The Long Way Home
The Long Way Home
Wednesday after the Resurrection – April 15, 2020
Spiritual growth does not come in a moment . . . in a flash of insight . . . or by responding to an altar call . . . or in an inspiring conference . . . or even in an act of kindness that creates good feelings within us.
Spiritual growth is a long, long journey. We grow day-by-day, moment-by-moment, the slow accumulation of long-term openness to God’s work within us.
I’ve known persons who expected transformation to come in a flash, and who quickly grew frustrated when they did not get the immediate results they expected.
The spiritual life is a journey of our entire lifetime. We never come to the end of it. This is the work God is doing within us slowly, moment-by-moment.
In the excerpt below, Evelyn Underhill talks about spiritual growth.
We talked first of growth and then of service, but we must not divide them too sharply, for the two go together from the beginning. In a good nursery, children are taught to do little things from the first. Just so, by daily acts of service to God and other souls, we enlarge our souls to receive a love which makes better work possible in the future. It is in thus trying to work for and with Him that we grow; and as we grow, we become more and more capable of continuing.
The growth of spiritual personality, that is to say, our gradual sanctification, is not achieved by some desperate spiritual splash, but by responding without hesitation, as nearly as we can, to the successive impulses we receive from the Supernatural. We may be sure that each time we make a heroic choice for God, we shall be given a further chance of making another later on. Risking suffering and effort for others, the soul stretches until it is able to be filled with the divine will and love. The frictions and tensions of outward life, and our response in active service, are essential to this.
At the heart of all such service must be the Cross. In choosing God, we take sides with a self-giving perfection, a holiness that pours itself out to sinfulness – loving, seeking, and serving the imperfect. In Christ’s life we clearly see two phases: first the expansive and happy self-giving of the ministry in teaching and healing; secondly, the inward intensity of self-giving to God for all that which led to Gethsemane and Calvary. The same two-fold response on lower levels is true of all the saints and is a mark of supernatural life in the soul. It involves both suffering and courage through a deliberate “loving of the unlovely into loveableness.”
[Evelyn Underhill, The Ways of the Spirit, edited by Grace Adolphsen Brame, (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2001).]
For Reflection:
o I am aware today that even when outer circumstances cause life to be very different for me, I am still shaped by God moment-by-moment.
o Spiritual growth is not a one-time offer, extended to us at the “big” moments of life. The spiritual life is a continual choosing, an ongoing following.
o Each choice for God we make in the daily events of our lives stretches us a bit. Each enables us to grow more and more into God’s shape for us . . . allowing us to "love the unlovely into loveableness."
Wednesday after the Resurrection – April 15, 2020
Spiritual growth does not come in a moment . . . in a flash of insight . . . or by responding to an altar call . . . or in an inspiring conference . . . or even in an act of kindness that creates good feelings within us.
Spiritual growth is a long, long journey. We grow day-by-day, moment-by-moment, the slow accumulation of long-term openness to God’s work within us.
I’ve known persons who expected transformation to come in a flash, and who quickly grew frustrated when they did not get the immediate results they expected.
The spiritual life is a journey of our entire lifetime. We never come to the end of it. This is the work God is doing within us slowly, moment-by-moment.
In the excerpt below, Evelyn Underhill talks about spiritual growth.
We talked first of growth and then of service, but we must not divide them too sharply, for the two go together from the beginning. In a good nursery, children are taught to do little things from the first. Just so, by daily acts of service to God and other souls, we enlarge our souls to receive a love which makes better work possible in the future. It is in thus trying to work for and with Him that we grow; and as we grow, we become more and more capable of continuing.
The growth of spiritual personality, that is to say, our gradual sanctification, is not achieved by some desperate spiritual splash, but by responding without hesitation, as nearly as we can, to the successive impulses we receive from the Supernatural. We may be sure that each time we make a heroic choice for God, we shall be given a further chance of making another later on. Risking suffering and effort for others, the soul stretches until it is able to be filled with the divine will and love. The frictions and tensions of outward life, and our response in active service, are essential to this.
At the heart of all such service must be the Cross. In choosing God, we take sides with a self-giving perfection, a holiness that pours itself out to sinfulness – loving, seeking, and serving the imperfect. In Christ’s life we clearly see two phases: first the expansive and happy self-giving of the ministry in teaching and healing; secondly, the inward intensity of self-giving to God for all that which led to Gethsemane and Calvary. The same two-fold response on lower levels is true of all the saints and is a mark of supernatural life in the soul. It involves both suffering and courage through a deliberate “loving of the unlovely into loveableness.”
[Evelyn Underhill, The Ways of the Spirit, edited by Grace Adolphsen Brame, (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2001).]
For Reflection:
o I am aware today that even when outer circumstances cause life to be very different for me, I am still shaped by God moment-by-moment.
o Spiritual growth is not a one-time offer, extended to us at the “big” moments of life. The spiritual life is a continual choosing, an ongoing following.
o Each choice for God we make in the daily events of our lives stretches us a bit. Each enables us to grow more and more into God’s shape for us . . . allowing us to "love the unlovely into loveableness."
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