Instant Faith
"Just 5 minutes a day, no trips to the gym, no self-sacrificing diets, and you can transform your body in 28 days."
You've seen the ads online. They usually come with a short video of someone looking sad with extra pounds. The clip switches to this tragic person sitting in a chair or lying on a gym mat in front of the television, lifting an arm or a leg. The reel completes with a flash of light, and the sad individual is now flexing their god bod and smiling.
We're all smart here. Despite what we're being sold, we all know deep down inside that any worthwhile transformation requires two crucial ingredients—hard work and time. There is no way around it. I can't change myself for the better unless I do the work. Though TikTok and Instagram advertise otherwise, sustainable success is a long game.
There are spiritual parallels. If you’ve grown up in a protestant evangelical tradition like I have, you know that this faith culture does include promises of quick-fix transformations. "All you need to do is say this prayer, and God will change your life. Just say it with me now! Let’s declare it together". I come from a Pentecostal tradition that tends to feature additional rituals and demonstrations meant to bring about miraculous and spectacular change.
I believe God can change your life, and I also believe in the importance of symbolic acts to fortify one's resolve to change. But I've never seen a spiritual quick fix.
It's not constructive for me to list examples I've seen. Still, I remember instances in various charismatic summer camps 25 or more years ago where I would hear a well-meaning preacher declare that something bothering the church (pick your issue) would be gone, destroyed, or overthrown. Any listener at the time would have likely inferred that the promised change was imminent. The rationale would be something like, "Jesus is coming soon; time is limited." Suffice it to say, the expectation in that tradition is that dramatic restorations of comfort and security can come about by reciting a magic spell or divining secret knowledge.
Declaring something fixed does not guarantee repair. Speed is a pesky idol.
There are no instant faith solutions that allow us to bypass pain.
It’s a lot like Michael Scott from TV's, The Office declaring bankruptcy at work, not understanding that just declaring something in public doesn't mean it will happen.
We need change. The deepest wounds in our country and around the world need more than words and well-intended declarations. Accepting the total weight of that reality can be crushing emotionally. I get it. I wish our problems could be solved with moving speeches, but they can’t be solved with words alone.
Adapting our outlook on how change can come about is an act of faith in itself.
Trusting that we're part of a more remarkable and ever-expanding story requires us to surrender our need for immediate change.
We all want peace, understanding, and the opportunity to live life to the full. There are no shortcuts to a world where all of those ideals are commonplace. Only persistent, incremental, and intentionally won gains over generations will get us there. The character of humankind will be best shaped with- and by patience.
I'm reminded of a scripture in the book of Romans,
24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
All good things require patience and acceptance of responsibility, and hard work. The spirituality I'm interested in is the kind that digs its hands deep into the earth's soil and cultivates change. Spirituality that understands that good things grow in time.
Do you want healthy relationships? Work hard.
Do you want to reach your full potential in your career? Work hard.
Do you want to be physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy? You guessed it, work hard.
Do we want to live in a better world? Let’s accept that it’s our collective responsibility to bring about that future.
Friend, thank you for reading. Be kind to yourself. Instant success doesn’t come to normal people. If you’re not getting immediate results, give it time. Get inspired and start the work.
and now…I need to jump on the exercise bike.