As we enter into 10 weeks of teaching and soaking in the concept of Deeper, I'm soberly eager (no idea if that's possible.) I spent some time today making a list contrasting shallow spirituality with deeper pursuit. Nothing here is new but it helps me to contrast things in order to understand them. I like to ask the question "how is this different from that?" By the end of the list I was challenged and convicted to go Deeper. (If you have adds/edits, feel free to comment them in...)
|
Shallow Spirituality |
Deeper Pursuit |
|
Has arrived |
Is searching |
|
Full of
answers |
Full of wonder |
|
Is doing
pretty good |
Feels constantly unfinished |
|
Lives
primarily off of other people’s God discoveries and moments |
Invests time into exploration with
the hope of God discoveries and moments |
|
Measures
expectations to avoid spiritual disappointment |
Lives with the tension of expectancy
and disappointment |
|
Hopes to
become a saint, maybe someday |
A saint who groans against the grip
and depth of sin |
|
Hopeful
about performance |
Hungry for Grace |
|
Loves to
be right |
Rightly loves |
|
Fears
mystery and moves away from it |
Fears mystery and moves toward it |
|
Lives off
of a good faith history |
Lives off of a moment-by-moment decision
to say “yes” again |
|
Doesn’t
count costs and disengages when things get tough |
Counts costs daily, gulps and moves
forward |
|
Seeks God
in spiritual places |
Seeks God in every place |
|
Has only a
few hiding places |
Destroys every hiding place |
|
Resists
being challenged |
Humbly receives challenge looking for
God-words in it |
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