Posted on by Christina Adams

The Sidewalk Hole

It was a bright summer day, but most people were only looking at their phone and a young man was no different. He walked down the sidewalk with firm steps only glancing up once in a while to check the street signs. Then, the ground under his left foot disappeared. He felt his arms flail, his phone clutched tightly, as his left foot crashed against the bottom of a hole, his left shin scrapped against the edge of the sidewalk and his right knee banged the ground.

There was a moment of silence. Slowly he rolled away from the hole and checked his legs. Briefly he thought he saw a young man leaning against the nearest doorway who looked like he was about to say something as his mouth was still open, but the pain the man felt made him forget all about the young man. His thoughts too full of wondering if he had seriously injured himself or not as he methodically took stock of his body. There was a giant rip in his left pant leg that showed blood starting to trickle down his shin. His left ankle throbbed from twisting in the hole and his right knee ached. Carefully, he stood up and went on his way limping.

The next day he was still sore and, despite the ice he had applied, his left ankle hurt more now than it had the day before. As he approached the place where he had fallen, he could see the hole in the sidewalk was pretty deep. He considered himself lucky that he hadn’t broken his leg completely, that he had been able to stop his fall with his right knee and not with his face, that he hadn’t hurt his hands or crushed his phone in the fall.

As he walked away it started to bother him that the hole was still there and hadn’t been fixed. It could really hurt people. And the next day as he walked his usual route, he began to notice those around him for the first time. There was a business woman, a young girl, and an older gentleman all of whom had their phones out.

The business woman was closer so the man walked, with less of a limp today, up to her.

“Excuse me, but there is a hole in the sidewalk coming. If you’re not careful, you could get hurt.”

The woman didn’t even look up. “I walk this route every day and I’ve never seen a hole. I’ll be fine.”

“But the hole is really deep—.”

“There is no hole!” The woman said impatiently.

The man turned to the young girl.

“There is a hole coming up in the sidewalk. You could get hurt.”

“A hole?” the young girl said without looking up. “I actually like falling into holes. It’s fun.”

 “Fun?” the man frowned. “It’s not fun. It hurts.”

“I haven’t gotten hurt by a hole yet.” She walked past him.

“Well, maybe you haven’t fallen into a real hole yet,” the man called after her. “And there’s a real hole coming up.” His words grew softer as she drew farther away. It was like he was trying to stop the wind. What was the point of warning people if they refused to listen?

The business woman was already past the hole somehow and the young girl looked like she was going to pass by the hole on the far side from it, so she would probably be safe too. That just left the older gentleman.

“Excuse me sir,” the man called out. “There’s a hole in the sidewalk. You need to be careful.”

“A hole? Where?” The gentleman looked up.

“On the side walk just up there.” The man pointed a few paces away.

“Of course, thank you for telling me. I’ll watch out for it.” The older gentleman waved a hand, but then looked back to his phone.

“But sir, the hole is right in front of you!”

The gentleman stopped. “Well, how do you know a hole is there? Are you a hole expert?”

“A hole expert? Is that even a thing?”

“Well, you ought to be a hole expert in order to have the authority to warn others about holes. Are you a hole expert?” The older gentleman pressed.

“I—I’m not, that is, but I fell into that hole this week. That ought to count.”

“Falling into holes doesn’t make you an expert.” The older gentleman turned and took another step, inches away from the hole. “It only makes you stup—.” The next step cut the older gentleman off as his foot fell into the hole. There was an audible snap as the gentleman crumpled to the ground.

“Oww! Oh, my leg.”

“Here, let me help you out.” The man reached to grab the gentleman’s arm.

“Stop! Don’t touch me. This is all your fault!” The gentleman wagged a finger.

“My fault?”

“Yes, your fault! If you hadn’t distracted me, I would have seen this hole.”

“But I was warning you about the hole.”

“And are you a hole expert? No!”

Thoroughly confused, the man slowly walked away once the ambulance came to get the gentleman’s leg checked. How was it that none of the people he had tried to talk to would listen to him? But his own legs still ached and the gentleman had probably broken his leg, so the danger of the hole was real.

Across the street he saw the young man leaning against the doorway just watching the medics load the older gentleman. This was the second time the young man was just watching. With one fist clenched the man crossed the street.

“Did you see that?” he asked the young man.

The young man nodded; his eyes wide.

“Why didn’t you say anything? You could have warned him that I was right.”

The young man shook his head before looking down at his shoes. He stood there a moment and then retreated into the building.

The next day as the man approached the hole, he looked around again, although with more apprehension than the day before. There was the same business woman. And when he warned her of the hole, she replied again that there was no hole in the sidewalk. But this time as she approached the hole, she was not walking on the far side away from the hole. The man winced at her fall.

“Are you ok?” He asked as he ran to her side. She accepted his arm and he pulled her up. Her skirt suit had a small frayed slit an inch long and her high heel was broken.

