Old Updates: The One About Sanctification and Slowing Down

Spring 2017

“Farther along we’ll know all about it
Farther along we’ll understand why
So cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We’ll understand this, all by and by”
-Josh Garrels, “Farther Along”
These days, moving halfway across the world is much easier than you would think; pack some things in a bag, hop on a plane, and bang, just add a few hours and you arrive at your new home. It gets a little tougher when you have to find a place to stay and buy all of the stuff you need to live (it took me a few weeks to learn where to buy trash bags). Honestly though, all those little details are pretty easy and look the same whether you move to Budapest or Boston. All of that external stuff is simple, it is the internal that starts to cause problems. You have to make that place you now live actually feel like home, make friends, and struggle between no longer feeling like a tourist, but also not really feeling like a citizen.
I have been described as a “high producer.” All that means is that I have a problem settling down and turning “it” off. While I knew it would take some time to adjust, my natural tendency is to get frustrated when I hit a road block, mental or physical. As I wrote in my journal in my two-month reflection, the hardest thing is remembering I have only been here two months and not a lifetime. I feel frustrated with myself that when I go home to my apartment it does not feel like home. That feeling seems to echo in so many other aspects of my life. I have a residency card, praise God, but I still feel like I don’t belong here.
But as I take time to slow down and reflect, I really am farther along than I thought. After a long day, I love coming home and cooking in my apartment, I have people to call up and hang out with, and there are places where people are starting to recognize me.
This feeling is not just unique to moving to a new place, it feels like so often in my walk with Christ, I am still stumbling over the same things that always mess me up. That old sin of pride keeps tripping me up, and I still struggle with praying and feeling like I am talking to the sky. I call it my walk with Christ, but most of the time I feel like I haven’t moved an inch.
“That deadweight burden weighs a ton
Go down to the river and let it run
And wash away all the things you’ve done
Forgiveness, alright”
-Josh Garrels, “Farther Along”
I cannot remember who first wrote about sanctification, but I always associate it with the work of John Wesley. He writes in his sermon, Justification by Faith, “for it is not a saint but a sinner that is forgiven… God justifieth not the godly, but the ungodly; not those that are holy already, but the unholy.” In other words, sanctification begins when we are justified and from that time, “a believer gradually dies to sin, and grows in grace” (Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection). It is a process, and sometimes that process feels incredibly slow. I have to remember even when I fall flat on my face, that still means I have moved a little bit, farther then before!
Another source of encouragement and hope for me comes from one of our major verses in Bowman House, my freshman house at Indiana Wesleyan:
Spiritual Fullness in Christ
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. - Colossians 2:6-7 New International Version (NIV)
As believers, we are rooted in Him. As Ezekiel 36:26 says, our hearts of stone have been removed and we have hearts of flesh. We can cling to the promise that even in our darkest time The Holy Spirit is in us and that He is growing us, even when we think we are the same old sinners we were before God entered our lives.
If you have made it this far, thank you for joining me on this journey and remember you are farther along than you were and we can joyously celebrate that together. So take a few minutes and remind yourself you are not who you once were.
Blessings,