Key Five To Spiritual Formation

October 2007

I have been writing of late about the eight keys of spiritual transformation. For keys 1-4 related to spiritual transformation please visit http://www.baptistdigest.com and look under Columns: Walking with the Master.
The fifth key to spiritual transformation is this: There is only one speed on the highway of spiritual transformation: S L O W. An inevitable implication of spiritual growth is slowness. In order to grow, we have to slow down. I am impatient when it comes to my spiritual maturity. Has speed’s pervasive presence affected my view of spiritual formation and discipleship? Has it yours?

Slow is passé. Speed rules. Speed is everywhere. We expect all our services speedily. We expect our nano-second-fine-tuned-microprocessor technology to respond faster to our commands than last week’s speed. We expect pain to go away quickly; the good times to roll urgently. We expect to know ourselves suddenly and know God hastily. We pray “Lord, change me; transform my character, right now.” Does speed work? Not when it comes to spiritual transformation. The Bible commands us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The Bible also says that in Christ the old is past and the new arrives (See Romans 12:1-2; 2 Cor 5:17). Are these instant messages or slow-lane traffic negotiation?

The Holy Spirit uses the events of life and the spiritual disciplines such as solitude, study, meditation, and spiritual friendships (to name just a few) to train in the Christ-centered life. That we demand speed in our spirituality (Christian living) is an indication of our consumerist tendencies in the church today. Spiritual transformation and speed are not best friends or even good company.

What does slow spiritual progress feel and look like?

1. Transformation comes in small degrees.
Our spiritual formation begins at birth, at home. “Everyone gets a spiritual formation” says Dallas Willard. Some of our formation is of a good kind (trains us to center our lives in Christ). Some of it is bad (conforms us to the world). We have to rid ourselves of this conformity to the world. Alas, we let go slowly! We ditch worldly-tinged things reluctantly. The inward tug-of-war we play is real. Our damaged hearts, spirits, souls, relationships, and bodies are slow to change. Our Katrina-sized sinfulness is a stubborn master; unwilling to leave on its own; leaving only destruction. Operation new life begins to take shape slowly as our old self dies and our new character in Christ emerges to be reshaped by the risen One.  Losing life to save life (Matthew 16:24-26) is a dynamic, and endless process.

This dynamic process happens in small shifts. That it is small is no denial of its significance. That it is small is an act of mercy and grace. Mortification (dying to self and to sin) must take place for resurrection life to emerge. Mortification is saying no progressively to every sin that besets us. Its opposite, living abundantly, is saying yes to the pulse of life the Holy Spirit infuses into us to make us holy. It is putting to death all that hinders our fellowship with God. A tall order that Christ has achieved by his death and by our death in his (in his death we died). Growing up is hard to do.

The new emerges from the old; life from death. God gave us in nature a picture of this process of spiritual transformation in the emergence of the butterfly from a worm. We don’t experience life in large portions (easily leads to boasting) but one small event at a time: one event leading to another and accumulating onto another to make up a life. Life centered on Christ is built, like a brick house, one brick at a time.

Another way of speaking about this emergence into life is to speak about salvation being a life and not simply a past decision or mental assent. Salvation is a lived experience. Salvation life progresses along lines guided by the Holy Spirit of God. It is learning to live and trust Jesus every day. It’s learning to say yes to God’s movement in our lives. In every local situation we face, in every ordinary event, the Holy Spirit is at work transforming us into the likeness of Christ, if we trust and obey. Formation of life with Christ happens slowly because life happens slowly. Speeding growth, growth on steroids, is a figment of our imagination. It is unrealistic.

2. Transformation comes with no shortcuts or loopholes.
Computer programs let us plan our road trip based on our preferences. We can choose to get there the quickest way or the shortest way (shortcuts). Or we can take the scenic way. On the map of spiritual transformation, no shortcuts exist. The scenic way is the way. In the long journey upward to God, there is no use searching for loopholes. None are provided. It’s a straight shot. What appears as a shortcut (a spiritual experience, a special secret knowledge, a technique of prayer) is only a twisted detour that leads through despondency, failure, humility, surrender, and grace (Pilgrim’s Progress). Detours are permitted, but by God’s grace, detours are redeemed. The new has come.

3. Transformation comes to those who hope.
Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings. They shall soar like eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not grow faint (Isaiah 40:31). Spiritual transformation happens slowly. Each step of growth creates in us the hope of maturity, of becoming Christ-centered people. Our prayer, like that of the orphaned Oliver Twist, is to beg and hope always for more. The psalmist imagines himself to be a deer panting for more of God. This hope is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. C.S Lewis said: “In God there is no hunger that needs to be filled; only plenteousness that desires to give.” Hopeful words! His blessings are beyond measure. More are they, than any abundance we can imagine. Those who set their hearts to walk in the Master’s footsteps live in the hope that the image of God in us will one day be fully restored.

At times I find myself hoping: O patient God, help me to be as patient with myself as you are with me. Amen.

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