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the "issues" and faith growth

My idea of the ultimate vacation is being snowed in at a well stocked cabin up in the Rocky Mountains somewhere, curled up in front of a fireplace, surrounded with good books.

When I say books, I mean pretty much any kind of book. I simply love ideas. There have been times when I have set aside everything in my schedule because I needed to finish a book (or a series of books).

Living in the realm of ideas as much as I do, I naturally like to discuss ideas. This proves a difficulty, as there are never many people who are as interested in ideas as I am. I have learned to accept this, after meeting innumerable blank stares as I discussed my Master’s thesis topic (The Philosophical implications of Labelled Deductive Systems and Mental Model Theory for Psychology and Artificial Intelligence).

I have noticed, however, that most people prefer to live in the realm of ideas than action, especially when it comes to their faith lives. Talk to someone about their faith, and they bring up issues of theology, or how the church ought to be run, or what kind of music ought to be played, etc.

picture of a spotlight on the words

Push a little harder, and ask how they are doing on growing the fruits of the Spirit, and I get the same blank stares as if I were trying to discuss my Masters thesis.

This from Thomas a Kempis in The Imitation of Christ:

If men used as much care in uprooting vices and implanting virtues as they do in discussing problems,

there would not be so much evil and scandal in the world, or such laxity in religious organisations.

On the day of judgement, surely, we shall not be asked what we have read, but what we have done;

not how well we have spoken but how well we have lived.

Imagine what could happen if we would took a fraction of the time we spend on the “issues” and used that to develop a closer walk with God.

What would happen if that was our MAIN focus?