By Rosalyn Boydell
Rosalyn Boydell and her husband, Phil, are Navigator leaders in the United Kingdom.
Since my husband Phil and I left the university more than 20 years ago, we’ve witnessed numerous friends who have gradually fallen away from living in union with Christ. I’ve struggled to understand why this happens.
One reason might be our distorted view of life. Young Christians in their twenties often experience a passionate faith, a zenith of faith. But as they grow older, the pressures of work, kids, and mortgages crowd in. The energized high is no longer achievable. Faith in Christ no longer offers the social and relational buzz it once did. It becomes easier to turn on Netflix or take up triathlons to feel alive.
The kingdom of God, however, does not offer us typical cultural patterns of life. In Christ, our early-adult years are not the highpoint; they are just the starting point.
A sixteenth-century nun, Teresa of Avila, shared her vision of a lifelong, constantly deepening relationship with God in her work The Interior Castle. She compared spiritual development to endlessly exploring a castle. As we go farther into the castle, the rooms become grander and larger. Entry into each new room brings with it an invitation to greater intimacy with Christ. Each new room beckons us to embrace more adventure, more love, more union, more intimacy with God.
At no point in the Scriptures do we read: “You’ve made it! Just relax and enjoy the ride.” No. As 2 Corinthians 3:11 says, we are “being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory.” In 4:16, Paul says we are “being renewed day by day.”
This can be frightening. Ongoing transformation and renewal in this mortal life is costly. No one ever developed character by taking the easy path. Paul testified to this in Romans 5:3-4, where he exhorted us to “glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
Perhaps that’s why some of my friends went off course. Did they lack the willingness to confront their failings or persevere through hardship? I’m not sure about each person. But I know this: Going further into trust and hope requires humility, a willingness to submit to the Spirit’s work in our lives. This humility (and teachability) is the doorway into a deepening experience of Christ’s love—the way into another castle room.
Whether young or old, we should expect life with Christ to be a never-ending deepening of our relationships with Jesus. This expectation can change the way we view the circumstances of our lives. Difficulties, however painful, can be received with curiosity. We can ask ourselves, How will Jesus reveal himself to me in this experience? How will God use this situation to show me more of his grace? Peaceful and simple times can be received as a gift (James 1:17) and enjoyed for what they are, but without seeing them as a condition of God’s love.
I most admire people who are in the autumn or winter of their lives, but who still have an expectancy that God will teach them new things about his greatness. There is nothing dull or dissatisfying about their spiritual lives. Their existence is shaped by something compelling: the beauty of the risen Christ.
Rather than look at youth as the apex of my life, I want to look ahead and be excited about an amazing journey deeper into the love of Christ. There is so much more to hope for, even on this side of eternity.
Whichever room of Teresa’s castle we find ourselves in, whatever the circumstances of our lives, we can live with a vision of increasing intimacy with Christ. Our minds cannot conceive of the depths of his love. Therefore, we can live for an energetic, never-ending, always richer exploration of him.
“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9).
