Your spiritual life is important. Not many people in America get that, but what happens in your spiritual life – how you grow, are feed, are protected, and reach appropriate states of maturity – is a big part of who you ought to be. It is a testimony to our own culture’s spiritual bankruptcy that we think of “spirituality” as an add-on to our lives. We *have* to earn a living, take care of our bodies, and watch “24” or “Lost” – but attending to the needs of our soul as it relates to the Creator is a peripheral matter. I don’t believe I’m exaggerating when I say that ninety percent or more of the membership (where even that occurs) of a typical church care more for their automobiles than they do for their eternal souls. Just look at their credit card statements and checkbooks.
We make two mistakes. The first is that we think that we are “good enough.” We like to think we have a ‘good bead’ on our lives and our spiritual condition. I recently did an analysis of an evangelical church’s survey on its health. The results indicated that members of the church believed themselves to understand the Bible very well. Yet, that same survey indicated that, even if they knew how, the majority of the membership would not share their faith with an unbeliever. I’m sorry, friends, but if you think that you know the Bible but don’t know the importance of sharing the gospel – you are deluding yourself. This church, in its mass delusion, thinks they know the Bible “good enough.” Yet, the survey result clearly shows they don’t know the Bible at all. Maybe they are “into the Bible,” but they have not allowed the Bible to get into them. The disease of “good enough” means that a person doesn’t believe they need help.
The second mistake is that even if we recognize that we are not where we should be, we don’t think anyone else can be of real help in our growth. We have bought into the self-help movement so much that we apply it to our spiritual lives even when the Bible is absolutely crystal clear that spiritual life and growth must be done in relationship with other believers. We think we can go it alone and solve our own problems. This leads to a general disrespect for the pastorate. Pastors are specifically trained, gifted, and called to be “physicians of the soul.” But we would rather self-medicate.
My closing: let’s take our life with Jesus seriously enough to understand that we are not “good enough” and to battle our pride to let those around us help us get better.
