Imagine being stranded in the wilderness in the middle of a snowstorm. The only thing you can do is survive. Fortunately, you have enough resources to successfully light a fire. It is all you have to keep you warm and separate you from the surrounding darkness. Nevertheless, the gusts of wind that can be felt prickling the hairs at the back of your neck threaten to blow your fire out. Guarding (specifically protecting) this light is all you can do in order to live another day.
Learning is a process, one that hopefully continues throughout the entirety of our lives. The point at which we lose the desire to learn more is when indifference has sadly been realized. When this happens, there is no longer a yearning to make the flame within grow brighter, let alone keep from distinguishing altogether.
The soul becomes shrouded in a pure state of anguish and turmoil. Much like learning and mental stimulation, faith and spiritual awareness should be nurtured and nourished over time for continued growth. When the drive to continue to advance is gone, the soul is in jeopardy. Our guard comes down as a result of stagnancy and complacency, letting worldly temptations and distractions assume power.
If we erroneously believe that our souls are without fault, there would no longer be a need for an earthly presence. Given this misconstrued assumption, there would no longer be a need to learn and progress either. The ultimate spiritual bliss that is eternity with Christ Jesus would immediately be tangible.
We, however, should recognize that there is always a need, and an opportunity, to further strengthen our bonds with Christ Jesus. He does not give up on us and we as humans should always strive for a deeper connection with Him. After all, we our limited by human constraints, and thus will never completely be able to grasp all the Jesus is. In other words, we, in our earthly vessels, are incapable of grasping the full magnitude of Jesus Christ, son of God.
Equally important, the more we seek to know God, the more that is revealed to us. You would not teach a child of six years calculus before he or she had mastered the finer points of addition, subtraction, and many other intermediary steps first. Such is the way of the soul. We need to continue to make ourselves worthy to know and perfect our relationships with Christ one foundational step at a time.
Yet, the more we learn, the more questions that arise. The hope is that the sought-for answers will take us to a new level of understanding in our relationships with Jesus Christ, who is ever-present on our journeys of growth. We are fortunate to never be alone and must never lose sight of this beautiful gift of His patience and love.
Originally posted on August 5, 2019 @ 9:07 AM