The woman cursed softly as she looked at her broken heel. “That’s the third one this week.”

“Wait?” the man asked as the woman began rummaging in her bag and pulled out a new pair of high heels. “That’s the third pair you’ve broken this week?”

“Yes,” the woman said absently as she slipped off her old shoes and pulled on the new. “And it always seems to happen right around here too. It’s the oddest thing.”

“No, no. It’s not odd. There’s a hole right here and you fell into it.”

The woman shook her head with an irritated smile. “You’re wrong. There’s no hole. Hole’s aren’t real.”

“Then what just happened to you?”

The woman shrugged as she smoothed out her skirt. “A string of bad luck.”

She threw her heels into a nearby garbage can and walked away.

The man’s jaw dropped as he watched her go. But then the sound of laughter filled his ears. His head swiveled to the sound and there was a middle-aged man sitting on a lawn chair on a second story porch.

“What are you laughing at?” he asked.

“Why, you, of course,” the other man said. “You’re racing around trying to help people that don’t want to be helped. It’s better just to leave them be.”

“But if I don’t warn them, then they could get hurt.”

The other man let out a solitary laugh. “And even when you do warn them, they still get hurt. It’s better to just not say anything. That crazy woman has fallen in that hole at least fifteen times.”

The man frowned. “How long have you been up there watching?”

“Oh for at least a month, maybe six weeks.”

“And what about the young man across the street?”

“Probably the same, maybe a little less. He’s a good kid. He knows how to mind his own business. He wanted to warn people at first, but I told him not to waste his breath.”

“You mean he doesn’t warn anyone? Have you?”

“Nah, I just mind my own business. It’s not my place to tell people there’s a hole.”

“So, you saw when I fell into that hole?”

“Oh yeah, that one looked painful. Glad you’re almost walking without a limp now.”

“Why didn’t you warn me?”

“Like I said, it’s not my place. People don’t want to listen nowadays. People also have weird ideas about the existence of holes and if you try to tell them about it, they just yell at you. So, it’s better to just let them be.”

“But I might have listened.” The man said this more to himself. The truth was, he didn’t know for sure if he would have, but he had never even been given the chance to know, because the other man never said anything.

He turned to walk away, but approaching the hole was a teen girl with a little boy in tow. She was on her phone and the boy had a gaming console. Neither were paying attention.

“Watch out,” the man said half-heartedly. “There’s a hole in the sidewalk coming up.”

“What?” the girl asked looking up.

The man pointed. “There’s a hole. It’s pretty bad and three different people fell into it this week.”

The girl followed the angle of his finger and her brows raised. “Thanks!” was all she said but she pushed the boy to the far side of the sidewalk and together they avoided the hole.

Posted on by Christina Adams

Spiritual Maturity

How can we know if we are spiritually mature? What are the clues that will at least let us know we are on the right path? Spiritual maturity is like any other kind of maturity. There are many areas in which to mature in life and all are own their own scale, although sometimes they can be connected. We have all known an individual who was physically mature, but emotionally or intellectually immature. And just as more than one mature area is needed for individual maturity, so with spiritual maturity there is more than one area to grow. Some might be mature in prayer, others in patience, others in understanding and teaching the Bible, or others in honoring their parents. We are all on different paths of spiritual growth, but there are several indicators we can look for that will help us know when we have started to mature in that area.

When Striving has Ceased (or Really Mellowed Out)

Striving is much like hurry. Both are done in our own strength with a specific goal to do it quick and right the first time so we can move on to the next. Striving also has a sense that we have to do it on our own. Any failure is followed by frustration because we knew better, or should have known better, or we don’t know why what we were trying wasn’t working when it should have.

With maturity, though, that kind of thought process has ceased to dominate our minds. The internal intensity that we once felt has faded by time and, through so much, repeated effort that we have now become dull to the original frustrations we had at the beginning. We know we will just pick things up and try again. This means our actions and thought processes are no longer as frantic as they were and we have a certain degree of peace.

When Mistakes are Okay

This is sort of connected to striving, but maturity has grown in that area when we are okay with making mistakes. This may have more to do with perfectionist tendencies, but when we try something and we mess it up we’re okay with ourselves and with our ultimate results enough to know that we will do better next time.

This is really just because we have done the action so many times and we have messed up so much worse than what we just did so we have a different perspective than we could have at first. We have evened out our averages. In the beginning it was one success to a hundred failures, but now it is closer to 40/60, 50/50, or 60/40. We know we can do it. We know we have done it. And we know what we have to do in order to do it again.

When There is Confidence in Knowledge

When we are first trying something new, we don’t know if our knowledge is accurate. We’re not sure how to apply what we know and we don’t know if what we are doing will even work. But with maturity comes a sense of understanding because we have gone through the rough stage of trying and failing enough to know how to get the results we’re wanting. We know what things have worked for us and what things we were originally told to do that do not work. This consolidates our efforts so that most of what we do now falls in the category of tried and true. It becomes more a question of effort and time rather than of knowledge.

