"Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the creating personality, God."
-A.W. Tozer
I have, in recent past, been struggling with a lack of something in my life. I have a beautiful wife, a loving family, good friends, a great church, a comfortable (if poorly insulated) old house, a friendly dog, a good job, and a kid on the way. If past me (say, just-graduated-from-college me) were to put together a list of things that he wanted out of life, I think I'd hit all of the major points.*
And yet there's something missing. Something that, in it's absence, makes all that I have in this moment seem... dimmer. That's an awkward way to say what I want to say, but it's the best I can come up with. All those good things in life are there. They're all real. But they're all a little less real to me than they should be.
I have come to the conclusion that the thing that's missing is my desire for God.** And the tragic part is, knowing what is missing is not the same has finding the missing thing. Anyone who's lost their car keys knows that.
I am guilty of a sin. I am guilty of taking my relationship with God for granted. I searched hard for Him, found a measure of Him, and then stopped. I said, "This is good enough." It was good, but good enough can be a dangerous thing. The relationship with God I had began to grow cold. Because I forgot a truth. A love that is not actively seeking, a love that is not, in some part, consuming, is a love that is dying.
Christ said that our walk with God is like a marriage with Him. And the same pitfalls that face marriages are the found in faith. Dating is a process of chasing and being chased. But often people get married and stop chasing each other. They stop trying to win the hearts of each other. And, lacking the chase, the marriage cools.
I don't want to make this more dramatic than it is. I don't want you to read this and think I'm having a crisis of faith. What I'm trying to say is that I recognize that I'm heading for a crisis of faith if I don't do something. And this, this typing, is me trying to start doing something.
-Tom
*Just-graduated-from-college me would have added successful novelist to that list. You can't win them all.
**Without passion for God, all the good things in life are less then they should be.
-A.W. Tozer
I have, in recent past, been struggling with a lack of something in my life. I have a beautiful wife, a loving family, good friends, a great church, a comfortable (if poorly insulated) old house, a friendly dog, a good job, and a kid on the way. If past me (say, just-graduated-from-college me) were to put together a list of things that he wanted out of life, I think I'd hit all of the major points.*
And yet there's something missing. Something that, in it's absence, makes all that I have in this moment seem... dimmer. That's an awkward way to say what I want to say, but it's the best I can come up with. All those good things in life are there. They're all real. But they're all a little less real to me than they should be.
I have come to the conclusion that the thing that's missing is my desire for God.** And the tragic part is, knowing what is missing is not the same has finding the missing thing. Anyone who's lost their car keys knows that.
I am guilty of a sin. I am guilty of taking my relationship with God for granted. I searched hard for Him, found a measure of Him, and then stopped. I said, "This is good enough." It was good, but good enough can be a dangerous thing. The relationship with God I had began to grow cold. Because I forgot a truth. A love that is not actively seeking, a love that is not, in some part, consuming, is a love that is dying.
Christ said that our walk with God is like a marriage with Him. And the same pitfalls that face marriages are the found in faith. Dating is a process of chasing and being chased. But often people get married and stop chasing each other. They stop trying to win the hearts of each other. And, lacking the chase, the marriage cools.
I don't want to make this more dramatic than it is. I don't want you to read this and think I'm having a crisis of faith. What I'm trying to say is that I recognize that I'm heading for a crisis of faith if I don't do something. And this, this typing, is me trying to start doing something.
-Tom
*Just-graduated-from-college me would have added successful novelist to that list. You can't win them all.
**Without passion for God, all the good things in life are less then they should be.
Comments