Messy Spirituality

The following is a quote from the book Messy Spirituality, by Michael Yaconelli. If you've never read of Mike's writing before, check it out here. You might find it refreshing.

Incompetence

"Messy spirituality describes our godly incompetence. No one does holy living very well. Spirituality is the humiliating recognition that I don't know how to pray well. I don't understand God's Word or know how to navigate it properly, and I don't know how to competently live out my commitment to Christ. Messy spirituality affirms our spiritual clumsiness.

I grew up in a church where dancing was frowned upon. As a result, four decades later, I still can't dance. Even worship dancing causes my heart to race because I am desperately afraid of anyone seeing my stiff, awkward attempts to make my body move. Because I am a lousy dancer, I avoid any experience in which dancing is a possibility.

When it comes to the spiritual life, I am amazed at how many of us don't know how to dance. We stand before God, the music starts playing, and we are embarrassed by our incompetence. The church has communicated that competence is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and that, therefore, spiritual people are supposed to live faith competently. So many people are afraid of embracing the spiritual life because of the possibility they might say or do the incompentent thing."


Questions to ponder: Does being a faithful Christian mean being good at things like praying, serving others, worshipping, and reading the Bible? Can you ever be a successful Christian? Or does faithfulness have more to do with a continual willingness to try?