While we may all be mature in some areas, we all also have areas where we can grow into maturity. We just have to keep picking ourselves up and trying again.

Which of these three have you seen in your own life? Are there any other indicators you would suggest are true of being mature? Let me know! I’d love to read your comments!

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Posted on by Christina Adams

Why We Should Receive

In Christian culture we all know Jesus said it is good to give and bad to receive. Or rather, Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). And Jesus is correct! However, we have gotten too used to putting concepts into black and white boxes of right and wrong. This tendency has produced in us the over-emphasis of giving to the point where there are some Christians who don’t want to receive because they aren’t the one doing the giving. Sadly, this can also be true even when the Christian has very real needs that cannot be handled alone.

And I know because I was one of them. I was reluctant to receive because I wanted to be the one to give and I didn’t really appreciate the need of others to give to me or my need for others. All of this was because I had a poor understanding of what Jesus said. But Jesus didn’t say it was more cursed to receive, He just said receiving was not as blessed as giving which is accurate.

The fact is that in order for some to give and have a greater blessing, some have to receive and have a lesser blessing. If everyone gives and does not receive, then there is no one to give to. Now, this doesn’t mean that we should take a position of constant receiving. Not at all, that would be wrong. We should also not expect to receive when we give, either from God or others, in the sense that they now owe us. But there are some powerful things we can learn from receiving.

  1.  The Humility of Having Needs

Having to receive from others can be a blow to our pride that is really quite healthy. It is a chance to see ourselves as we really are, needy beings who cannot function perfectly on our own. When we have needs we cannot fulfill on our own, it is a reminder not just that we need God, but that God has also created us to need others. Receiving is also a practice for when we age to the point where we will have to receive. The transition into elder years may not be quite as hard if we know how to receive. But the fact is that even when we are young, we still only have two hands and two legs and having someone see our need and join us in fulfilling it is still important.

2. Community Grows from a Lack of Self-Sufficiency

Through receiving we can recognize just how much we need to have others in our lives. Those who are in community with us will have a greater idea of our needs and will be able to give to us more often. When others are giving to us, they are taking responsibility for our well-being and this grows the bonds of community closer because they are now invested in us in a way they were not before. Similarly, we are now indebted to them in a way that will encourage us to invest in them and so the community we are in is strengthened.

3. Receiving Even When There is No Need

But what if we don’t have a pressing need? If we love to give to others, sometimes they will try to give us something in return. We may not need the item, but it is always good to graciously receive whatever they may give. Receiving, then, can be a way to give because we are valuing their desire to bless us in a similar way that we had blessed them and we are allowing them to be the one to feel the happiness of giving. In addition, receiving things we may not need will give us a deeper understanding of God who receives from us what we would give to Him even though He is without need. That God is so gracious in allowing us to give to Him what He had already given to us is a testament to His character.

Receiving itself is not bad. But it can grow our character and even better it can give us a deeper understanding of God and community.

Have you ever thought of receiving as negative? Which of these three points helped you the most? Write a comment, I’d love to know!

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Posted on by Christina Adams

Why We Should Give

Why should we give? What kinds of things can Christians do to fulfill the concept of giving? Giving is often broken down into monetary giving like donations or tithe, object giving like clothes, food, or toys, and time giving like visiting others or doing some form of labor especially if the person giving has an expertise. Giving is almost an obligation and can easily become a legalistic activity. However, the idea that giving is split into those kinds is not the example of biblical giving that we have for the church. The idea behind God wanting a cheerful giver in II Cor. 9:7 does not mean that we should smile when the offering plate comes by, rather it means that we should become the kind of people who enjoy giving our resources away. Here are three reasons why.

  1. God gives abundantly when we trust Him

Stinginess is a tight-fisted mentality that affects more than just our wallets. It closes us off to receiving and it limits our focus to only what we can do. In other words, to be stingy is to not know God or to expect Him to help us. Being stingy is a means of not trusting God because we don’t think we can get back what we have given, and if we are stingy, we definitely do not believe that we can get back much, much more than we have given, otherwise we would never be stingy.

Stinginess is a mindset that keeps us from God, but once we know how utterly generous God is with us and once we have experienced over and over how He has provided for us, then we can let go of our stingy mindset. Giving is an act of trust in God and it goes so much deeper than a tithe. To give is to be open to change, both to experience lack and abundance, but it is an openness to change and God blesses our openness in ways we are not expecting. He can bless us because we will use His blessings to bless others and then starts a constant cycle of giving where we can give more and more.

