The season of Lent is an ideal time to take stock of our spiritual condition. I can imagine many folks considering themselves to be spiritually healthy based on some combination of religious activities: church involvement, Bible study, tithing, commandment keeping, etc.
However, Jesus warned there will be people at the threshold of heaven, claiming to have done great things in his name, who will be told, "I never knew you"; people whose self-evaluation was all wrong.
Basing our spiritual health solely on religious activity is like basing our physical health solely on physical activity. While diminished physical ability can be indicative of a serious medical condition, many times it isn't. Lance Armstrong was winning world cycling championships while harboring an undetected cancer. In the same way, religious activity alone may never reveal a moldering interior life.
Given that Jesus regarded "fruits" as the touchstone of spiritual formation, we might consider how to apply them in assessing ourselves. "Fruits of the Spirit" are about character marked by a spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. To test those fruits, we might ask ourselves how they have developed over the past year. For example:
* Is our attitude toward our neighbors and enemies more loving?
* Do we find it easier to experience joy and peace when things aren't going our way?
* Do we have more patience with frustrating people and circumstances?
* Are we better at responding kindly to unkind people and returning good for evil?
* Have we become more faithful to the things we know as true?
* Are we better able to say no to harmful thoughts, desires and temptations?
There are also "Fruits of the Kingdom" which concern growing God's kingdom through individuals discipled into a lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ, and nations redeemed through the social and cultural institutions that make them. Yet, as they say in Kenya, you can count the number of seeds in a mango but not the number of mangoes in a seed. Put another way, you can count the number of disciples in a church but not the number of churches in a disciple.
Thus, material measures such as souls "won," tithes collected and churches planted will be defective indicators of kingdom fruit. Instead, to sample that fruit, we might ask ourselves:
* Do we regularly seek God's will through prayer, study and contemplative thought?
* Are our beliefs, attitudes and behaviors scripturally grounded?
* Do we know our spiritual gifts and are we are using them?
* Does our faith inform the way we live at home, work, school, the ball field, the mall, etc.?
* Do we have a heart for the unchurched? Are we intentional in forging relationships with them?
* Do we strive to understand others so we engage them winsomely?
* Are we ready to counter falsehood with truth and grace?
* Do we promote the sanctity of life, religious freedom and sexual purity in natural marriage through our profession and practice?
* Do we take seriously our duty to the poor, imprisoned, orphaned and widowed?
* Do we approach creation as a resource to use, enrich and replenish?
By periodically rating ourselves on each of these, say, from one to 10, we can gain a sense of how we are growing and identify areas for needed improvement, realizing that, unless they are accompanied by Fruits of the Spirit, they can be a misleading indicator of spiritual fitness.
Granted, subjecting ourselves to such scrutiny can be inconvenient and unpleasant, disabusing us of cozy conclusions about our spiritual well-being. Yet we ignore it at our peril.
Regis Nicoll has been the lay pastor of Hamilton Anglican Fellowship for five years.