Until recent years, I hadn’t dared to challenge many of our widely accepted and deeply entrenched ideas about what it means to know God, and about what it is that actually produces spirituality.
But I’ve discovered incredible freedom in allowing my spiritual feathers to get ruffled, forcing me to dig more deeply into what it is I actually believe, rather than simply regurgitating what I’ve mindlessly consumed over the years.
A few years ago I read a book by Larry Osborn called ‘Spirituality for the Rest of Us’ and it sucked me in with the direct questions he posed on the back:
· If you don’t fit the mold…
· If you’re tired of adjusting to other people’s definitions of spirituality…
· If traditional spiritual disciplines just aren’t working for you…
· If all the standard answers aren’t enough……but your deepest desire is to know God more…
Here’s a look at spirituality for the rest of us.
After reading the back of the book I promptly stole it from my parent’s house and devoured it.
Many, if not most, teaching on traditional spirituality is a lot like books about marriage. We may think we had a great one until we started reading books and going to the conferences designed to tell us how to have a great marriage. We view our relationship as characterized by oneness of spirit, soul, and mind—a connectedness that made two truly become one.
Larry (the author) goes on to say how the books and conferences they attended enlightened them to the fact that they were doing it all wrong. They weren’t eating enough meals together, the TV was on too much, their date nights were far too rare, and their prayer time as a couple was sorely lacking.
The message was clear: The fact that they had a strong marriage didn’t matter; how they got there was what mattered most.
And they’d apparently gotten there the wrong way.
The tools for building a great marriage had somehow become the measure of a great marriage. And on that scale, they didn’t measure up. We don’t measure up.
Get comfortable, friend. This post is long enough to inspire a little retinal bleeding, but is loaded with profound excerpts from the book that may just rock your world like they did mine…
COOKIE-CUTTER CHRISTIANS
When it comes to having a great relationship with God, the same thing often happens. The tools and spiritual disciplines that can help us get there frequently become an end in themselves. Books and conferences on the inner life end up presenting a cookie-cutter approach to spirituality that focuses more on the steps we take than on the actual quality of our walk with God.
The truth is: God wants a great relationship with all of us, but it can’t be found in a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s the end result that matters, not the path we take to get there.
If something produces a great walk with God for you, it’s a great path to take. If not, it’s probably a waste of time, even if lots of other folks highly recommend it. Fact is, what works for one can be worthless—even harmful— for another. The way we’re wired really matters. Whenever we project what works for us onto everyone else, we create frustration and legalism. When we let others project their stuff onto us we too often end up with unfounded guilt or a nervous twitch. Neither of which is very helpful when it comes to producing a great relationship with God.
For example, my father has 4 daughters. Let me rephrase that. He has 4 incredibly unique, undeniably different daughters. In his {and my mom’s} desire to celebrate and cultivate our unique talents, gifts, and “flavor”, if you will, they relate to us in different ways. While a long conversation about ancient civilizations will thrill and fill his {intellectually vibrant} relationship with my older sister, a more sports oriented chat during pit stops on a bike ride would more tangibly fill my baby sister’s tank. We’re all so different. And yet we share the very same dad. Out of his extravagant love for us, and his desire to meet us where we’re at, he relates to us in ways that are as unique as our personalities. And he fully respects – and expects – to be related to in very different ways by each of his daughters. We’re different…it makes sense that our relationships with him would look different. He’s cool like that.
How much more then would our heavenly Father communicate differently with the vastness of His creation. He woos us, challenges us, teaches us and loves us in the exact way He created us to receive these things. Yup, you guessed it…He’s just cool like that. In the same way, out of our unique make-up…we relate to Him differently. Why is it then that we are narrow minded enough to think that the way someone else relates {well} to God is the same way we should? And likewise, we get prideful enough to think that what works for us should absolutely work for another. But it doesn’t work that way.
When we really grasp this concept, the boxes we put ourselves in – and those we have the naïveté to put God into – shatter. And this is a good thing!
Back to the book…
DOES GOD PLAY FAVORITES?
As a new Christian, the more I pursued what it meant to know God and experience genuine spirituality, the more I found many of the standard answers confusing. The conventional paths to pleasing God seemed heavily tilted in the direction of certain personality types. The playing field didn’t appear to be level. I wondered if God played favorites. On the one hand, I was told that spirituality was within the reach of everyone. On the other hand, I noticed that almost all the books on spirituality and the inner life were written by introverts—smart ones at that. I got the distinct impression that God was somehow partial to reflective types with high IQs, impressive vocabularies, and lots of self-discipline. And that left a lot of us on the outside looking in.