Now, I’m not saying that the more we will give, the more we will get what we want from God. The idea of giving has been greatly abused in America and across the world, but the principles of giving and of being a giving person are principles that God loves and that God does bless. we could be blessed with a happier life because we worry less. we could be blessed with a change in our worldview that breaks us free from a closed-off, stingy life. Those are all real blessings that are better than a new car or house because those kinds of blessings will last for eternity.

2. It’s a Practice in Caring More for Others

By becoming a giving person, we become aware of the needs of those around us. We can’t give if we don’t know about a need, but the more we give, the more we become aware of others and the more we will see the needs they have. We will also learn how to help others more effectively.

Through our practice of giving and our awareness of others we are gradually transformed into better people ourselves. We come to think about others more and as our thoughts are outward focused, they are less inward focused. There is then less mental time for us to become self-absorbed, since we have a habit of self-lessness, and this will give us a happier life.

3. Giving to Others Brings Fulfillment

It feels good to help others, it feels good to give to them, it feels good to make a difference in someone’s life. All these things are part of the blessings that God gives to us when we give to others. The reason it feels good to give is because giving is a way of working with God and all work with God is light and gives rest to our souls in comparison with trying to do everything ourselves.

Now, the fulfillment we get from giving is not the kind of complete fulfillment that comes from living with God and having Him fill the longings inside of us, but it is the kind of fulfillment that lives next door to contentment and peace. We don’t have to strive to give, we only have to let go.

Which of these three points stand out to you the most? Have any of these already impacted you in your giving? Write me a comment and let me know!!

Posted on by Christina Adams

On Desires and the Future

We all want to get what we want. Our fascination with it begins before our comprehension of speech because as babies we quickly learned that crying meant we’d be fed, held, or changed and our pain or discomfort was removed. So we grow into adults still thinking that if we could only get our way, the right way, at the right time that we would be happy again.

This is where desires come in. We pursue our desires often for our own gains. However, our life is never found in our desires. Even if we get what we want it does not satisfy us as we think it should and so we have to pursue another desire.

Blaise Pascal has a slightly different take on the same idea. He sees our thoughts consumed by either the past or the future without being able to live in the moment. He says,“We scarcely ever think of the present; and if we think of it, it is only to take light from it to arrange the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.”[1]

Now Pascal is correct that we are unable to live in the time we actually have, the present, because we are trying to manipulate the future or reframe the past. We do not enjoy the small successes we have in the now because we are pushing ourselves to do something bigger or newer. However, even if we managed to stop our concern about the future or our meditation on the past, we would still not be happy with the present because our desires long for more than what we currently have and our desires are constantly pushing us to prefer the future. We want the next big thing, the next stage of life, the next holiday, the next goal.

I’ve had this experience when I knit a blanket. I put all the loops on, I struggle through the awkward stage of length, I persevere through the dull middle-end, I race to the last loop, carefully weave the leftover lengths of yarn, look at the whole blanket once, and then I rush to my closet and pull new yarn to start a new project. I don’t take the time to really enjoy the end result of my labor because I am too focused on the next ‘big’ thing.

Do you struggle more with the past or the future? How can you enjoy the present more?

[1] Blaise Pascal. Pensees. Michigan, P.F. Collier & Son. 65. Section 172.

Posted on by Christina Adams

What Christian Life Looks Like

Life with God is the best life ever, but you have to be willing to give up old ways of doing things. Unfortunately, to give up old ways seems like such a hard thing only because the picture of life with God is not painted as brilliantly as it really is. No one would think twice about keeping a melted ice cream cone if they saw the bucket of fresh ice cream they were about to be handed. No one would think twice about keeping a broken down and wrecked 2007 Ford, if they saw a brand-new Tesla waiting on the other side of the deed signing. That’s the point of the parables of the pearl merchant and the man who found a field. It’s not that the pearl merchant was reluctant to sell his small, old pearls. He was getting the best pearl he had ever seen and at a steal!

Here’s what you gain:

A Life Without Fear

Imagine a life free from worry, fear, anxiety because you have learned how to trust that God will take care of you no matter what is going on around you or even to you. No worries about what to make for dinner, no fears about what you will do if you lost all your money, and no concerns about what the doctor might say. You could be free from it all. Not because you will always have food, always have money, or always be healthy. You probably won’t. But you will not have to wonder how you will survive the worst of those things because you know that God has always been there and provided in the past and He will always be there for you now. Provision comes in different forms. And God is not wasteful. He will not give you strength for tomorrow if He is bringing you to Him today. You may not have food, but you may have energy. You may have pain, but you may have supernatural endurance. A life that has no challenges is a life that will not make you strong. Would you trade your fears for that kind of life?

To live a life free from fear, worry, and anxiety you have to give up your attempt to be in control. It’s not an easy thing to do. But you are giving up a control you never really had, for the one thing you can control, your ability to trust that God sees more, knows more, does more, and loves more than you could ever do and that He can bring all things back to what they should be in heaven forever. What are a few years of pain and suffering when thousands of years of joy and pure delight and complete wholeness are about to start?

