Taking a few more steps on your spiritual journey

When I was studying German, I had a teacher, Dr. Weatherford, who was particularly gifted at speaking just slightly over my head. No matter how much I knew, he could speak to me using just that vocabulary with an occasional word I did not know thrown in to challenge me. It took everything I had to hang with a conversation. No matter how much German I learned, Dr. Weatherford was always just in front of me using a little bit more of the language than I knew. It was never enough to frustrate me into quitting. Rather, he offered enough of a challenge to keep me pushing forward.

            I see Jesus doing just this same thing throughout the four Gospels. Jesus is always working with someone where they are and challenging them to take a few more steps of faith.

To Nicodemus, the Jewish teacher who comes by night to speak with him, Jesus holds out the challenge of spiritual rebirth.

To Pharisees bound up in the letter of the law, he offers miracles on the Sabbath as a challenge to their way of understanding how God can act.

To the woman caught in adultery, Jesus does not hurl the expected condemnation, but rather challenges her to go and sin no more.

            When Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well, she asks Jesus where it is that one should worship God—is it on Mount Gerizim as the Samaritans claim or at the Temple in Jerusalem as the Jews claim? Jesus challenges the woman to look beyond the place of worship to the heart of worship by telling her that true worship takes place in spirit and truth. The location is not as important as the content of your heart as you come before God.

Sometimes Jesus challenges the people he meets to take big steps of faith. To the rich young man who claims to flawlessly follow God’s law without fail, Jesus offers the big step of faith in asking the man to sell all he has and come and follow him. This is too much for the man who walks away dejected. He couldn’t take the next step and stop trusting in his wealth. Yet, each of Jesus’ disciples had followed a similar call to leave all to become disciples.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus meets people where they are and then encourages them to take a few more steps of faith. The only persons he seems to speak against are the ones who are smug in their religiosity. That never impresses Jesus.

As we near Easter, we remember the journey of the week before Jesus’ crucifixion. We remember Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple, the last supper, Jesus anguished prayer in the garden, his appearance before Pilate, and the long walk to Calvary. Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter are some of the occasions along this journey. The special services on these days offer ways to reconnect with the story of Jesus’ last journey on earth. Entering more deeply into Jesus’ journey to Calvary makes the celebration of Easter all the more joyous.

To more fully enter into contemplation of Jesus’ last days, look to see where Jesus is challenging you now. What are the next steps on your spiritual journey? Are you being challenged to read the Bible, pray, or attend worship more frequently? Are you being challenged to more fully live out your Christian beliefs in your business or family life? What is God laying on your heart in this last week before Easter?

I can’t answer these questions for you. But God can. Pray that God will show you what the next steps are for your life. Then be open to how God is leading you. If you pray this faithfully and then listen, you’ll find God speaking in stereo. The same idea will present itself in two or more ways as you read something, hear it again on the radio, or have a friend confirm it. If you ask God to lay what’s next for you on your heart, God will be faithful to challenge you to take a few more steps of faith.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

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