The Journey Matters

The world looks at where people are as a sign of success. In many senses spiritually where people are is far less important than how they got where they are.

The journey we take and the decisions we make to get there are more important than where we end up. Our faithfulness to live out our faith is more important than any status or position we obtain.

Ill gotten gain or gain obtained by walking over others is never good for those who get it. It may look like ill gotten gain has no significance today or tomorrow but we always tend to look at things too closely.

We tend to look at life in the moment instead of life in the face of eternity. In the moment many things look good that do not look good in the face of eternity.

The biblical math is that having God is worth more than all else. The math is of course fundamentally correct in the face of eternity.

Only one thing matters. All other things find their significance in relation to the choice to follow or fail to follow Jesus.

The choice is not between following Jesus and opposing Jesus. There are those who oppose Jesus for sure. But the choice is to actively follow Jesus or not. We cannot passively follow Jesus in a way which has no meaning.

We are saved by grace and not saved by our works. But the faith which justifies is never alone. True faith is always active.

The Messiness of Life

Post by
Michelle Dowell
Co-Contributor

A theology that is missing an acknowledgement of the messiness of life is deficient. I heard a pastor say once "God is a God of order." That is absolutely true, but I am more encouraged to know that God is a God who, in his mercy, allows people in a messy world with a messy nature to still take part in serving him.

This fallen condition of the world and humans is a hard reality, but the fact that we are allowed to participate in God's work of loving and helping people and honoring him in the midst of it all--that is what is encouraging. It's broken, but we're called to work with that brokenness, to help when we can to put pieces back together if it's possible. Let's focus on that, but also not forget the state of everything being tainted by the Fall. It's discouraging to always try to grasp for the impossible of perfection in this life.

It's sad to see so many Christians try so hard to always force a smile. It's as if they feel if they don't appear that everything is perfect and in order in their life and if they aren't happy in that moment, something is missing. They may feel that their smile doesn't look forced, but often it's easy to see if a person is forcing it if a person is really wanting to know.

I'm not saying that Christians should grumpily walk around. Christians should show more genuine emotions. They should trust that it's okay to not feel happy every moment of the day, and to allow others to see that. It may mean not having much of an expression but it's honest and frees others of the pressure to pretend to be what one is not.


It's not one or the other: Not happy or sad all the time. But a variety of emotions at different times. This is life. It is an adventure, a calling, a journey.

Self Knowledge and Sanctification

Often in churches you see this great discomfort when people express what they struggle with. It is as if pastors fear that church attenders expressing their sins give credence that the sin is alright.

I personally do not think this tendency is correct. There is certainly an over sharing which is possible, but a knowledge of sin is necessary for growth.

I always find it far more concerning when you find church members whose lives are so perfectly together and seem to have no awareness of their sin. It is often just not true.

It is more often that their is a lack of awareness or a fakeness to the person than a lack of sin. We all need to grow and are all at different points in our journey. Some of us have started in worse places than others.

But all of us need grace daily and a lack of awareness of sin is always quite concerning. We cannot grow if we do not see that we need to grow.

It is difficult to solve a problem that one cannot see exists. And sometimes this is why God confronts us with ourselves.

We cannot grow in issues we do not see. And sometimes God purposely brings opportunities for issues to come to the surface for this reason.

Meandering Nature of Life

Life often doesn't make sense from our perspective. We are too close to see what God is doing in the world.

Often all of the features of life look out of whack like a broken vase on the floor. In the end there is more to things than we see.

God promises he is working all things for our good. Often life does not seem so.

It is comforting to see the great men of faith in the Old Testament express their confusion toward the nature of life. You see David on the run confused.

You see many prophets and great men of God hopelessly confused on the journey. Often in their moment of triumph they still have no idea what is going on or why things are happening.

The comfort to us is we do not need to worry if we do not see the path or nothing makes sense. To feel confused and bewildered by life does not imply we have not acted faithfully or that we are in the wrong in some sense because our life makes no sense and a Christian brother’s life seems to make sense.