I’ve taken some health classes at the local senior center recently, and the title of this post seems to be the new mantra. Evidently it’s been found that it is not only bad to do something clearly destructive to your health (smoking)– it’s just as bad to do nothing to improve it.
Recently it occurred to me that this is just as true of our spiritual life. Sometimes Christians, especially we older Christians who consider ourselves fairly mature in the faith, start to feel that we have “arrived.” Now, I don’t mean to imply we think we’re perfect — we know we’re not. However, we have our particular routine for spiritual health, and we stick to it. Maybe we go to church, Sunday School or Bible Study. Maybe we have a quiet time, or read a devotional every day. Maybe we have certain tasks we do around the church — we’re on the altar guild, or teach a class– and we’re comfortable with all that. We don’t think we need to try anything new.
WRONG!! To keep our brain healthy, we need to learn new and complex tasks now and then. To keep our faith lively, we need to mix it up and step outside our comfort zones. This is something I learned from our Fanning the Flame process.
I don’t know what that means for you, because I don’t know where you’re “sitting” right now. I do know you can get up and walk around. Read some new books and talk to your Pastor or another Christian about the ideas. Join a small group. Take a spiritual gift assessment, and try something new that corresponds to your gift mix. Start following (or even writing) a Christian blog. Try a different way of praying. Listen to some new music and sing it out loud! There are a million different ideas out there, so there’s no excuse. Stop sitting still!
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14
Lutheran Ladies Connection 