A Life Free from Anger, Unforgiveness, and Contempt

Imagine a life free from anger, unforgiveness, and contempt of others. Picture driving down the road and absolutely nothing others do bother you. You don’t turn red. You don’t stew or replay the scene miles after it happened. You don’t feel slighted by whatever look or gesture you saw. What if you could talk about people who hate your guts, and you can speak kindly of them because you actually care about them? Contrast this picture with any recent footage of people yelling at their phone or screaming at a crowd over the latest outrage.

This one is very hard because it is our culture’s default position. We’ve been told that our anger is our strength and that if we’re not angry, then we don’t care. But only a small part of that is true. Yes, we should be angry at wrongs that are being done and we should be motivated to stop those wrongs. But holding on to unforgiveness and speaking of others who oppose our views as if they are less valuable than we are leads to a life that pushes God out to make room for our own justice. It begins a series of tits for tats that will never end. That kind of life enslaves those it possesses until all that person becomes is a bitter, angry elderly person that no one wants to be around.

But the free life is one where we are submitted to God: to His control over justice and ultimate justice, to His willingness to forgive us and His willingness to forgive others, to His power in us to correct wrongs as He would do with gentleness and love, to His example of humility when He allowed others to think poorly of Him that we can imitate. We trust Him, we do what we can, we trust Him again. We never have to hold on to wrongs others have done because God can be trusted to care for us and to do what is right with them.

A Life Free from Living for Others

Imagine a life free from caring what others think, building your reputation, or trying to impress because the only opinion that really matters to you is God’s. This is one I’m currently working on (among others) because I’ve tried to have a good reputation, I want people to think I’m smart, I want to be thought of as successful and honorable. But what happened for me is that I would have to taint my soul to keep my reputation the way I thought it should be. I learned the art of nuance in an answer so that it could seem like I had read things I hadn’t or knew more about something that I didn’t. But most of the time the people that I did this in front of didn’t even notice me or recognized me as someone smart, so I was essentially lying in vain.

But I could trade that for a life where only God’s opinion mattered, where I wouldn’t know the score until later, not that it mattered because God is kind and gracious. Anything good that I have done that is worth mentioning He is the kind of Father who will mention it when the time is right. And I can allow people to say whatever they want which is really their way of trying to make me more like them. But God is the one who will notice and sees everything I do and why I do it and He will help me grow to be like Him. Plus, in becoming like Him I will be a person that I can live with. I never have to watch my words to see if my mask is slipping. I never have to speak anything but the truth and my brain does not have to work hard to remember my lies. And so, my brain and my soul will have rest.

A Life with a Whole Soul

Imagine a life where you never have to do something against your conscience. Never! You never have to lie, you never have to cheat, you never have to fudge things, you never have to cover over things you feel like you have to keep hidden. Following Christ is like that. You only have to do what is right, true, honest, and good. You never, ever have to do something you know is wrong. Now sometimes there are real consequences for opposing evil and we need to be ready to accept those consequences.

Often the problem can come in trusting God with such situations because we expect a happy ending. The former drug dealer who wants to get out of the game, the former bank robber who participated in a robbery where someone was killed and now wants to turn himself in, the former adulteress who wants to come clean. The right thing to do is to be honest, to be firm, to be good, but the response is left up to the other person. Sometimes God will work in the situation where the consequences are lighter, but sometimes He works through the consequences. The point is to know ahead of time that the right thing to do often has consequences. Yet those consequences are always easier to deal with because the soul is light, than to continue living in with lies and deceit.

A Life in Community

Imagine a life where you are never alone again. Where every moment of your life is shared and treasured. Where you matter, but where you are willing to give up everything that doesn’t matter. Jesus is the best of friends. Not only because of His great love, but primarily because He wants us to mature into the kind of people who are naturally and completely free. You cannot give a greedy miser money to share at first. Instead the miser needs to let go of some of the money he has and the more he lets go, the freer he becomes from greed. Giving away money is the antidote to being greedy and miserly. Just like having many opportunities to wait is the antidote to rushing and hurrying and self-centered thoughtlessness. Just like having the opportunity to forgive wrongs sets you free from the emotional drain of holding on to those wrongs.

Jesus teaches us all of these kinds of things as He knows we need them so that we can be free and He doesn’t teach us these things recklessly. We are always to listen to Him and go as far as He has said to go, because that is as far as He is protecting us. If we run around on our own ideas or the suggestions of others without talking to Him, He may allow us to face consequences for our disregard of His leading. But if we follow Him, He will work in us and change us into the kind of people who are actually free.

So, that’s just a tiny picture of the kind of life there is in Christ. Yes, you do give up things to get it, but remember what you are gaining. The relief and rest alone are worth it, but you also become someone you will like who is not boxed in to an automatic predictable response. You will really live.

