Your Spiritual Journey

Why You May Be Further Along Than You Think

Whether you realize it or not, you are on a spiritual journey. No one is exempt from this journey for two primary reasons: (1) God is active in all the world and you are part of this world, and (2) You are a spiritual being created by God with transcendent desires that can only be satisfied by God.

First, God is active in all the earth. God is not limited to working only within the church. The church is simply a community that intentionally desires God's active rule and presence. But, whether one desires it or not, God's gracious and righteous rule has significance for us all. Indeed, this truth of God’s universal rule – what the Bible calls God’s kingdom – is at the heart of the Christian's desire to call people to respond positively to God. Jesus announced this reign during his earthly ministry by constantly proclaiming, “The kingdom of God has drawn near.”

God is active and present whether we desire it or not. God does not cease to exist simply because we desire to wish God away. The central truth of God’s kingdom is that God actively seeks to draw all people to a life-giving, meaning-creating relationship. God does not simply call the “spiritual heroes” of the world – God also calls the “spiritual zeros.” No one is outside the boundary of God’s love and God’s call.

God seeks us first. The reason that you have an inner desire for spiritual significance and meaning is that God has put it there – God seeks you long before you ever realize God is doing it. Whether you recognize it or not, God is seeking you. God’s kingdom knows no bounds and you, as one of God’s subjects, are the object of God’s desire.

The second reason you are on a spiritual journey is related to the oft-forgotten truth that you are, at the very core of your existence, a spiritual being. You have been created by God for God. You have desires that find their source in this great truth. Though our world often undermines (or completely ignores) the fact that you are a spiritual being, the truth remains. St. Augustine conveyed a deep spiritual truth when he stated, “Our hearts are made for Thee, and we are restless until we find rest in Thee.” This is the reason that all your deepest longings are never quite satisfied in the things of this world alone.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo or mirage. (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

Your desires for something transcendent – something meaningful, something eternal – are not misguided. These desires stem from your spiritual nature. You are more than the chemicals of which you are composed, more than your sexuality, more than your genetic makeup – much more! Our problem is not that we have desires, but that our desires are not strong enough.

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (C. S. Lewis, “The Weight of Glory”)

You are on a spiritual journey, searching for something you can’t quite put your finger on. We all share this same spiritual journey. This short essay is written to help you find the answers you need to satisfy your deepest desire – to love and be loved, to know and be known, to celebrate and be celebrated, and to serve a higher purpose than self.

We all need more love than we deserve. The higher love that is more than we deserve is called “grace” in the Bible. God offers this grace to all who are willing to receive it.

Where are you in your spiritual journey? Perhaps you have unanswered questions. Perhaps you are wrestling with significance. Perhaps you are having trouble finding purpose and meaning. Perhaps you committed your life to Christ in the past but still have lingering questions and doubts that have kept you away from God’s church. Perhaps you have been hurt by the church in the past and are wary of beginning again. Whatever your condition, whatever your questions, I can assure you that God promises to be found if you choose to seek God. That is the Good News the Holy Scriptures proclaim.

The Good News of the Good Life

You cannot know where to go if you don't know who you are and why you are here. The "good life" is a life that corresponds to who we are, why we are here, and leads us to a purposeful end.

Many people do not pursue the "good life" because they have little time to reflect upon ultimate questions. Furthermore, living the good life demands that we give up control and turn to God for answers. This is a risky venture and strikes fear in our hearts – it is never easy to give our hearts to another. Finally, the good life is not necessarily the easy life. It calls us to examine ourselves, make sacrifices, and pursue disciplines that are not for the faint of heart. But, rest assured, in spite of all that is involved in pursuing it, the good life is the most fulfilling, satisfying, and purposeful way to live.

It would be a tragedy to die and never have really lived. Indeed, many who live are not really living. They are merely surviving, hanging on, hoping to make sense of things. We invite you to spend some time reflecting on the good news the Bible gives concerning the good life. This good news demands careful thought and reflection, but we are convinced it is worth the effort. God rewards our search. God promises that if we seek God, God will be found by us – primarily because God is already passionately seeking us.

The reality of God pervades our world. God created the world and all that is in it – including you – with a purpose in mind. It is this purpose that offends many people. Many people are content with a spirituality that makes no personal claims on our lives. But this kind of spirituality is self-serving, laying hold of no higher claim than our own interests.

We who defend Christianity find ourselves constantly opposed not by the irreligion of our hearers but by their real religion. Speak about beauty, truth and goodness, or about a God who is simply the indwelling principle of these three, speak about a great spiritual force pervading all things, a common mind of which we are all parts, a pool of generalised spirituality to which we can all flow, and you will command friendly interest. But the temperature drops as soon as you mention a God who has purposes and performs particular actions, who does one thing and not another, a concrete, choosing, commanding, prohibiting God with a determinate character. (C. S. Lewis, Miracles)

God has a purpose for this world in general and for your life in particular. All that promotes God's purpose is good. All that negates this purpose is evil (lies, pride, infidelity, unbelief, etc.). God’s ultimate purpose is that we would share God’s love, life, and joy through participation in God’s life.

The Christian message is that God is not an isolated individual. God’s essence is personal on the high order of Trinity. Before anything else existed, God – Father, Son, and Spirit – experienced infinite love, joy, and fellowship. Out of the fullness of this intratrinitarian communion God created all things to share God’s life – an eternal love relationship. God designed this world to be a place where God’s love could be known, shared, and experienced. God’s purpose was that all creation would share in God’s life. You were created for this end. This is your reason to live. This is real life! Our desires for personal love relationships have their source in the eternal love relationship of God – Father, Son, and Spirit. All true love is patterned after this divine reality. It is a life of self-giving, others-affirming, and sharing love.

Human beings are made in God’s image and thus designed by God to participate in God's life of love, joy, and fellowship. Nothing else in all of creation reflects God as much as human beings. We hold the potential to share in the divine life. This is a high privilege that holds great promise and brings great responsibility. It also provides opportunity for great misery and ruin, for human beings made in God’s image also have the capacity to freely reject God’s offer of love and life. We can refuse to receive God’s love and turn away from divine life leading to ruin. Sadly, that is what we often do. Human history is the record of this “life of death” – a reality that the Bible calls sin.

The Bible teaches that human beings have fallen from the high privilege that God gives us through “sin” – a rejection of God's purpose, plan, and design. This has resulted in broken, fractured, and strained relationships leading to alienation, loneliness, despair, sorrow, and ultimately, death - the ultimate rending of a relationship. This is the bad news that provides the dark backdrop for the good news of God’s grace.

God, being too good to abandon a fallen creation, has personally entered into the human dilemma – our living death – by identifying fully with humanity through Jesus, and bearing the full consequences of human sin. Jesus Christ is “God made flesh” (John 1:1, 14) – fully human and fully divine – and thus the bridge that brings together what sin has divided. Jesus Christ has redeemed humanity through his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus has broken down all barriers to participation in divine life. By grace – love that is not deserved – the Spirit of God personally applies the benefits of Christ's work to those who are willing to receive it. The Spirit is the open embrace of God that draws us back into the divine embrace, the divine life.

Though our sin leads to death, God freely offers to restore us to the high privilege of personal communion. Through repentance (turning back to God) and faith (trusting and following God) we are brought into a state of grace where we can begin life anew with a clean slate and a new heart.

Countless Christians throughout the ages have experienced this grace and have reoriented their lives to believe Jesus’ message and follow Jesus’ teaching. Every day provides a new opportunity to discover the significance of life on the spiritual journey. Through God’s grace, we can learn to love and be loved.

All who are willing may come. Will you open your heart to receive this new life?