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Perspective and Progress

  If you look out the window of an airplane at 35,000 feet on a day with no clouds, it can seem you’re not moving. The plane is traveling hundreds of miles an hour, but because of your vantage point and momentum, your eyes don’t see the progress and your body doesn’t feel the movement.

  A similar thing happens in life generally and in our walk as Christians. Many people who specialize in helping others achieve goals say that once you’ve set a goal, it’s better to focus on the habits that will get you there. If you want to read 50 books in a year, focus on the habit of daily reading rather than the stack of books, and the goal will take care of itself.

  Christian life is inherently a loop. We get on this track in baptism, when our old, damned selves are drowned and a new, righteous Christian is brought to life in us. But this begins a battle. We are declared forgiven and righteous for Christ’s sake and do receive a new life, but we’re not perfect yet as we’ll be in heaven. We are, as Martin Luther put it, simul iustus et peccator, "at the same time righteous and a sinner.” Therefore, we return to God’s grace every day. We throw our sin and sinful selves onto Christ crucified, killing all of it in him. Then we rise with Jesus as freshly justified saints, ready to strive with new vigor to live in that identity.

  So what does progress look like from the Christian’s perspective? It’s often not linear. We might struggle with the same sin for decades, and maybe after years of keeping it at bay fall into it once again. We might have a faithful connection to God’s word and sacraments and still experience tragedy, setbacks, problems that keep us from living a productive life in the eyes of the world.

  To understand the mystery of godly progress, let’s break it down into three elements: 1) Input (the actions and habits we perform), 2) Opportunities (the circumstances for our actions and habits to be employed), and 3) Results (the progress the actions and habits bring when they’re applied to opportunities).

  In Scripture, we Christians are given responsibility for the first two elements. Jesus says in Luke 16:10, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” Though we have different opportunities, God asks us to be faithful in our input of diligent work, honest speech, love toward all, and conformity to his word.

  Next, we can’t control which opportunities will present themselves to us, but we are called to discern them. When Jesus judges the world, part of his evidence that people were believers is that they discerned opportunities to serve the neighbor (Matthew 25:31-40). Paul exhorts us to “seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13), that is, discern opportunities to show hospitality.

  Here’s the tricky part: the results of our faithful action and discerned opportunities lie in God’s control. In the context of ministry, Paul writes, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). We know that only God can truly bring people to faith (give the growth) when the Word is planted through preaching, but even in areas of life where we have more control, we see that “the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

  So if you feel that your Christian life isn’t full of progress or is heading in a direction you aren’t aiming for, remember the airplane. Because of your momentum and perspective, the progress can seem to be irregular or nonexistent. Focus on the system more than the results. The system is repentance, that loop of returning from our sin-riddled lives to the cross, to baptism, to grace, where we are renewed to act as we have opportunity. And with the system intact, trust God, “who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). Also, watch in the next couple weeks for more discussion on how our ideas of Christian “progress” may need some adjustment so we can appreciate the results God brings.