Mar. 2, 2013

Luke 4:31

Jesus went down to the city of Capernaum in Galilee and taught the people each Sabbath.

Three years. This is the time many biblical scholars believe was the length of Jesus’ ministry.

Think back to March 2010. How has your life changed? We’ve added a couple grandchildren added to our family and my dad has passed away. We’ve celebrated several Holy Week and Easter celebrations and Advent and Christmas seasons.

Three years from now it will be March 2016. Will my life be very much the same or will it be considerably different? It is impossible to know.

Consider where you were spiritually three years ago. Has this area of your life changed? I have learned there is far more to the Christian life than getting it right. There is living it right. While I can learn more about the Bible, the gospel and what I perceive as God’s truth, living means applying information in a world filled with disappointment, doubt, suffering, idolatry and forgiveness.

I love learning. I often miss the intellectual stimulation from seminary. But I do not grow mature in my Christian life simply by reading books, skimming scripture, listening to sermons and going to church. We grow by taking the stuff from our ordinary, everyday lives and integrating it into our understanding of our faith. We discover what faith means for us personally when we take our spouses and families, our parents and siblings, our children, our friends, our co-workers, our dreams and fantasies, our hopes and dreams and lay them before our Lord and Savior. We can have lots of “information” accumulated about God but unless we discover how to “apply” it to everyday life, it’s simply information.

The person with the most information doesn’t have a competitive advantage in the end. Those who somehow begin to develop a life of holy living on a daily basis makes God smile. This is not a life only reserved for nuns and monks and popes. I think God deeply desires for us to each move a little closer to God in our daily living; something very accessible to all of us.

Where would I like to be spiritually in three years? A little closer to this holy living. More able to take daily life situations and contemplate how they fit into my understanding of grace and mercy. I pray that I have a deeper understanding of how events from the Old Testament influence and connect to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. But until I take those events and connect them to my life, it is no more than a bunch of information.

How did Jesus position himself for this holy living? By taking regular retreats into the mountains to pray and be with his Father. By taking the simplest and most regular things in his daily life and turning them into a way to teach others. He did this not to give others more information; he was modeling for us how necessary it is for us to integrate faith into what we do every

Three years can zip by. May we see that daily, we choose to move closer to you or further away from you. Flat-line spiritual living really doesn’t happen. May we choose to seek how to live more holy daily. 

Blessings –

Dianne