by TIMOTHY FETLER
WAYS OUT
The Christian in search o f a victorious life has
F or we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against princi palities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places .” As a born-again Christian you have tasted of the heavenly gift and your eyes have been opened to the marvelous light the world does not see. Yet, enclosed in struggles and defeats, the victorious life seems to remain an unrealizable ideal. You have yearned for great er spiritual realization, for the ca pacity to transcend the state of defeat. Your desire has been to live on a plane of spiritual vitality, to live a challenging, meaningful and victorious life. Yet you are finding it impossible to spontan eously affirm with Paul “ . . . for getting those things which are be hind . . . I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” At times you have thought that this may be your own particular problem, but you have found that most Christians seem to have the same difficulty. On the one hand, conflict and defeat, on the other, complacency and indifference, and you are finding it increasingly im possible to adjust to either of these
opmental laws. Once the Spirit of God has entered the Christian heart, a dynamic development begins. In regard to this development an “ either-or” reasoning (either saint or sinner), may very well lead to discouragement. Often the zeal and devotion of St. Paul, the love and compassion of Christ, are held up to the young C h r istian and the question is asked: “Does your life manifest such a zeal, such a love and such compassion?” Knowing that this is quite unrealistic as far as his actual life is concerned, the young Chris tian tends to isolate these virtues to the plane of theory and abstraction where they are believed in but where they also remain unrelated to actual life. Or, if he does make a serious attempt to relate them he becomes easily discouraged because of the gap between the actual and the ideal. In dynamic terms, however, the Christian may be able to evaluate his progressive spiritual growth constructively. By understanding that the development necessarily includes both victory and defeat, fluctuations and periods of consola tion, he will retain more stability and singleness of purpose in contin uing on the spiritual path. CONTINUED 13
states. Your soul seems to sense that nothing short of the victorious life will suffice and yet these fruit ful fields still lie beyond. And though sometimes you feel like giving up, you are nevertheless compelled to keep on trying. The Actual and the Ideal Your sense of inadequacy and d is cou ra g em en t has been also sharpened by the continuous con trasting of what you are and of what you should be. As a Chris tian, you are supposed to live a spiritual life of victory; as a human being you find yourself living on a plane of defeat. It becomes in creasingly difficult to relate these two planes realistically and you find yourself gradually living in two different worlds, the one held up for you as a spiritual ideal, and the one you actually find yourself in. An "Either-Or" Reasoning " As evangelical Christians we be lieve that Christians cannot be de veloped, they are bom. It is a case of “ either-or” and could be defined as a static notion. However, it is also important to understand that all life, including the spiritual, grows according to dynamic devel
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