The Danger of the Spiritual High
A spiritual high is that experience that many Christians have following a conference or a week at camp. The feeling that God is amazing and that you’re willing to follow Him anywhere. The key word in that last sentence is feeling. God is amazing - our holy, sovereign, omnipotent, immutable, loving, just, merciful Creator. That is fact and has nothing to do with how we feel. The accurate response to this fact is our willingness to do anything for Him. Once again, this should not be based on how we feel.
Are feelings bad? No. God created us as being capable of feeling a wide range of emotions. Scripture speaks of Jesus experiencing emotions - sorrow at the death of His friend Lazarus, and I feel certain there were many times of hilarity and joy amongst Jesus and the disciples. So, I don’t think feelings are bad. But they can be misleading.
Jeremiah 17:9 tells us,”The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” In light of my belief that Scripture is true, why would I trust something that has been clearly labeled deceitful to make my decisions? Our feelings are good and we shouldn’t suppress them, but we also shouldn’t rely solely on them to make our decisions.
What brought about this post and how does it relate to spiritual highs? Well, in campus ministry there are generally 2 times that I deal with students who are on spiritual highs. One of these times is just before the school year starts in early August. Students who have been part of mission trips or Summer Projects are on fire for the Lord. They have experienced real Christian community and have been challenged to take steps of faith. They talk about sharing Christ with everyone in their classes and the possibility of pursuing ministry full-time after college. The other time that students experience spiritual highs is right around this time in the school year. They’ve taken part on winter conferences, such as the MidSouth’s Encounter conference where I helped oversee outreach last week. And this year, many students have taken part in Passion 2010 - a gathering of more than 20,000 Christian college students in Atlanta featuring Chris Tomlin, John Piper, Hillsong, etc. These students have heard truth about how magnificent their God is and how deserving He is of His glory. They’ve been challenged with ministry opportunities and reminded that they are in a stage of life with few, if any, other obligations. And they are on serious spiritual highs.
Students are writing on Facebook about how the Lord has challenged them. They are tweeting quotes from the speakers. But are their lives really affected? In some cases, yes. It was during a conference that the Lord spoke to me and called me to college ministry and that has influenced my daily life ever since. But in many cases, those same students who were willing to give of their time and talents to whatever the Lord called them will become entrenched with daily life. They start worrying about money, not believing the Lord will provide for His work. They fear the unknown - and aren’t willing to trust in God’s sovereignty and love for His children. They get involved in dating relationships and feel like they can’t be away from their significant other for any amount of time. Basically, they are distracted from the greatness of God by the mundaneness of life.
This is the danger of spiritual highs - committing to decisions while on the high that you’re not willing/able to carry out when reality sets in. It has been said, “Don’t doubt in the dark what the Lord showed you in the light.” I pray that students will remain enthralled with the Lord and committed to His calling in their lives regardless of their feelings.
2 years ago • Notes