Practical Christian application:

1. Rejoice in your Christian birth
2. Fix your eyes on Jesus and strive to steadily grow in him day by day
3. Be zealous, but avoid the emotional highs (peaks) and corresponding lows (valleys)
4. Don’t be embarrassed, but don’t be satisfied about where you are as a Christian,
5. More mature Christians should be patient and gently lead newer Christians to maturity. 

Early in my life I remember a friend of mine who was a recent Christian convert and “on fire” for the Lord.  He was constantly chiding me for not being a more overt Christian.  He was a cheerleader for Christ wearing the right symbols, saying the right words, carrying the right books and confronting others to hold them accountable.  I was crushed a few years later when I saw video evidence of this same person in a one of the most un-Christian like situations.

This memory came back in full force recently while reading Chapter 7 “Emotion is Your Enemy” in the book Wooden on Leadership by the legendary basketball coach John Wooden.  In the opening sentences of this chapter he describes the beautiful peaks and valleys of the Swiss Alps but explained peaks and valley belong in the Alps not in temperament.

Coach Wooden inspired his teams to have consistency of intensity and to avoid emotional peaks and valleys, in his words, “I would not accept inconsistency – the pitfalls of repeated highs and lows” (107).  During his career at UCLA Coach Wooden’s teams won 10 national championships including 88 straight wins and four perfect seasons.  His success as a teacher and coach led to his being named the coach of the century by ESPN.  He contends:

My performance goal for our team was of steady and tangible progress.  If you drew it on a graph, the line would be rising every day each week through the season until the players were theoretically at their finest on the final day of the season.  There would be no sharp spikes or peaks; no sudden drop-offs or letdowns. (109)

The truth is, back in my earlier years and to some extent today I was not 100% comfortable with my role as a Christian.  I made mistakes and because of my personality was not comfortable with some of the overt actions demanded of me.  Today I believe the Bible’s concept of Christian growth is very similar to coach Wooden’s, a steady growth from new birth to our physical death and transformation to heaven.

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians he reminds them that “… since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self  who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created  him”  (Colossians 3: 9b-10, NASB).  Did you get that, we are BEING renewed.  The implication of this verse is of a process.  The words for being renewed can literally be translated to renovate (NASB reference note).  When we become Christians we certainly put on a “new self” but it is not fully grown from our new birth (I Peter 1:3). In fact, Jesus warned against quick growth:

The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.   But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.   (Matthew 18-23, NIV)

Our conversion is described as born again for a reason, as new creatures we start growing in our new body (of Christ).  Peter described it this way “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,” (1 Peter 2:2, NIV).

My message should not discount the excitement of being a new Christian; it is a magical time like no other.  The thought that we were lost in sin and in a moment are transformed as a saved creature.  Paul in Romans 12:11 encourages us to “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” But warned earlier in the letter, “For I can testify about [the Isrealites] that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge (Romans 10:2, NIV).”

What happened to my Christian friend from long ago?  Don’t know, but I pray he’s on one of the peaks right now.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/people/fukagawa/ used under creative commons license

Additional scriptures for study:

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. Colossians 2:18-19 (NIV)

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.  For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.   Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.  Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Romans 10:1-4 (NIV) 

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:11-14 (NIV)

Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.  1 Timothy 3:1 (NIV)

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:5-7 (NIV)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.  2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)