Spiritual Formation- 7th Hour

The Wrong Ruler
Am I Measuring My Spiritual Life in Superficial Ways?
By: Renatta Gorski
Rulers, clocks, beakers, gauges… these are all instruments used to measure. They’re all useful in everyday life. But what can we use to measure ideas, such as love or truth? How do we measure whether we are growing spiritually? Some common “devices” used in Christianity are daily devotions, prayers at mealtime, going to church, and the occasional volunteer work. But maybe the devices Christians use don’t quite match up with the devices God uses. Maybe God is less concerned with the actions that Christians feel as mandatory, and more concerned with the mindset of Christians; that they love God and love others. Maybe Christians are using the wrong ruler to measure their spiritual growth.
All of the aforementioned “rulers” are certainly elements in spiritual growth. They can push Christians in the right direction. However, they are not the sole means of spiritual prosperity. In fact, they can hinder growth because these “rulers” focus on the surface of Christianity. Although there is great depth to all these things, it gets ignored when the users’ only intent is marking off an item on their to-do list and thinking to themselves, “Well, I’ve grown enough spiritually for today. On to the next thing…”. If only believers could set aside their crazy lifestyles to actually put their hearts and minds into devotions or prayers. If only they could stop throwing God amidst the other to-do’s and actually focus on treating Him as important as He truly is. The truth is, all of the spiritual markers mean nothing when we take our relationship with God out of the equation. He is the real means to our growth and He is the only way we will be able to truly love God and others. A half-hearted prayer just won’t do the trick.
I, of course, have no right to be reprimanding any Christian when I myself measure in superficial ways. I’m not sure I could even say that I’ve improved much over the course of my faith. There are countless nights when I have laid in bed and uttered a quick prayer, trying to get it over with as soon as possible so that I can respond to my latest text message. There have been times when I feel as though church is an obligation, and I resent the fact that I am there throughout the entire service, thinking that I could be anywhere else. It is so disappointing to think back on all of those times and realize that although these deeds look “good” on the surface, they have done nothing to help my relationship with God. What they have done is put Him into a mental box labeled “Spiritual Growth” that I occasionally contribute to to feel better about myself. I’ve realized that I need to put aside my selfish, guilt-laying thoughts in order to really love my Creator. Obviously it’s a hard task to accomplish, especially as a high school student in today’s society, but it’s a task that I need and want to accomplish.
I hope I have made it clear that spiritual growth can’t be measured by what you’re doing, but rather what you’re getting out of it. I think that it is high time Christians (including myself) worry less about reading our Bible because “it’s the right thing to do” and read it because it’s God’s holy, precious Word. We might find that we want to be more like the church of Thessalonica, whom Paul spoke to in 2 Thessalonians 1:3 when he said, “We ought to always thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.” And don’t you think that the church of Thessalonica was using the right ruler? If Wheaton Academy stopped measuring our spiritual growth in superficial ways and started using God’s ruler for measurement, it would be a much stronger community. We would be one step closer to loving God and loving each other. And that’s a community that I, and I’m sure many others, would want to be living in.