:12)
In Philippians 2:12, Paul tells his readers to “work out their salvation” and in Ephesians 2:10 he says that “we are His workmanship”. Both of these phrases provide basis that growth is continuous and must require a consistency about them. The approach many take to the Sunday morning worship time, the conference/camp, or that extra Bible study at church is about finding the next big thing to take them to the next level. Instead, we should allow these avenues of growth to lead us to consistent and constant growth. Even more, our time with God does not stop when we put our Bible down in the a.m. just before work and reading through a quick devotion. Our time with God is always consistent as He works through our jobs, school, family, “random” situations, etc. The issue is we fail to see it as such and miss the opportunities to grow in them. So we get the “life” sucked out of us because we are inconvenienced, annoyed, dismayed, frustrated, maybe angry, depressed, etc because we’ve used up what has been given to us in the 5 minutess we spent with God that morning or the service we attended two days ago.
Imagine for a moment Jesus as a carpenter building furniture for someone. Let’s imagine that the buyer wants it ornate with particular designs that reflect the family. It takes time to first build a piece of furniture, let alone the time to craft the intricate details. If we are His workmanship, that means it takes time. First, He has to build the larger part of who we are and then intricately craft the finer details He desires in us. Along the way, accident happen that cause some flaws in the design. He may have to reconfigure the design, but He still accomplishes the goal: the glory of Himself being revealed through the piece He is making. So, consider yourself and how your approach spiritual growth. Do you expect it to happen in larger quantities? It can and will happen, but eventually the finer details must be worked out. How do you approach the avenues of growth He provides through life and His church? They are not meant to be utilized for a binge-purge pattern, but for consistent and constant growth that happens over a lifetime.
By using bulimia as an example for a condition of a spiritual walk; I am in no way desiring to belittle or make light of a condition that plagues so many emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I simply recognize a harmful condition in people that can be seen in one’s spiritual walk as well. Bulimia is characterized as an eating disorder by the person binge eating and the rid the food consumed by either vomiting, using medication to make the food consumed to be expelled, or excessively exercising to maintain a particular body weight. How do we see this spiritually?
I am studying a book concerning leadership and how to develop habits of one’s self spiritually as a leader. The application drawn from the book/study led me to reflect upon myself and Christians in general on how we approach spiritual growth. So many people today are biblically and spiritually illiterate and starved. Why? I wonder if we have a case of spiritual bulimia. I see far too many (myself included) who “over consume” on spiritual things only to later expel it without regard. It may seem strange to think one could “over consume” upon spiritual ways to grow, but it has less to do with the actual ways and more to do with how we approach them. Here are some ways I see this manifest:
Sunday Consumption
What is the purpose of attending church on Sunday? For the Christian it should be the time we collectively worship our God, Lord, and Savior for who He is and what He has done. In addition, we attend to study the Scripture collective and learn from those God has placed in a position to teach. For many though, we make Sunday our binge time. We “load up” on God by making ourselves feel good by worshipping (Him or us?), hearing a sermon or lesson that encourages us and gives a little advice on how to navigate life, then finally carry on with the week where we expel what we have taken in. Perhaps Sunday’s binge gets us through Monday, but when the rest of the week comes about we are starved. Therefore, one simply uses the program(s) of church, particularly Sunday’s, to fill up self. Again, the events/programs that take place on a Sunday are not bad, but how do you approach them? We should come away refreshed and renewed after worshiping our Lord and Savior and hearing what His Word has to say, but to what end?
Conferences/Camps
Similar to Sunday Consumption we use conferences and camps in a similar manner. We load up on “spiritual food” that may last us several days, weeks, or even months only to expel it. Many times we go looking for “food” that is rich. Perhaps it is found in the worship team that leads or the special preacher/speaker everyone wants to hear. Thus, we look to the next “big thing” in a conference or camp to binge once again. I do not believe that conferences and camps are bad. In fact, I believe they are a necessary component of American Christianity, however, they should not be used as a binge and purge process. Our spiritual walk/growth cannot be dependent upon the people who lead in these events. Does God allow growth to happen at events like this? Absolutely! Again, to what end do you approach events like this?
Church Bible Studies
Church Bible Studies are for those people who binge on Sunday, purge by exhausting themselves senseless in all areas of their lives and then create one more thing to their list like a Bible study. Similar to the bulimic who exercises excessively to ward off extra pounds, so does the spiritual bulimic in their service. Their intent is not to hinder spiritual growth, but they are doing too much. Thus, they find one or two Bible studies or groups that they can binge on and then continue their unhealthy exercise. Specialized Bible studies are important to one’s growth and even necessary. But, to what end do we add them to our lives?
