It's Already Happening

Growth in the Christian life is not something we can take or leave. It is happening 24-7 as we walk through our days whether we realize it or not. 

A classic text Invitation to a Journey by Robert Mulholland puts it this way.

“Everyone is in a process of spiritual formation! Every thought we hold, every decision we make, every action we take, every emotion we allow to shape our behavior, every response we make to the world around us, every relationship we enter into, every reaction we have toward the things that surround us and impinge upon our lives – all of these things, little by little, are shaping us into some kind of being. We are being shaped into either the wholeness of the image of Christ or a horribly destructive caricature of that image – destructive not only to ourselves but also to others, for we inflict our brokenness upon them. We become either agents of God’s healing and liberating grace or carriers of the sickness of the world.”

Invitation to a Journey, p. 23

It is imperative that at its most foundational state we are aware of the spiritual forces around us that draw us closer to God and those that are a clear detriment to our welfare. Our life as a covenantal community can help guard our souls and prevent us from those places of danger and possible release into lethargy and hopelessness. 

C.S. Lewis is even more direct.

“Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part that chooses, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either to a creature who is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one stage or the other.”

Mere Christianity, p. 86-87

Think on these things.

Walking with you,

Doug