Healing begins with submission to Christ. But a beginning is merely a beginning. What does progress look like? Is it measurable? Can we see it? These questions come to mind by those who are new to the process when spiritual experience is young, regardless of age in years on the earth. We all want to look in the mirror and see someone who is better than they were yesterday. But does daily submission equate to measurable daily progress? Surely when a person is physically ill and is recovering from their illness they feel better every day. Does this translate to the process of salvation?
In business we develop sets of metrics to measure trending. An anomaly in sales does equate to radical success or failure, it is simply an anomaly. Failure in the life of a Christian who daily submits to Christ, but then forgets is a similar anomaly. The trends count. It is not that any day determines our fate. But a series of days predicts our outcomes. Little decisions add up to big ones. When we submit and begin to allow Christ to make decisions for us, we begin to experience a better life. The way we think about things changes. The way we love each other changes. The way we want what we want changes. These things accumulate over time. A business looks at its bottom line, but a lender looks for its progress over time. Progress over time is a better indicator than merely last quarter’s results. So it is in our Christian lives.
But the decided difference between the business world, and the Christian life, is WHO does the work. It is far easier to measure the results of what I do, than to attempt to measure the results when I do not understand the process, am not responsible for the work performed, cannot dictate the direction, and must only play the role of humble observer. It is our humility that enables Christ to begin the transformation. We begin by stating up front we CANNOT accomplish the goal for ourselves. The work then belongs only to Him. We remain with colored glasses, warped viewpoints, and no real history of success. To measure the success of an employee is far easier than to measure the success of our boss. We rarely understand the full dimensions of what our boss is responsible for. We may think we know, but once given his/her position ourselves, we quickly find we did not know nearly the half of the story.
Christ then is our leader. His methods are beyond our understanding. He is the only one who can affect the hearts of the people. I can debate with you endlessly about a point of view we disagree about. We can argue what the “facts” are for hours when we have a dispute. But I cannot hope to influence you to “love” me. Love in point of fact cannot be compelled. Yet Christ is capable of reaching the most ardent resistor and melting their hearts with His love. People soften attitudes when we pray for them and ourselves. It is an amazing phenomenon, one a human could never hope to achieve, yet Christ does it daily. In an argument between us, prayer can alter how we BOTH think and feel. Often our disagreements are abandoned altogether when put next the love of Christ in our hearts. How can one hope to measure the progress of change in the human heart?
The danger in attempting to measure our progress is twofold. First, we are tempted to take our eyes off the process itself, submission to Christ, in favor of trying to determine where we are, how much farther we have to go, etc.. We do not yet know the full extent of the work Christ must perform within us to truly and completely rid us of the desire to sin and embrace evil. We only know what has been revealed to us thus far. As stated before, the full picture may well be more than we are able to truly handle without abandoning all hope. Second, once we begin to enjoy the benefits of the victories we can put our fingers on, it is tempting to think that somehow “we” accomplished something in our spiritual lives. We again take our eyes off Christ, and start focusing them only the victories He has given us. Our tendency is to think that “our” prayers did this, or that “our” study of His word did this, or that “our” efforts to help others somehow affected the change in hearts and lives. But the only role “we” truly play is one of humble submission. We remain unable to expound on “how” we accomplished these victories because “we” had nothing to do with them. They are the gift of Christ to save us from ourselves.
Comparative righteousness means nothing. I cannot measure my victories by number because I do not know how many will be required. I cannot measure my victories by content or type, because all have equal pain associated with them, and all ultimately share the same fate for every evil. Therefore I cannot say that I am “more gifted” than you in the changes that occur in my life due to my submission to Christ; for “my” victories are only mine in that they were GIVEN to me. This is the primary reason why judgment of others is such a futile waste of human effort. Judging another does nothing to bring them closer to Christ, rather it only sends them farther away. Even those who experience victory should not make an effort to “then” judge others. They should remember in humility their own journey may yet have far to travel, and leave the judging of others up to God.
While a concrete set of metrics is not something we can apply to spirituality and our journey towards the perfection Christ offers; there is a noticeable difference in how we begin to “feel” and “think” about His will and His precepts. Scripture begins to take on deeper meaning to us. Texts that we once read and obtained a cursory blessing from, we now re-read with new eyes, and with the submission of our will to Christ, we are led to new and deeper truth. The blessing we gain is ten-fold what it was in the past. It is not about negating what we have come to know. It is about making it broader, deeper, and more profound. This is what is referred to as “spiritual discernment”. It is the opening of our eyes to spiritual truth because we have FIRST submitted the entirety of our lives to Christ.
Something else we begin to notice as the burden of self-inflicted pain is lifted more and more. Our time seems to multiply. Where we once spent countless hours regretting our sins, trying to avoid committing our sins, dealing with the pain of committing our sins – we are now no longer burdened with any of this. Those hours are reclaimed. We are freed to think about other things. We are given the “rest” Christ promises when we take on His yoke. This is liberating and exhilarating. To have more time available to spend with God allows us to seek truth even more than was possible in the past. His gifts to us just keep multiplying, each building on the other, as we learn to submit more and more.
The paradox of our healing can be found in the realization that comes of how Holy our Lord is, and wicked we are, even as burdens are lifted from our shoulders. It is not a cause to take pride in. It is one to increase our humility. The mark of progress in the Christian life, is not the prideful boasts of one who believes themselves rid of a previous sin, it is the humility of one who realizes they have far to go. Those who appear so forgiving of their enemies, so supportive of the failing, so concerned for others in pain – these are the hallmarks of one who has been touched by Christ. When a Christian is quick to condemn in others the things that have only recently been removed from themselves they reveal their conversion experiences to be incomplete. Judging others, condemning the sins in others, is not the task of one who knows their own sins to be greater than those of their brethren.
To enumerate the pain that sin brings is different than to condemn the slave who is held by it. Christ never excused the sin He found in the wounded, instead He offered to remove it from them. Souls were made pure in His days on earth, as well as in our days, and in the days of Enoch. Submission of the will is the healing we all seek. The healing process removes the focus from sin, and places it firmly on the cure – Christ. As we continue to behold Him more and more, we are molded more and more into His image. Our submission enables Him to create within us perfect obedience. Not just our actions, but our motives, our thoughts, our ideas, our desires – everything. Total healing for mind, body, and soul.
We should concern ourselves less with trying to measure the success He gives us, and focus on only maintaining our submission to Him to see the process reach fulfillment. I do not know when God will be able to finish His work within me. But I pray to see that day before I die. I wish to know what it is like to be completely devoid of evil in every form. I wish to serve to the capacity He can envision, unclouded by my own desires and tendencies. I do not want partial healing any more than I want partial forgiveness. I want to be fully saved, fully purged of evil, in absolute and complete harmony with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am without words to measure where I have come, and where I must yet go – but I am not without hope I will one day see His promise fulfilled in me.
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