Faith, Doubt, And Honesty
No less a spiritual giant than Oswald Chambers, author of the classic book My Utmost for His Highest, commented on his own spiritual journey, “I did not know anyone who had what I wanted. In fact, I didn’t know what I wanted. But I knew that if what I had was all there was to Christianity, the thing was a fraud or I had not gotten hold of the right end of the stick.”
Chambers was right, the sacred scriptures speak about spirituality as a life of transformation. He spent four intense years seeking God, trying to find the right end of the stick to hold onto. In the end, he came away experiencing the new life he desperately sought.
When the Apostle Paul described this spiritual change in his book to the church in Rome, he used the same word we use today to describe the growth of a butterfly. He called it renewal, in modern day English the word is metamorphosis. In short, the change that true faith makes creates a completely different person than was there before.
Several years ago A.W. Tozer noted the superficiality of much that is taught in the name of God when he noted, “There is a false gospel which asserts, ‘Come with your basket to receive the religious equivalent of everything the world offers and enjoy it to the limit. Those who have not accepted Christ must be content with this world, but the Christian gets this one with the one to come thrown in as a bonus.’ How the Lord must despise all of this.” How indeed.
For those who seek authentic transformation, Francis Shaffer said it is necessary to take hold of what he called “total truth.”
Total truth is living in the light of an honest relationship with God that begins when we follow the command, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27).
This is no religious offering; it is rather a complete immersion in following after his footsteps in every arena of life.
So what is the first step? It is simple honesty that declares you will no longer settle for shadows but only for the substance. It comes with truly believing that, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
When that happens, of one thing we can be sure; we will be transformed, others will know it, and we will be certain that we have gotten hold of the right end of the stick.