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Over-spiritualize, I Dare You!

July 4th, 2010 by blog

By Neil Peet

We all know the types, people you almost cringe to talk to because you know the conversations will invariably end up at the foot of the Cross.

“How are you doing today?”
“Better then I deserve”
“… Pardon?”
“Well, I am a sinner, deserving God’s judgment. Yet He loved me enough to send His son Jesus to die for me and now he continues to bless me by giving me this day to live for Him!”
While we can all chuckle at stories like this, I wonder why we are so afraid of spiritualizing things. Sure, we may not want to start every conversation with “So, about Jesus…”; however, it may be worth challenging the idea of censoring ourselves. Are we truly making the Christian message more palatable for our non-christian (and even Christian) friends… or are we just doing God a major disservice?

Take a look at Daniel from the Bible. Daniel Chapter 1 details the story of a young man taken captive to live in a new land with new rules, a new king and new gods. He is given a place of honour but is expected to conform and excel in the service of this new king. However, the first thing he does is refuse to eat the king’s food, instead choosing to only eat the food God had commanded the Israelites to eat. He was not being difficult for difficulty’s sake, he was being a man of conviction and remaining steadfast to his God. Chapter 1 verse 8 says it this way: “Daniel resolved (or purposed) in his heart.” Daniel simply placed God above anything else in his life. The king, his boss, and societal pressures were all a distant second when compared with God.

Now, if you continue reading in Daniel chapter 1, you will notice that Daniel was not overtly spiritual about all of this. Instead he straightforwardly and honestly stated that eating the king’s food was not something he would do, and simply trusted God that everything would work out. No justification of his decision, no apologies, no backing down… that was just the way it was going to be.

Daniel followed this course his entire life. In chapter 6 you can read about jealous court officials who tried to overthrow Daniel from a position of power. However, it says “but they could not (find fault with him) because he was faithful, nor was there any error or fault in him.” (Daniel 6:4) But here is where it gets interesting, as the Bible goes on to say “Then they said ‘we shall not find any charge against Daniel unless we find something which goes against the law of his God’.” (Daniel 6:5). They knew very well where Daniel’s priorities lay. His life was so aligned towards God that everyone with whom he interacted knew that God alone held Daniel’s allegiance.

If we truly believe in a God who is the creator and ruler of heaven and earth, and if we believe that God loved us enough to save us from our sins by sending His own Son to die for us, how could we not respond like Daniel? Careful, this is dangerous territory. Putting God first in your life may result in you making statements such as:
“Sorry, I go to church on Sunday” or
“I want to honour God with my body and don’t think that would be appropriate” or
“Yes, I do actually believe that God created all things”

Everything is spiritual, we are only fooling ourselves if we think we could “over-spiritualize” anything!