Every few years I realize how wrong I’ve been. People who know me are faster on that, and even temporary acquaintances pick up the signals pretty quick, and I do the same for them.
All this has happened before, and it will all happen again, the line goes.
But this time it happened in … an ongoing recent spiritual growth spurt
This one involving wife and work and life and leading.
Prior-ly I was moving OK-ly, I thought. Not really, because though I thought it as I was doing it, every few days, sometimes oftener … disappointment with the results.
I read a little, and can reliably recall more. I was certain of some certain things, and went to church.
Heading in the wrong direction but making good time — and then, not even making the good time.
It’s the Functionally Illiterate Christian, meaning we get by (sort of) and read (sort of) and obey (sort of).
So dumping Don’t wanna be going nowhere, but going nowhere fast, I switched to Found and holding hands, and found I’m not married by accident.
My helpmeet gently helped — we people aren’t always — and prayed for me constantly
My work radically changed, and I’m actually about to earn money again. Feels, is, good.
In life, I’m writing less for a bit, maybe a couple months. Hadn’t been finishing anyway.
In leading, it’s what He says, and has said, and still says, try as I did, not to believe Him.
Because getting by is already a sort of, already mediocrity incarnate. Might be all we manage at times, but get by sort of is definitely redundant.
And reading sort of is no fun. People do it — scanning headlines for the basic “news” or with escapist trash literature, as Michele calls it. Not a life.
And one can no more obey sort of than one can be pregnant sort of.
They used to say the Holy Roman Empire was none of the above, and a friend once said the same about a place called First Christian Church. As with those so with this: there is no Functionally Illiterate Christian because if we are one, we aren’t one.
Functionally Illiterate Christian is
Non-Functional (we don’t get by),
Non-Literate (we aren’t reading), and
Non-Christian (we don’t follow Christ).
The lukewarm bath is one many others have tried to wash in, leaving that thin layer of grime and soap skim. The fatal flaw isn’t water temperature, which comes with the Insanity Error of doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. No, the error is the trying to wash in it.
Because get by sort of and read sort of and obey sort of aren’t — by design, definition, and disappointing result — possible, trying to wash in them will … not … cannot … work.
I don’t want to be functionally anything. Such a bar is far too low.
I don’t want to read without believing. That’s wasted life and love.
I don’t want to follow like this, my way, offering sop to his leading.
This much: We’re not supposed to wash in it. We’re clean.
Don’t stay in the tub. Get out, get dressed, and get moving.
Naked — meaning nothing and waiting — before God, he clothes us, and sends us on his way.