We all have 'em. Those spiritual lows that seem so low we can't get out of them on our own. Often times we can't, which is one reason community is so important. Spiritual valleys. They are certain, hopefully few and far between, but probable in many of our lives.
One potential time for a spiritual slump, without a doubt, comes post-graduation. Why? How does this happen? What can we do to avoid it?
I would agree those I've heard from on this topic that we post-grads may have a hard run ahead of us, at least for a short time. The environment on campus is so unique; I heard someone relate it to a spiritual greenhouse-- a schedule that allows tons of fellowship, people who are in your stage of life, the freedom to spend abnormal amounts of time with God in the Word/prayer/worship. Nothing beats the college atmosphere, and because of that we feel pulled to re-create it. But it's just not possible, so we shouldn't try.
Life after college brings demands we're not used to: first real jobs and new careers that warrant our most productive time, errands and responsibilities that steal our time away our free time, not to mention most of us move to a new location and must find a new community and church family.
The thoughts and emotions I had on the day I went from living in a big 4 bedroom farm house with my best friends to my 1.5 bedroom apartment by myself will never leave my mind. It was a tough adjustment to say the least. But I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
Relevant Magazine had this to say on the subject:
"It’s easy to look back at the good times and feel like it was the activities that made those times what they were and want to reengage them. According to Josh Loveless, pastor of STATUS Church in Orlando, Fla., such a pursuit is a dangerous one. “You have to stop trying to recreate what worked last year,” he says. “Stop playing that worship CD that ‘did it for you’ three years ago...maybe you need to ask if there are other ways that God wants to meet with you.”
To try and recreate the spiritual high by recreating the activities of that time can lead to frustration, burnout and legalism — ultimately decaying your relationship with God.
It’s easy to forget it was because of God’s grace and His Spirit moving in your life that those spiritual activities helped you connect with Him in the past. Those activities flowed from an intimacy and relationship with God ... not the other way around."
The article goes on to show us what's in the other hand; "In the avoidance of empty forms, it’s easy to simply do nothing. For many in our generation, the pursuit of authenticity has trumped all other pursuits. Above all else, we desire to be real. We relentlessly question our motives and the motives of others, testing them for any sign of falseness, for any indication of forced affectation. We don’t want to make ourselves do anything — we want to want to do it."
So we choose not to do something just because we don't do it with the right motive instead of pursuing the right motive.
“A lot of times we abandon the standard because we realize we have been doing it for the wrong reason. The right response is not to abandon the standard, but to have the standard birthed out of something more correct, more true, more authentic, more sustainable.
By even asking these questions of high times and low times, we seem to be admitting one is better than the other. There’s a desire to “get through” the low times in order to “get back” to the high times. But what if both times are equally good? And not just in a clichéd way that says the low times are pruning and prepping us for the bigger, better times ... but in a way that embraces the low times as some of our most precious times with God.
“Are we comparing this and that instead of embracing that they both are what they’re supposed to be?” Austin asks. “And that might be the challenge we face—that we look at the dry times as a negative, instead of part of His journey with us.”
Anticipate the next season God has for you, but engage with this season you’re in right now. Understand that it will change you and it will change your faith. You cannot go back.
But you can move forward—tested and purified." (italics are quotes from a Relevant Magazine article "What To Do When Faith Fades" found here).
0 comments:
Post a Comment