Kristin-Spiritual Tools

The longer I live, the more convinced I am that God works in mysterious ways. Easy prescriptions of what to do, or even what a good Christian “looks” like, simply fall away when we honestly account for the complexities of lived experience.

At this point in my spiritual journey, I am inspired to focus on spiritual tools instead of rules or archetypes per se. The idea is that the right tools will get you in alignment with God so that He can guide you through the unknowns, even as questions will realistically remain. The spiritual tools are those extolled by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, and traditionally referred to as the theological virtues: faith, hope, love.

Faith: right thinking. No matter what, I will choose to trust that God has a purpose for my circumstances as they are. God has a plan for each of our lives that involves a unique sequence and allotment of blessings and sufferings. For this reason, there is no room for nihilism, insecurity, arrogance, victim-based thinking, or fear. When negative thoughts surface, faith gives us the tools to discipline them and redirect our thinking. “Jesus, I trust in you!”

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Hope: right emotions. God has good things planned for me and for you. Even when I'm facing a serious personal, health, financial problem, etc. hope says, “God is good, even in this.” Hope keeps us young at heart. We reject depression and despondency as emotional states contrary to hope.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." Hebrews 10:23 NIV

Charity: right action. In any given moment, I am always to act from a place of love. I may get it wrong and mishandle the situation. Life comes at us in real time even as we are imperfect and have limited information. But I need to trust God even in that. My goal is to try to be as constructive as I can, and to always build up my neighbor (and myself!) in Christ.

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 NIV

When we onboard the virtues of faith, hope, and love, we are transformed. We make peace with risk, danger, and sorrow. We find a place of peace and joy that can not be taken from us. We keep moving forward, so that God's plan for our lives can unfold. These tools do not give us perfect certainty, but rather a path forward in spite of uncertainty. The act of surrendering ultimate control and understanding to God humbles us, and we become less judgmental and more connected to every other human being, finding a point of connection in the existential burden we all carry. Above all, we learn to glorify God in all things.

“As for me, to be near God is my good, to make the Lord GOD my refuge. I shall declare all your works in the gates of daughter Zion." Psalm 73:28 NABRE

Comments

  1. ScottOctober 4, 2022 at 3:02 PM

    Well said Kristin! Interesting to view the three cardinal virtues with Faith as right thinking (head), Hope as right emotions (heart/passions) and Charity as right action. This feels good. I've read several ways to slice this particular apple. Another, which in the end I think says the same thing a slightly different way is: Faith-belief in the idea that Christ can save, Hope, belief that Christ will save me and Charity, that Christ can save others through me. For me, as concepts Faith and Charity are straightforward, hope is the one that can get complicated as it involves time (or the collapse of it). I love the reference to 1 Peter 4:8, I'd challenge one of us to do a post on what that means i.e. how love covers sins. Well done Kristin!

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  2. gnpNovember 27, 2022 at 7:47 PM

    Agree that this is a great post. And also like the alternate framing of faith, hope, and charity that Scott provides. One thing this made me think of was a podcast episode that I just listened to: https://gregmckeown.com/podcast/episode/how-to-be-okay-when-youre-not-okay/. It is focused on how we can have gratitude for the challenges in our life and know / believe that they are ultimately working for our good.

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