Keeping Time

Being good at things take time.

One of my biggest struggles with following Jesus is that to do it well, it takes a great deal of time.

Somehow, it’s easy to think that Christianity is simply something you are, not ever something you do. True, it’s not about just going to church or tithing or talking about Jesus. But a writer who never writes is hardly going to be much of a writer. In fact, I think it would be perfectly reasonable, and even necessary, to question whether such a man is a writer at all. Why would you claim to be a writer and not write? Because you want the benefit, the feel of being a writer, whatever that is, without putting in the work required to actually write.

I try and trick myself into thinking that just being a Christian is enough, but if I’m not doing, then I’m not being.

And trying to slip through with a minimum of commitment and effort is nothing more than an excellent way of ensuring that you will always struggle in your faith.

Lifting a great load requires exercise, and consistent training. Following Jesus requires a different sort of training, but training nonetheless. Spending hours with a Bible, or listening for the still, small, whisper, or reading the notes of those who have come before—this is required, if we are to show any improvement in the way we follow Jesus. It’s even likely that if we want to make it at all, we have to be doing these things at least to some degree. Meeting with the church, serving the local body, loving your neighbors, both friends and enemies. Without the doing of these things, there will be no being.

It takes time to get with Jesus every morning, or to read something like Augustine’s Confessions in the evening. And it takes time to go out and serve others, and to take care of them, and to do your job as an ear, or an eye, or a foot.

But what we need to get straight is that these are minimum requirements for following Jesus. It takes time. There are no shortcuts, no power-nap or speed-reading versions of spirituality. There is only a long road ahead, and daily we take a step or two in the direction of Jesus. Let us simply accept that, put our shoulder to the plow, and make whatever commitments and sacrifices necessary for us to make it, to be faithful till the end. 

~ by Michael on October 23, 2008.