DO GOOD READERS MAKE BETTER CHRISTIANS?
I also noticed that reading seemed to be rather important. But I’m not quite sure how the ability to read well became the essential tool for spiritual growth. If I want to know God and experience genuine spirituality, I’m told to read the Bible daily. If I want to grow really deep, I’m told to also read the time-honored classics written by the saints of old.
Now, I know the Bible is important; no argument there. But if daily Bible reading and mining the depths of the ancient scholars and mystics is the key to knowing God and God-pleasing spirituality, I wonder how regular folks got there before Gutenberg invented his printing press? Even more to the point, if reading skills are so vital, how can poor Tony, who’s severely dyslexic, ever hope to know God?
WHEN THE MOLD DOESN’T FIT
Finally, I wondered why I kept running across so many godly people who felt so ungodly. I now realize it had more to do with our faulty definitions of spirituality than anything else. In most cases, these people felt like spiritual failures not because they were far from God, but because they’d been unable to live up to generally accepted measures of spirituality.
They had stalled out in Leviticus each time they tried to read through the Bible. They were kinetic types who found extended prayer not only unfulfilling, but nearly torturous. Or extroverts who’d bought one of those fancy leather journals, but never got around to putting anything in it.
Mostly, they were regular folks who for whatever reason didn’t fit the mold too well. They tried it, but sadly found it didn’t work for them.
A CONTRARIAN’S PERSPECTIVE
Contrarian thinking at its best simply asks, Is that really true? And it speaks up when the politically correct answer or conventional wisdom doesn’t match reality—when things don’t work the way
everyone says they do or thinks they do. Contrarianism also represents a much-needed form of candor. It dares to speak the unspeakable, to voice what others may have been thinking but for some reason have been afraid to say out loud. Much like a young boy standing by the roadside asking, “Why is the emperor butt naked?”
What’s so freeing about freedom if we refuse to step out of the open cell?
John 10:10 talks about the fact that while the enemy seeks to destroy, Christ came to give life…and life abundantly. The word abundantly in the original greek {perissos}, means life so superfluous that there is excess. There is so much that it overflows. Jesus didn’t die for mediocre, boring, restrained or stifled. He died for abundant, and that involves living free from the slavery he died to set us free from.
*It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
*Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)
*If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)
As believer’s we’re often aware of the spiritual battle for our freedom. But we tend to give satan too much credit.
We often don’t realize is that we allow people to take our freedom away. We give it away freely.
We allow prominent people in our lives to rob us of joy and delight in Christ, often unintentionally, and it makes us slaves to things that we’re not supposed to be enslaved to. Christ set us free from this stuff!
The only thing we’re in bondage to is LOVE {Colossians 3:12-14, Matthew 22:37-40, John 13:34}
God made us stunningly unique…why do we betray that by trying to be something we’re not. We try and conform to what the world says we should be…what our family says we should look like…what the church says we should look like.
Some people raise their hands…some people don’t. We enforce rules that are not in the bible.
Grace can be scary, we wrongly think that when we talk about grace that others will take it for granted and just go on in their sin.
But that’s not where the real danger is.
The hypocrisy in the church is speaking louder than our raw, authentic spirituality. How is that appealing to those outside the church?
And we wonder why people don’t want in?
We are called to be known by our love – not our bumper stickers, jewelry, our political stance, or our bold refusal of wine at a restaurant.
But our love.
A true believer cannot abuse the grace of God. The Holy Spirit is in them…making them a slave to what is right. There is a power…a person…inside you that will not allow you to abuse grace.
We have been set free. Free from all of our sin, all of our junk, all of our shame. The blood is enough. Absolutely enough.
If we abuse it, you don’t really know it.
If you truly know the grace of the cross…could you walk out of this room and abuse the grace of Jesus Christ? So start experiencing what’s so amazing about grace.
We need to remember that In the midst of a winter, the stark naked apple tree is still an apple tree.
There are seasons in life that we don’t bear fruit…that we’re not “feeling it”. That we are fighting to just survive the day. The season that surrounds the tree does not change the fact that what surges within that living thing, is the life of a tree. That outer appearance – that temporary lack of fruit – does not change what we are and whose we are.
:: Colossians 2:6-18 {The Message}
Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.
Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after, you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.
So don’t put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.
Don’t tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They’re a lot of hot air, that’s all they are. They’re completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.
