Walk in Him…just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7

Our spiritual life feels empty, dry.

We are weary and worried. We wonder if we’ve missed God’s way for us. We wonder if there’s something more.

So we dig around for something different — something to whisper new and mysterious things about us — something more fascinating than the timeworn call to pray, study, commune, thank, obey.

All this duty — all this just as we were taught — has done nothing for us, shown us nothing of ourselves.

And suddenly, we arrive at the ugly, unexpected truth — for it is true — that there is nothing magical or mystical about spiritual practice. The ritual and duty of Christian discipline are hollow inside —

They tell us and offer us nothing about who we are.

Because they are meant to tell us about who He is.

The story of the sacrament, the study, the Church, the gratitude and the obedience — indeed, all the stories of all the times — are the story of I AM, not we are. They are only alive as they lead us to God — only real and effective if we are pursuing them to find Him and not ourselves.

When we try to use them for our glory — to find ourselves at the end of them — to make them tell us the story of who we are — the plot falls apart, the characters don’t make sense, the ending is a dry disappointment.

True practice, true growth, true walking in Him just as we were taught will always lead to more of Christ, not more of us.

False maturity sounds like I just, I think, I feel.

Real maturity sounds like He is, He is, He is.

Read the next post in The Colossians Project.

——
featured image