First, I saw that people were trying rather than training. They wanted to do what was right, and they tried hard to do what was right. But they failed again and again because they did not understand the importance of spiritual training so that there could be built within them deeply ingrained habits of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self control. They did not understand those powerful words of the Apostle Paul, "Exercise yourself unto godliness." That word "exercise" - "gumnazo" has as its background the Greek gymnasium where the Greek athletes would train for the games. I mean, just suppose I tried running a marathon race without any training. Now, I might try very, very hard but there is just no way. Without training I would never finish . . . and believe you me in my present condition it would take a lot of training! But that is exactly what people are doing in the spiritual life. They are trying without training. It's not their fault really. It is just that no one has shown them how to train in this area of life.

Then second, I saw that people were scattered rather than gathered. Now, this is just a sociological fact of our day. Even in our churches. If someone seriously intends to be a disciple of Jesus Christ—that is, taking up an overall way of living that conforms in its general outline to the way Jesus lived while he was here in the flesh—they will find themselves alone and isolated. That simply is not what most people signed up for when they joined the church. So we are today a scattered people rather than a gathered people. And this is terribly unfortunate, because we were never meant to live the spiritual life alone. God's intention is that we have the support and nurture and loving accountability of other disciples of Jesus. So I saw that people were scattered rather than gathered.

And, third, I saw that the vision of people was myopic rather than synoptic. They understood only a thin slice of all that God intended for them. Now, frankly this is the result of the way Christianity has developed in our day. People are converted and nurtured in certain traditions: social justice or charismatic or evangelical, for example. And those traditions have genuinely given a certain substance to their lives. But those same traditions have also often kept them from the insights of other great streams of life and faith. So their vision is partial, it is myopic. They cannot see all that God intends for them.

part 2: What Could Be Done? >