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Consider It All Joy...
If we're just people who focus on the outcomes of our faith, well, the second that it seems too hard to work out or too flimsy, we'll likely throw in the towel.
- On my way down to Montreat, I had enough time to get into audiobooks. The first one I listened to was James Clear's Atomic Habits. There's a lot of great stuff in it, but one particularly struck me.
- We focus too much on what we need to do as opposed to our identity. We focus on outcomes - I want to lift 200 pounds or play guitar in a band, as opposed to saying that my identity is one of an athlete or one of a musician.
- Moreover, AH argues that we will likely do better if we take a 1% approach: a little bit better every day.
- And the more we do those things, the more we're fulfilling our identity, the fuller and richer our lives are.
- If you're here or watching us, I'm pretty sure that you identify partly as a Christian or at least curious about it.
- And if we identify and want to create the habits of a faithful person, we want to have it be as complete and enriching as possible. That's where the joy of this journey will be.
- Here, we have a relatively straightforward formula in these two similar passages.
- And I want to break down the Jas passage in particular because I think it opens up a lot for us.
- "Whenever you face" - the word there is more like falling into a situation that isn't all that great.
- "trials" - examination. Checking out.
- What's interesting is that both of these words, over time, also were used on occasion medically: so we might also think of this similarly as a drug trial. Circumstances arise that put us in a situation where the efficacy of our faith is tested to determine its effectiveness.
- Even more interesting is that this is further strengthened by this idea here in Jas of "testing." This word is all about testing if something is counterfeit, making sure that it's truly genuine.
- When we find the genuine article with our faith, it lasts - just like if a drug passes through a trial and to market: it can save lives. It can rework issues that are unhealthy in us.
- And when that's all done, Jas uses two different words that mean perfection: the first one representing more that it has reached its maturity (telos), and the other that is whole.
- Now that's interesting to think about: if we identify as Christians and want to develop the habits of a faithful person, even when it's hard, it's ultimately a chance to determine if we have a placebo faith.
- And that placebo faith - the one we have curated, will fail us in these times of test.
- The question here, then, should be, are we people who do faith or people who identify with faith?
- Because if we're just people who focus on the outcomes of our faith, well, the second that it seems too hard to work out or too flimsy, we'll likely throw in the towel. And I think we might find reasons to blame it on many things like we do when we don't go to the gym or don't practice our piano or take your pick... (we need this kind of music, this kind of preaching, this kind of programming, etc.) what we're not apt to do is say to ourselves simply if we're focused on outcomes and not identity?
- If we move towards identifying as a person of faith, we might start asking better questions about what matters and what doesn't, what builds and what tears down - what are the habits of a Spiritual person? Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control... focused not on doing things because they're the law, but because the Spirit moves us to do it...
- And as James seems to allude to us, this testing leads to perfection, but it takes time. If perfection were only described as "complete," then we may question whether it should come immediately. But he also mentions perfection in the sense of "telos” - a word we still use to describe an ultimate end or aim: a final cause, according to Aristotle. So we have the grace and opportunity to move 1% a little each day.
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