Spiritual Enlightenment, part 5

The Increase of the Love, Grace, Forgiveness, and Patience Visible in Your Life.

Seems kind of like a no-brainer, right? If you are growing in Christ then it would make sense to assume that these qualities would become more and more evident in the ongoing rhythm of your life. But you’d be surprised how many people claim that they are growing in Christ and yet none of these most basic and important of elements to a discipled life appear anywhere on their radar.

Let’s think about symphonies for a moment. I’m no expert on classical music, though I do enjoy Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and Bach on occasion. Most symphonies that I’ve heard rarely begin with gusto: every instrument playing at top volume from the very outset. Most start slowly, quietly, easing the listener into what is to become later on a cacophony of sound and sensation. It may begin with a number of measures from the string section, the woodwinds slowly entering into the picture, followed by the brass instruments, maybe a timpani banging softly, driving the rhythm forward and onward toward the eventual crescendo that peels the faces off the audience members in a tidal wave of sound and musical fury.

I think the increase of love, grace, forgiveness and other assorted fruits of the Spirit taking control of our lives is much like a symphony. It’s not going to happen all at once. I think, and perhaps I’m conjecturing a bit too much here, that we would be crushed if the Spirit rushed in and changed every single thing about us the moment we invited Him in to our lives. At the least, it would steal from us our part in walking alongside Christ, learning from Him how to live. As we follow Him we slowly, sometimes almost imperceptibly, learn how to love better, then with that love ingrained in us more and more we learn how to show grace instead of judgment and wrath. We learn to forgive, then to become more patient with those who irritate or wrong us. Day by day, as we follow after Christ we learn to be like Him and His life becomes our life.

When we see these and other elements of a Spirit-led life we can rest and rejoice in the fact that we are being transformed, enlightened in the way of Christ.

shalom, matt