Are you familiar with the ‘fight or flight’ response? It is instinctive when you feel threatened to stand your ground or run, yet these responses don’t always work for you. Do you value spiritual growth? How do you go about it? Do you have a plan and a schedule, and work your plan according to your schedule? Have you seen others fail with this approach? How successful has it been for you? I have a plan for your spiritual growth too. Would you like to follow mine rather than yours? Yet how can you find it? It is easier than you think. If you quit fighting me or running away I will find you.

Do you encounter people who blame me when things go wrong in their lives? They want to know why they lost their job or their marriage failed when there is no obvious reason. They are looking for cosmic justice and think they deserve better, so this is a thinly veiled accusation that I am not treating them well. Have you noticed that such accusations tend to come from the well-educated and well-off? They have had every advantage in life compared to others, especially when viewed on a world-wide scale across the span of history. Here is your assignment: count your blessings and advantages and then ask why about them.

Do you know that believers have a formal and everyone has a functional theology? Your formal theology is how well you would do on a test of basic doctrine. Most churches do an excellent job of providing instruction in formal theology. Functional theology is how you live your life. Everyone does this in some manner, whether they make any profession of faith or not. Ideally these two are congruent and consistent, and your formal theology will make you a better person. Have you met people who make no profession of faith, but their lives are consistent displays of admirable virtue? Which of these do you think is more important?

Do you have a safe? Your bank does even if you don’t. This is a sturdy rigid vault where valuables are stored, with a secure locked door, typically with a  combination lock. Do you look at me the same way, that if you just get the combination right you can open the door and get the treasure inside? Many people look at me this way but it is a faulty image. Safe combinations are secret, but my ways are open. Safes are made to keep people out, but I delight in opening my hand and satisfying the desire of every living thing, sending rain and sun on the just and unjust. Don’t think that you or anyone else needs a secret code or manipulation to gain access to me.