What Is Your Next Step?
What Is Your Next Step?
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
- Colossians 2:6-7
With the start of Spring Training, I’m excited for the new baseball season. As a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, I grew up familiar with the mantra, "Maybe next year," which also taught me how to be a good loser. While the Cubs have seen some good seasons in my lifetime, 2016 was the year they finally overcame the hurdle and won the World Series. What an incredible year! Although everyone focused on the 108-year drought between championships, few remember that they won back-to-back World Series titles early on.
Any sports team or organization eventually faces the same questions: What does it take to win? What needs to change?
Honestly, in the grand scheme of things, baseball doesn't truly matter much to me. However, I see the same essential struggle playing out in my own life and the lives of many other followers of Jesus Christ—a need for change. We all need continuous change, not just external adjustments, but genuine, life-transforming change. This is the kind of change that starts in the heart and works its way outward—the transformation that an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ produces, leading to the life Jesus promised.
But change is required! And sometimes, we don't like it. There’s a story about a man from the backwoods and mountains of Tennessee who, while visiting a large city for the first time, stood outside an elevator. He watched an old, frail woman hobble in, and the doors closed. A few minutes later, the doors opened, and a young, attractive woman confidently stepped out. The man immediately shouted to his youngest son, "Billy, go get Mother!"
We sometimes misunderstand the process of change God uses to make us more like Him. Some things happen instantly: Christ saves us, forgives us, redeems us for His own, deposits His Spirit in us, and gives us new life and hope. But other things require time, patience, obedience, and yes, even struggle, crisis, hurt, and perseverance. Some things are a journey, a "next step" of faith as we mature in our walk with Christ.
As Paul instructs us in Colossians 2:6, we are to "so walk in him" (daily with Jesus), be rooted (press in and dig deep), be built up (growth, transformational change) in him, and be established (firm, secure, grounded) in the faith...
What is your "Next Step" as you pursue a personal walk and relationship with a loving and merciful God who is absolutely crazy about you?