Posted on by Christina Adams

When Christianity Did Not Work For Me

There was a time when I realized that the way I was doing Christianity was not working. I was putting in the same kind of work and my results were not getting better. I didn’t have good connections with other Christians, I was wallowing in sins that Christ had already paid for, I was unable to reform my own desires, I felt far from God, and I didn’t want to put in the effort to do things that I figured He wanted me to do.

Then I would read the book of Acts and wonder how on earth did they live a life with Christ like that? All the suggestions for how Christians can live that kind of life I had tried, or thought I tried, but my life results were not reflecting the results I wanted and more specifically were not reflecting the life results that were promised to me in the Bible. It felt like I was lied to. It was really easy to feel like God had lied to me, but the Bible says God does not lie, and people, even good intentioned people including myself, can lie to others and themselves and unintentionally deceive by stating opinions as if they are truth. After all, I had told myself to keep trying the things that weren’t working, that I didn’t need to try the really hard Christian stuff, and to keep hoping for better results.  

But I stuck with Christianity and my relationship with God and eventually, with God’s ever patient help, I discovered why my life did not match what I read in the Bible. I was saved and trusted in Christ for my entrance into heaven, but I was not trusting in Christ for my everyday struggles or learning from Him how to live with Him.

You see, Christianity and the Gospel in the Bible is all about life, having life, living an abundant life. That life in only found in Christ. But the world says that life is in money, reputation, fulfilling our desires, pursuing happiness, having health. What Jesus teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount is that true life in Him can be found even when you are poor, sick, sad, and destitute. In other words, life cannot be found in the things the world wants to find life in. This is why it is better to give than to receive, it is better to let go of our desires than to fulfill them, it is better to trust God with our financial future than to put all of our hope in our retirement fund. Not because receiving, or desires, or money, etc. is necessarily bad, but because when we hope in them to fulfill us we are always disappointed and left unfulfilled.

Now I am on a different track, one that is harder and easier all at the same time. G.K. Chesterton has a wonderful quote that seems quite appropriate, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”[1] And at the beginning it is true that Christianity is difficult. Many of the things a Christian has to do at first seems impossible because it requires a different self on the inside. Things we cherish we have to throw away. Things we hate we have to embrace. Things we want to do we have to stop. Things we don’t want to do we have to turn into habit. But that is where true life begins.

So for me, I have found the Christianity that is starting to work. I am closer to God than ever before and my soul is lighter. I don’t struggle with many of the things I did in the past. I have new struggles, but I also know how to approach those struggles because I have Christ. Christ teaches me the way I should go and He shows me how to do it. My mistakes, that would have frozen me and frustrated me, are now opportunities to grow. I know from experience that Jesus’ burden is easy and light.

What about you? Is Christianity all you were hoping it would be? If Christianity has not turned out to be everything you thought it would be, why do you think that is?

[1] G.K. Chesterton, “The Unfinished Temple,” in What’s Wrong with the World, Collected Works (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987), 4:61.

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Posted on by Christina Adams

Does Christianity Work?

In the modern American culture, the question of whether or not Christianity even works seems like a valid question. Thirty years ago, at least 80% of Americans would identify as Christian although only a small percentage of that would go to church and an even smaller percentage of those going to church would be involved. The saying that ‘10% of the church does 90% of the work’ is still pretty accurate.

Yet, whether a person helps out in the nursery or teaches Sunday school has little to do with the original question. The point is that the number of Americans who would identify as Christian has been gradually declining. What used to be 80-90% a few decades ago is now around 65% and since the population of the country has gone up, this means there are more people who do not identify as Christian. This decline in Christianity is not from death, but from decision. And as the majority of the population who does claim Christianity is in the older two generations, the numbers will continue to decline as those generations decrease. People in America who grew up in Christian homes, going to church, and considering themselves Christian in the past no longer would call themselves that now and the best answer for that decision is somewhere along the line those people decided that Christianity was not living up to the expectations they had for it.

In others words, Christianity wasn’t working for them.

Now there is probably much that could be said about those who leave and their interactions with others who identify as Christian as well as polarizing political opinions in the church on hot topic current events, but the fact that a person can decide not to associate with Christ or do things like gathering that He commanded His followers to do because another person rubs them the wrong way is strange. It’s like a happily married couple deciding to get a divorce all because of something Uncle Marty or Great Aunt Vera says at every family reunion.

In going back to the original question, does Christianity work? We now have a rising portion of the population who would answer that question in the negative. “No, it doesn’t work,” they might say, “And I have tons of proof.” Then they would lay out their list of grievances, but if we took away all of the exterior issues, issues that come from other Christians not doing what some people think Christians should do, and only focused on the interior questions, it would be interesting to see some of the answers because we’d have to ask a slightly different question. When does a relationship with God NOT work?

