Today is
Monday May 20th 2013. For many of you out there you have a very
detailed plan for your career and perhaps hope for your relationships by 2018.
You have
read all the right books, joined all the networks online and groups on Facebook.
You have signed up for all the newsletters and follow the right people on twitter and are current with
all that pertains to your field of interest all in a bid to stay on top of the
game career wise.
You mouth
all the mantras and live all the principles. You have Steve Jobs biography on
you shelf. A copy of Richard Bransons “breaking my virginity” book has dog ears
from over use while Kiyosaki's “Rich dad poor dad” has been underlined to the
point of illegibility.
You subscribe
to this newsletter, attend that weekly ‘millionaires’ meeting, seek mentoring
and leadership from the business persons you admire and have invested in
several businesses. All because in ten years you have this picture of financial
stability, independence and more.
But I wonder
how many of us actually put the same amount of effort into growing our faith.
What are our spiritual targets for the next 5-10 years? Who are the men of
faith we have submitted to in mentorship and discipleship to get to where we
want to be? Which books that build our faith have we bought and totally worn
out from reading and rereading. How many select groups do we attend to both
encourage and find encouragement? How much have we invested in both time and
money and more into this venture called our spiritual life? How many of us
actually spend time training our spirits in the ways of the master.
When you
read scripture a lot of the analogy for spiritual disciplines was connected to
work. It was a sort of apprenticeship with us as the novice and God as the
master. Those days and even in apprenticeship today it was mostly learned by
doing. But there were other skills needed.
Because apprenticeship
was long and hard and often took year’s commitment was foremost. Others I imagine
was teach-ability, faith that your master would teach you all he knew, humility
as learn and ask questions, grace under rebuke and failure, respect for your
time and that of the master as well as keen eyes and hands cause after all that
was the basic mode of skill transfer. You watched and did and watched and did
till you were as God as the master. It was only then that you could work on
your own.
So let’s all
let go of these excuses we give, mbu church has failed us (this is my personal favourite) oba there is no
longer preaching of the right gospel, true gospel or full gospel. Stop using
the failing of other Christians to justify your actions; they were never your
example to follow in the first place. Let us abandon the self-righteous
internal neo judgment peppered with false humility that Christians lately are
wont to do.
Instead let’s
put out hand to the mill and follow that age old advice contained in the
scriptures
12 Therefore, my dear
friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more
in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
Philippians 2:12
New International Version (NIV)
God knows we all need to.
