The Slide

Okay, I have been gone for a while again, but hopefully I have some time to share what has been on my heart and mind these last few weeks now and I can write a little more often.
As my small group met last week, we discussed some of the challenging truths we found in the newest book by Francis Chan called "Forgotten God." I really appreciate anything that challenges me spiritually and so do the guys, so we have really been enjoying this book. Last week something struck a chord within the reading that made us all stop and think for a minute. We had a great session loaded with discussion, and when it was over I didn't want to end. Words were read, which lead to dialogue about the test, which made us think new thoughts provoking new articulation of our grasps on the subjects.
We talked about how, as Christians, we haven't faced much pain or controversy. It's so hard for us to mention to a friend that we know something better for their lives yet we are called to the service of Christ. Christ suffered. He suffered so much that He died a slow and meticulous death of more agony than should even be fathomable, and that is who we follow. We are Christians, which is a follower of Christ; do as He said and do as He did. If we haven't done anything painful, anything risky, or anything even uncomfortable in life we have clearly missed it.
A thought that I had this week had to do with a particular community of people that host weekends of faith every year or so. Many readers know what community this is, and in fact many in this area have attended these weekends. The sad thing is that it has gotten the terrible reputation of only giving a spiritual high that last a few weeks before it dwindles. I am personally now under the impression that we lose that feeling of the experience because we don't build from there. We have a flame once we get on any spiritual high, whether we have attended a crusade, or worship conference, etc. Instead of feeding the flame, we try to coast. We let that flame eventually die out because we are just trying to slide back down to the point we were content at before the experience. It is impossible for us to even stop at that point however, and too often we try to throw on the brakes at that stop and we continue our slide. That's the easiest solution for us: to slide right off our spiritual high and drop ourselves into a hole worse than when we began. Easiest is not the best solution. Christ wants us to press on. We need to aggressively pursue all that is of Christ. There isn't a specific form for this pursuit, so it can seem hard. However, cliche or not, we have the book that tells us all we need to know. Read Revelation 2:5 and let us press on to pursue more of the glory of Christ instead of settling for a mediocre relationship this week.