Perhaps the only time a relationship with God does not seem to work centers around pain and death and misinformation about God. There are many people who say thoughtless things about God and God’s character. Those words can be mistaken for truth because God works in such a way that He allows us to face challenges in our relationship with Him so that we can choose Him and then we have to keep choosing Him. If we do persevere in choosing Him, then our faith will have the deep roots that it needs to survive eternity with Him.

But a relationship with God, one that is not one-sided, grows into the most beautiful of relationships so much so that life without God would be lonely, dull, and hopeless. Because the more we seek God, the more we will see God, the more we will know God, and the more He will be involved in our lives. Not because He was not involved in our lives before, but because now we want Him to be in our lives and we see what He is doing rather than being blind to how He is always working. And there is something precious and glorious about working with God and doing things with Him each day. It’s how we were meant to live.

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Posted on by Christina Adams

On Knowledge

We live in an age where there is a lot of information everywhere. We can find information, opinions, conflicting opinions, and general content whenever we want. The problem is that then we have to figure out what is real, what works, and what is accurate often on our own. This is a hard task, especially since so many people with information seem so certain that their information is correct.

What is knowledge?

Information can contain knowledge, but it is not knowledge. Where information contains opinions, facts, and fictions, knowledge contains only that which is true about reality. People who want to know how to do anything will prefer knowledge over opinion, even though they may try opinions as if they are knowledge.

Consider this example: Your car is making a funny noise. Your neighbor tells you it sounds like your struts need to be replaced. You take your car to a mechanic and he says you need to completely rebuild the engine, at great cost. He rebuilds your engine, but the sound remains. Your neighbor says he has the tools to fix your struts and he’ll do it for $80. He works on your car and the sound is gone. The neighbor had knowledge about your car’s sound because his work produced the desired effect of eliminating it.

How do you know if it is real knowledge?

Knowledge is an accurate description of reality. It explains what we experience and provides the path to actual change if the knowledge is applied in the way it is intended to be applied. A person who is given a prescription by a doctor cannot know if the pills are working if they are not taken as directed. Nor can a person know if a diet is working if they aren’t sticking to it. On a basic level we all know this to be true which is why in our society there are specialists. We want to have the people who have studied a specific area help us in fixing our current problem.

Now, there are times when specialists contradict each other and disagree over solutions, but even in that case the side that produces the desired effect is the side that has actual knowledge. What if both sides have some successes and some failures? Then, despite the fact that both are specialists, they don’t have accurate knowledge about the specific problem or solution, they only have opinions about the problem or solution. Knowledge is the accurate understanding of both the issue and the way to fix it, and the solution will always work.

What is Christian Knowledge?

Just as there is knowledge about life, work, food, health, and all manner of such things, there is also knowledge about Christianity, theology, morality, and the spiritual life we all have. All sorts of claims about how Christianity works, about God, etc. are often made, but not all claims are knowledge. Actual knowledge about any topic is known by how well the problem is solved by the solution given. Thus, if Christianity is true and has knowledge of the problems of the human condition, our relationships with God, and how to have the best life, then its solutions will work because the knowledge covers reality.

In the Christian Worldview, we believe that God created all things including the world we live in and the laws that govern it. This includes the laws that govern our own actions and relationships, not just the laws of nature. We were designed by God for certain purposes and to act outside of those purposes brings us in direct conflict with the reality He created. Just as when we ignore the laws of nature we will experience pain, so when we ignore the laws of God’s purposes for us we also experience pain. Yet, God has given us instructions for how to avoid pain by returning to Him and living as He created us to live. And this is the foundation of Christian knowledge.

So what about the fact that Christians do not always seem to have answers to life?

The disappearance of moral and theological knowledge has been happening gradually over the last few centuries which has been written about academically. Over time those who knew the truth did not speak up for it or were not listened to when they did. And so, much knowledge has been lost from the average, and perhaps even above-average, citizen. Instead, opinions masquerading as knowledge have become the norm. We tend to live in Christian bubbles where there is more false than true spread around. But how does this happen?

First, some people approach knowledge about Christianity, theology, and life as a means of interpretation and translation, which tend to lean more on opinion or the opinions of famous theologians rather than on whether the solution works. It is always easier to say that others didn’t do the solution right, than to really look at whether the solution is right in the first place.

Second, some people may know the problem, but they have mixed information about the solution. The result is a partial success so they have a partly true, partly false solution. This is also true in the world. We can settle for small successes rather than figure out why part of what we have done did not work and when part of it did.

Third, some people are not willing to try the solution to the problem, but they act as if they did. Like a person who can’t understand why they still aren’t awesome at an instrument, but they refuse to practice everyday. There are some who claim Christianity does not work, but they have not been willing to spend time with God or to change their ways to follow Him.

There will always be a need for knowledge, but we do need to know what knowledge is so that we can know how to do the things that will work. As Christians, we need to take stock of the things we are doing. What is working? What is not working? Why are some thing not working when others are? Honest reflection is needed so that we can root out the lies and live free.

