Two Ingredients in the Recipe for Ongoing Growth and Change

An observation I have been making in recent years is that one of the easiest things to happen to a Christian is to stagnate; we like to feel secure, and staying within the learned theological boundaries that have provided a sense of certainty (see "Sense of Security") is natural to us. We unwittingly end up placing our trust in our certainty rather than in the Person of God in Christ who is infinitely larger than our systems of belief. The Christian system in America contributes to this tendency to stagnate, because we've inherited and accepted the idea that being a Christian primarily means to adhere to a determined set of beliefs concerning God and that those beliefs should never change. (See recent post here.)  It's acceptable if we change within the boundaries of that prescribed belief system, but to venture outside of those boundaries in search for more truth is at best discouraged and at times punished.

I attended the wedding recently of two dear friends who I've spent a lot of time with in recent years. They asked if I would share a bit from my heart at the wedding, and as I pondered what to share, I thought of both of them, and it hit me that the two of them together have the ingredients for ongoing growth and change.

The bride is a beautiful young woman of sincere devotion to Jesus; the groom is a wonderful young man with sincere questioning about Jesus (and all the trappings that Christianity has added to Him). We have spent long hours in the past couple of years discussing anything and everything that we have had questions and doubts about; his bride-to-be would suggest once in awhile that we take time to pray and worship Jesus in it all.

I think the two of them represent two main ingredients needed for ongoing change and growth in God: 1) Sincere questioning of anything and everything about Jesus, sorting through what really is needed and disposing of whatever is hindering the true knowledge/experience of God in Christ; 2) Sincere devotion to Jesus, always keeping focused on what the "sorting through" is all about and not getting lost in the sorting. Without the sincere questioning, we easily get stuck in what we have been taught and there is always more to learn (and unlearn) of Jesus; without sincere devotion to Jesus, we can easily make the "sorting through" the goal.

With this in mind, I recommend some books below, two for the "questioning" ingredient and two for the "devotion" ingredient; I recommend the wonderful (and at times frightening) adventure of finding a trusted follower(s) of Jesus with whom you can safely discuss anything and everything while keeping clearly in view the ultimate and ongoing goal of encountering Jesus in truth and consequently becoming like Him. Depending on the lens you are looking through, some of this material will stretch your thinking; the wonderful thing is that you don't have to agree with everything an author writes in order to receive truth from him/her.

Books to help with the questioning ingredient:
A New Kind of Christianity
The Sacredness of Questioning Everything

Books to help with the devotion ingredient:
God's Favorite Place on Earth
The Only Necessary Thing