So, here is a confession. There is a great deal present in my life that I don’t want to be there, stuff that shouldn’t be there. However, it is there. I suppose that isn’t much of a confession. It is probably more of an acknowledgement of the way life is for most of us. Like me, most people have stuff in their lives that shouldn’t be there; it just is. I am short with my kids causing trauma to their hearts. I have periods of self-centeredness and selfishness. I objectify people to meet my needs. I suppose the list could go on. The issue for me isn’t whether this stuff is present. The real issue is how to get rid of it.

Now, we have hit upon the million dollar question. How do we get rid of the junk that fills our lives and relationships? The initial response is to clean house by hitting it head on. I will simply stop being short with my kids. I will value other people. I will not be selfish. That lasts about thirty seconds on a good day and then I am back to my old ways. I find that I don’t have it in me to clean house. As soon as I clean myself up I promptly go and jump in a mud puddle. I have spoken to enough people over the years to know that I am not the only one who seems bent on puddle jumping. So what are we to do?

I suppose we could say, just try harder. I don’t think that is the answer. If we didn’t have it in us to clean out the junk the first time, what makes us so sure we will have it in us the second? Or third? Maybe it starts by acknowledging we can’t do it. Why not? Probably because the stuff that fills our lives is more than attitudes and behaviors. These issues are heart issues, issues of character. I am short with my kids, am self-centered, and the like because of deeper flaws in my character. As long as my character goes untouched my behaviors will go unchanged. True change only comes as I do work below the surface.

This is not just good psychology. It is sound doctrine as well. Peter makes this point in 2 Peter 1.3-9. In this wonderful passage about spiritual transformation, Peter basically says that change happens when we partner with God to work below the surface. Peter states that we are to make every effort to add a number of items to our faith. What is interesting is that the list he supplies has little to do with behaviors and attitudes we find on the surface of our lives and everything to do with what lies below the surface: character, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, mutual concern, and love.

Peter’s list presses me to look beyond my actions to the root of my actions, to who I really am. Who I really am, the very fiber of my being must change if my actions and attitudes are ever to change. I have to work below the surface. So how does one do that? It begins by recognizing that God is the source of true change. This is where Peter starts out. It is God’s power that is available and active in our lives (2 Peter 1.3). If we desire change, we must partner with God by opening our lives to His work (2 Peter 1.5). We must make the effort to be available to God. This means we make space for this work, literally. I talk a great deal about slowing down. I don’t talk about slowing down because I simply like a slower life. I talk about slowing down because this is the only way we have the time and resources to open our lives to God. We have to seek moments that open our lives in an ever-increasing way to God. One of the best ways to do this is to open our lives to others. God works and speaks through others. I am learning that I need community, not ten or more people but one or two who know me really well. I need them to peer into my soul to function as a mirror, revealing who I am, who I pretend not to be. Finally, I need time. The deep stuff doesn’t change overnight. How I wish that it did. That just isn’t the case. It takes a lifetime of openness, humility, and accountability to others to reshape the deepest recesses of our souls. That shouldn’t surprise us. It has taken a lifetime to shape us. It will take a lifetime to reshape us, but reshaped we will be, if we work below the surface. I am interested in hearing how you are seeking to work below the surface. How are you opening your life to God, to others? How are you making space, and what are the results that you are seeing?

A fellow traveler,

Blake
Spiritual Formation Pastor