How would you define knowledge? Do you think actual knowledge can be found? What is the difference to you between knowledge and opinion?

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Posted on by Christina Adams

How to Handle Constant Feelings of Failure on Personal Spiritual Growth

Do you ever feel like you want to grow deeper in your faith, but nothing you are trying is working? Have you tried things only to fail over and over? Do you live in a state of despair and disappointment in yourself because you can’t seem to get things right?

If you are a perfectionist, like I am, it can be easy to have higher expectations for yourself than you do for others. On the plus side, it can mean that you push yourself to accomplish things others don’t, but on the negative side, it also can mean that your expectations are rarely met leading to feelings of constant failure. It’s hard to live and to push through the discouragement, but you don’t have to live that way.

I have by no means overcome all the issues I have lived with in terms of my perfectionism, but I have learned some ways to work around it in my own spiritual life.

Set Your eyes on God first not your own transformation

Part of the problem with perfectionism is that all the flaws are seen while the successes are ignored. By hyper focusing on the failures the successes are not given a place to flourish. When I am looking at my own transformation, I will have an idea of what I want to look like and how I am supposed to get there. There will be little things that I want to be fixed, little things that I may over-emphasize at the cost of ignoring the big things that need to changed. And I may not even see the big things because I don’t know they are there. In other words, I cannot see myself either as I really am or as I ought to be. Do I even know what I am trying to turn into or how to get there? Am I in charge of transforming myself, or is God?

As a Christian, my job is to follow Christ first. This means that I only need to know where He is, to keep Him in my sights and be near Him. Yes, it is absolutely true that I also need to do things that God can use to help me become more mature, but my actual transformation is the work He does. Setting my eyes first on Him and not myself can seem depressing at first because He is perfectly what I would want to be, but that is because I am still thinking about myself. If I completely focus on Him, on what He is doing, and on who He is, then my attention is so caught up in the wonder of Him that my own struggles become less important. This also opens me up to allowing God to do the work He wants to do on the big things.

Decide that Only God gets to say if you are a failure, and if He is working in you, you never will be

Perfectionists are really good at judging themselves and finding anything out of place. It is then really easy to assume that God approves of my standards and then my own condemnation of my failures takes on the weight of a divine reprimand or divine disapproval which then leads to a sense of spiritual failure, helplessness, and distance from God. However, God does NOT have my standards for myself, He has His standards for myself. There are things that God wants to make in me and grow in me and use in me that I actually have no knowledge about. I could think that I am doing a great job at being caring and helpful, but God could see that the whole time I am impatient. I could think that I am doing a horrible job at being caring and helpful, but God sees that I have grown more in being self-less.

It can be easy to assume that God is holding me to a standard that is perfect, like Jesus, and while it is true that becoming like Jesus is the goal, God’s standard for how I need to get there is His and not mine. He gets to decide if I am actually failing or not. But the thing is that if God is working on me, He knows that I still need to have work done and He is not upset by that fact because it only means that He has more work to do.

If I give God complete control over whether I fail or succeed and I do whatever He tells me to do, then it’s God’s problem whether I am failing or succeeding. Also, to view the spiritual life as either successes or failures is a false dichotomy. God does not look at us and see either failures or successes, but as people who are in a process of growth and becoming. Failures in our minds are just opportunities to grow for God. Successes in our minds can actually be hinderances to growth for God because we can think we’ve made it in that area and are less open to learning.

Paul learned that he wouldn’t listen to others who tried to judge him and he also learned not to judge himself. We can assume interactions with others are failures because our desired result did not happen, but God knows what kinds of seeds are actually planted and He knows how to grow those seeds even if we never know. God is the only One who can accurately judge whether what we have done will last. And He is also going to honor all that we do with Him.

Change your expectations to what you can accomplish in the next 5 seconds

It is easy to spend the present focused on the past, but I can never change the past. If I am not happy with the direction I am going, the best thing I can do is to let it go. Repent if I need to repent, but let it go and move back into the direction I need to be going. The one area where I currently have a say in is right now. And I can turn each moment in the present into one where I am centered on Christ and involving Him in my choices or I can take this moment to focus on how I wish I were more centered on Christ.

Being intentional with each moment will keep me from focusing on myself and will create a habit of returning my thoughts to Christ that is so helpful in life. The more I practice snatching my thoughts and returning my focus to Christ, the more my mind will start doing that for me without my direct focus and the more my soul will be at rest.

Failing at spiritual growth is an assumption that is based on my own standards, not God’s. But God will always let me know when I am heading in the wrong direction and if I keep following Him, then I never have to worry about failing because of who He is.

Have you ever felt like you were failing spiritually? What have you done to overcome it? Let me know! Also, if you want to learn how to trust God more, check out my free Step-by-Step 4 Week Plan to Trusting God!

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