Today Georges Boujakly continues his series on ”keys” to spiritual transformation with key number five:

There is only one speed on the highway of spiritual formation: slow.

Speed rules. Speed is everywhere. We expect all our services speedily. We expect our technology to respond faster all the time. Speed’s pervasive presence has affected our view of spiritual formation, and discipleship. (By the way, if you are looking for a simple way of telling discipleship from spiritual formation here it is: Spiritual formation is the work of the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ. Discipleship is learning to follow Christ as the Holy Spirit teaches us to do. God’s work is to form us. Our work is to learn his formation process and participate in it. This distinction is helpful to me.) Because God in Christ in the Holy Spirit uses life and disciplines to teach us himself so we may have a kingdom way of life, the process of spiritual formation is always slow. That we demand speed in this area of Christian living is an indication of our consumerist tendencies in the church today.

What does slow progress feel like? What does it look like? Chime right in. Here’s what I think. Frankness and personal experience must guide me here.

1. It feels like slow death.

In the formation of ourselves so much in us has to die before the new comes. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states the reality of who we are in Christ: the old is gone, the new has come. This reality is then actualized in our lives for the rest of our lives in small shifts. That it is small is no denial of its significance. That it is small is an act of mercy, and grace because boasting can so easily set in. Mortification (dying to self and to sin) must take place for resurrection life to emerge. Mortification is saying no to anything that could stand in the way of the mandate for holiness: Be holy, as I am. It is putting to death all that hiders our fellowship with God. A tall order only achieved by His death and by our intentional dying to ourselves.

We are spiritually formed from the beginning of our lives. As Dallas Willard says, everyone gets a spiritual formation. Some of our formation is of a good kind (conforms us to the image of Christ). Some of it is bad (conforms us to the world). We have to be rid of this conformity to the world. We let go slowly. Many things we let go reluctantly. The tug-of-war that goes on within each of us is very real. Our damaged hearts, spirits, souls, and flesh are slow to change. Residual sins (sins we fought early in life which remain a struggle, and a by-product of sinfulness) are a stubborn lot. Operation new life begins to take shape slowly as our old self dies and our character is reshaped.  Lose life to save life (Matthew 16:24-26).

2. It feels like slow emergence into life.

The new has come. The new emerges from the old; life from death. God gave us in nature an undeniable picture of this process of spiritual transformation in the emergence of the butterfly. We don’t experience life in large portions (to God be our gratitude) but one small event at a time: one event leading to another and accumulating onto another to make up a life. Life is built, like a brick house, one brick at a time.

Another way of speaking about this emergence into life is to speak about salvation being a life and not simply a past decision or mental assent. Salvation is a lived experience. Salvation life progresses along lines guided by the Holy Spirit of God. It is learning to live and trust Jesus every day. It’s learning to say yes to God’s movement in our lives. In every local situation we face, in every ordinary event, the Holy Spirit is at work transforming us into the likeness of Christ, if we trust and obey. Formation of life with Christ happens slowly because life happens slowly. Speeding growth, growth on steroids, is a figment of our imagination. It is unrealistic.

3. Spiritual transformation is slow because it is dying and living for the sake of others.

Spiritual transformation happens to us with our participation. C.S Lewis said that “In God there is no hunger that needs to be filled, only plenteousness that desires to give.” Many of us think spiritual formation is about feeding our souls for the sake of our well-being. The truth is Christlikeness demands that we live for the sake of others. Herein is the rub of the slowness of spiritual growth. I don’t want to live for others; me, me, me, has been my theme and shall be till I die (If you are different from me, PTL). Living for others is a slow, patient, learned response. Living for myself is so unsatisfying. Living for others is so hard. In the dynamics that this tension creates, is where the Holy Spirit does his work of transformation.

Here is a prayer for slowness: O patient God in Christ in Holy Spirit, help me to be as patient with myself as you are with me. Amen.