The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

I wonder if there’s something more than irony at work behind the record setting cold that is gripping parts of the Nation.  My goodness- they had snow in Malibu, California this Winter.  I wonder if Someone is making a point?

At the rate we’re going it won’t be long before Al Gore is forced to surrender his Nobel Peace Prize and his Oscar too.  Or maybe the Academy will allow him to exchange his trophy for Best Documentary for Best Picture.  That way all of them can save face.

Poor Al Gore!  He’s in the process of being reborn as Chicken Little incarnate.

Spiritual Horsepower.

I wanted a faster car so I bought one with more horsepower.  That was easy.  Turbo charging or adding more horsepower to my spiritual life is far more troublesome.  My intentions are always good.  I want to pray more, reflect more and read my Bible more.  My difficulty is in the follow through.

I might hear an inspirational sermon on prayer and vow to pray more.  I might read a good book on the benefits of keeping a spiritual journal and resolve to do so.  However, my first reaction is normally to feel guilty or envious.  Wow! If I was really spiritual I wouldn’t struggle so with being a daily Bible reader like that author.  Or,  why can’t I pray like that preacher?  He must be really spiritual.  And I’m not.

At some point the guilt will transform into an action plan.  Sort of like- this is the time I will set apart each day to read my Bible, to journal or pray and so forth.  For a time I’ll do great.  And I’ll feel great too.  Like- Good job Craig!  You’ve been faithful in having your quiet time every single day for the last three weeks.  You must be growing. Then comes the fall.  I’ll miss a time or two, get back on the horse, miss a time or three and before you know it the action plan has been transformed yet again into a source of guilt.

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve repeated this depressing cycle.  Spiritual people talk about the spiritual disciplines in such a way I conclude I’m neither disciplined nor spiritual.  It seems no matter what I do the engine that powers my inner spirit simply lacks the horsepower to propel me to the place the spiritually disciplined seem to inhabit.  Which gives me another reason to love Jesus.

In Revelation 3 Jesus placed an open door before the church at Philadelphia.  Because they were great?  Because they were powerful?  Because they had the courage and discipline to walk through the door?  No, no and no.  He did so because you have limited strength. One version says you have little power. The church at Philadelphia was a little ol’ four-cylinder church among some which were eight-cylinder horsepower producing dynamos.  And that was perfectly alright with Jesus.  In fact the passage leaves me with the impression Jesus stepped in and personally provided whatever power they lacked.  That’s awesome.

I’ve had enough experience being me to know I will always be a four-cylinder man when it comes to the spiritual disciplines.  And that’s okay.  It leaves no room for guilt.  It removes the curse of constantly comparing myself to others.  It leaves me more dependent on grace.  It leaves me more humble.  It leaves me more sympathetic.  It leaves me more reliant on Jesus.  Not a bad place to be.

Limited strength.  A statement of fact not judgment.  Knowing Jesus is at peace with my reality is empowering.  And vastly comforting.  Now I am free to rejoice with and learn from my brothers and sister whose internal engines roar with heart-stopping, ear-splitting,  adrenaline-producing raw horsepower.  I will eventually arrive at the same destination.  However, from time to time, while I’m taking a nap, Jesus is gonna have to do the driving.  And He’s okay with that.