Inconsistent Devotional
Inconsistent Devotional is less about quantity in number of devotions one has and more to do with what takes up our devotional time. Many devotional materials out are helpful, but they are treated as the focus instead of the Word. The result is malnourishment. While those who suffer with bulimia can consume various foods; the spiritual bulimic can binge on spiritual food that offers no value. It is the Twinkie. It looks good, smells good, and even tastes good, but does nothing to add nutritional value to ones life.
What Does Scripture Say?
Scripture never paints a picture of the spiritual walk of the believer with a binge-purge mentality. Spiritual growth should be a process, one that is as slow or fast as it needs to be as the Spirit works in the life of the believer. Many times we develop a mentality that we should be super spiritual by a certain time in our lives. We set ourselves up for failure because most goals are simply unattainable. Honestly, Scripture tells us perfection is the goal, but perfection found only in Christ, not of our own doing. I believe that is the key to a binge-purge spirituality: works based spirituality. The things mentioned above are necessary for the process of spiritual growth to happen, but they are not the end themselves. They are simply a means to the end. Therefore, we can and should develop strong habits that bring about spiritual growth and are less dependent upon a binge and purge process.
Everyday, All Day (Deut. 6:6-9; Psalm 1:2, 88:1; 1 Thess. 5:16-17)
Our growth and pursuit of spirituality in God is an all day everyday experience. This does not have to be grandiose revelation from a devotional time, but simply experiencing God throughout the day. Famous writer, Brother Lawrence discusses “practicing the presence of God,” a practice not readily done today. His basic concept is that we can recognize God in anything we are doing from simple mundane tasks to larger more complex ones. For example, one can simply have a moment with God washing the dishes as our hearts are attuned to His voice and presence. Even more, God is there when we have a big decision or difficulty at work. How do we practice this presence of God? Paul says in 1 Thess. 5:16-17 to rejoice always and pray without ceasing. The intention is to always have God on our mind and heart as we navigate everyday life. Thus, we have less need to “binge” upon God to fulfill some deep need because we have “purged” of Him to “get through the day.” Instead, His very presence provides life that sustains always.
Meditation (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2, 63:6, 77:12, 119:15, 145:5)
Meditation is a process of thought, reflection, and application of the Word or who God and listening to the Spirit as He presses the focus of your meditation onto your heart. From that wisdom flows ways to navigate life, encouragement,and a hope to anchor yourself to fully. Meditation should take place upon Scripture, words of wisdom from other believers, worship music, and our God and who He is and how He has worked in our lives. Find creative ways to keep a verse before you throughout the day, or how God has worked in your life, or an attribute of who He is. The ultimate goal of meditation is permeation in our life and walk.
Consistency and Constancy (Phil. 2:12)
In Philippians 2:12, Paul tells his readers to “work out their salvation” and in Ephesians 2:10 he says that “we are His workmanship”. Both of these phrases provide basis that growth is continuous and must require a consistency about them. The approach many take to the Sunday morning worship time, the conference/camp, or that extra Bible study at church is about finding the next big thing to take them to the next level. Instead, we should allow these avenues of growth to lead us to consistent and constant growth. Even more, our time with God does not stop when we put our Bible down in the a.m. just before work and reading through a quick devotion. Our time with God is always consistent as He works through our jobs, school, family, “random” situations, etc. The issue is we fail to see it as such and miss the opportunities to grow in them. So we get the “life” sucked out of us because we are inconvenienced, annoyed, dismayed, frustrated, maybe angry, depressed, etc because we’ve used up what has been given to us in the 5 minutess we spent with God that morning or the service we attended two days ago.
Imagine for a moment Jesus as a carpenter building furniture for someone. Let’s imagine that the buyer wants it ornate with particular designs that reflect the family. It takes time to first build a piece of furniture, let alone the time to craft the intricate details. If we are His workmanship, that means it takes time. First, He has to build the larger part of who we are and then intricately craft the finer details He desires in us. Along the way, accident happen that cause some flaws in the design. He may have to reconfigure the design, but He still accomplishes the goal: the glory of Himself being revealed through the piece He is making. So, consider yourself and how your approach spiritual growth. Do you expect it to happen in larger quantities? It can and will happen, but eventually the finer details must be worked out. How do you approach the avenues of growth He provides through life and His church? They are not meant to be utilized for a binge-purge pattern, but for consistent and constant growth that happens over a lifetime.
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