Staying in Shape Spiritually

How do you know when you have slid too far in your diet/exercise plan? Is it when your clothes get too tight, those nice pants suddenly don’t fit anymore? Maybe it’s when you go for a walk, afternoon hike or want to play an active game with a friend and find yourself out of breath faster than you expected. There are often signs of slacking off in terms of physical health and in our society we learn to watch for these even closer by stepping on the scale occassionally, getting physicals and watching our blood pressure. Your doctor will make sure you are aware of your physical health problems, and your health insurance company will try to make sure you’re working to improve as much as you can. More than one industry works to make sure you are informed about your own state of being.

But what about your spiritual state? There are not so many people lining up to straightforwardly tell you if you are in shape spiritually. Do you notice when you’re not as sensitive to God today as you were yesterday, a month ago, a year ago? Do you have “markers” of times in the past you knew things were good in your relationship with your lovely intimate God, and do you still rely on those to show that you can be close to Him? Many of us are doing this, we replay the old days of sweet moments with the Lord, but we don’t build on them and set our expectations to maintain and continually grow that relationship. We know God has spoken to us before. We know there were times we have come before Him broken. But when does, “He speaks to me,” become, “He has spoken to me”?

How can I gauge my spiritual shape? Like with exercise, I can guess based on my recent activities. How often am I in Scriptures, reading and learning? Am I praying about everything? (How honest were you with yourself about those last questions?) The next step is to look at the results of my actions, the “fruit” produced by a life.* One frequent and often blatant sign is your emotional reaction to an issue that arises. We tend to run our emotions through the grid or filter of our convictions, which are based on current spiritual health. That is, a strong spiritual life leads to handling emotional situations in a Godly way, whereas a weak spirit life lends to emotional upheaval.

The situations of life come regardless. We’re certainly not given a reason to think troubling things won’t pop up. However, rather than be swamped by fear we can trust God, rather than worry we can pray, rather than snap someone’s head off we can have patience and compassion in the moment. Note the words “rather than.” No matter how difficult a time, and some of them will be overwhelming occassionally, we can respond in a Godly way immediately, not just come to that better emotional state later on. If you wait to bring problems to God after you’ve already had to react to them, rather than regularly bringing yourself to God to stayed tuned to His Spirit, you will get the benefit of His counsel but you lose the intervening time and may have to deal with the consequences of your first reaction. Like preventive medicine instead of waiting for the disease to knock you out, staying in good spiritual shape develops serenity, an even life less tossed by destructive emotional waves.

*As a note, sometimes you see what you are producing yourself, and sometimes it’s more useful to have it pointed out by another person. Find someone you can trust to tell you this, then love them for being honest with you, no matter what.

Remember to Praise

Take the time to praise God.

Do you ever wake up, and once you’re alert enough to have any thoughts at all, you remember you should spend some time with God? But, not right now, you’re running late for work. Maybe you can think about that tonight. You are rushing around trying to find your keys or notebook or matching socks and maybe you rush a little request for some help with those lost items. Then, once you find your keys, you only think how silly you were for forgetting where they were. In the car, you break just in time to miss someone trying to cut under the red light that changed to green 30 seconds ago. You even sigh aloud, “Thank God,” but then you start focusing more on the road and what you need to do first thing when you get to work.

You’ve gotten to work safely, on time, and with socks. But you’ve also missed a whole morning to rejoice, give thanks and praise the God Who breathed life into you, woke you up, provided for your needs, and even got you where you wanted to go.

You may have too much going on in your life (we’ll leave that for another day), but your perspective on thanks and praise doesn’t have to be spending all day at church or else do nothing. Sing your moments of rejoicing (“Praise the God Who remembered me! He found my key! He protected my family!”) and proclaim the blessings of the Almighty for life today.

Truly Accepted

What is your deepest longing?

If not this moment, I’ll safely assume that at some point, it was to belong. Maybe you wanted to belong in a family, with a group of friends, in a relationship, or at a school or job. Maybe you’ve wanted to belong to a club or group that represents success, achievement, or privilege. Very early on, children learn the idea of in-group and out-group; they crave to know where and who with they belong. Belonging brings security. You know if you fall down, somebody can help you up. You know if you’ve enjoyed the day, or really not enjoyed the day that someone will share your joys and struggles.

We all want to be accepted, to be approved, to be a part of the group. In some ways, this is healthy. If I just decided to only respond to my own desires and seek my own approval, I would end up lonely, hurt, and probably in lots of trouble. If I’m having a hard time and there is no one to notice, it could be bad for me. Watching out for yourself all the time is exhausting and not a lot of fun.

This is a problem in a society that promotes to individuals the lofty goals to stand on your own two feet, to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and to make the most of yourself for yourself alone. We are instead social beings. In the world of making it on your own, yet craving interaction, we can end up turning each interaction into a test. If someone does not have something we want to gain from them (social status, career status, information, influence, or least the ability to make us laugh), they fail our test and we move on to another person. To pass, a person must be good enough in some way. We don’t become friends with people just because they are convenient. (Do you always become best friends with your current next door neighbor?) No, we choose people with qualities that benefit us, even if it’s just because we get enjoyment from being around them. Human relationships are conditional and when our (usually selfish) conditions are not met, it’s over.

Constantly proving ourselves to our friends, co-workers, and even family members is draining. It also leaves a bit of doubt if someone we love will still love us no matter what we do. Even the approval that we work to gain can be lost. Some relationships are strong enough that we can’t lose our acceptance quickly, but it could happen over time.

This mindset is a hindrance in coming to God. The eternal approval we most need, the constant acceptance that matters the most to a growing spiritual life, is something we fear losing more than friends or club memberships. The stakes are so high we try to hide from God rather than expose ourselves and face the judgment we fear. We try to come to God with a defense of what we’ve done and why our failings should be overlooked. We come with plans for how we’ll change in the future if only we won’t be rejected now.

Fortunately, God doesn’t judge us the way we are inclined to judge each other. God’s holiness is too great for that option. No person would make it. The most amazing thing in following Christ is that Christ Himself represents you, intercedes for you, before the Father. And Christ’s approval stands. All He asks is to believe in Him and He’ll go to work for you, getting you in, and as long as you’re under His cover, you are never kicked out of God’s group. The unconditional love we look for in the world isn’t going to be found. We have to find it in the only place we are truly accepted.