Resisting Spiritual Drag
December 31, 2019
A professional golfer drives his golf ball at the speed of 168 miles per hour on average. As the ball screams through the air down the fairway though, several external pressures work against it to slow it down. The weight of the ball and gravity push the ball down. A term used in the study of aerodynamics is “drag.” It’s the resistance that slows an object as it moves through the air. Gravity, weight and drag will cause the ball to land. Then friction with the ground combined with these other forces will cause the ball to bounce, then roll, then stop completely. Golf ball manufactures are constantly trying to invent new ways to help the golf ball resist the forces of drag and gravity.
The Roman Empire was the largest empire that world has ever seen. It lasted for nearly 1000 years. It started in the 6thcentury BC, covered all of Italy by the 3rdcentury BC, and expanded to its greatest breadth by the 2ndcentury AD under Emperor Trajan, when it covered all of Europe and some of Africa and Asia. Beginning in the 3rdcentury AD, internal attitudes began to cause its collapse. The size of the empire made it hard to govern to be sure. But contentment, pride, self-sufficiency, sloth and internal fighting were all internal attitudes that led to its fall. You might call these attitudes “spiritual drag.”
The point I’m making is that from golf balls to empires, quick starts don’t equal long-term sustainability. Internal and external “drag” slow them down. The same is true of our spiritual walk. We can start quickly, with plenty of enthusiasm, but internal and external drag can grind our spiritual progress to a halt. Solomon was influenced by both, and they led to catastrophe. The external drag was the allure of pagan women. God told Solomon not to intermarry with pagan women because they would lead his heart away from God and into idolatry. The internal drag was the pride, self-sufficiency, laziness, boredom and apathy in his own heart. Solomon married 300 women and had 700 concubines to test the limits of human pleasure. As God warned, they led him into idolatry, and he then led Israel into idolatry and destruction.
When some of us first became Christians, we were flying fast, just like a golf ball off the face of a driver. We were learning so much. God seemed to answer our prayers immediately. We were reading our Bibles every day, soaking up everything we could about or new found faith. Over time, we may have experienced drag in the form of the trials of life, unanswered prayer, or scorn and mocking from family or co-workers. We can also become victim to internal drag like Solomon and the Roman Empire. We have a tendency to think that we have learned all that we need to, that we are spiritually mature, that since we’ve read the Bible several times we don’t need to read it anymore. In other words, we become victim to the drag of contentment, laziness, self-sufficiency, pride and boredom.
I want us to be reminded of Luke 2:52: “And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Can you imagine that God Himself clothed in human flesh kept increasing in wisdom? How is that possible? When Jesus became a human being, He didn’t stop being God. His humanity was an addition to His deity. In His humanity, He grew in wisdom and stature. He developed mentally and physically. He also devoted Himself to prayer.
As we enter the New Year, I want to encourage us to beware of these silent killers that can be so dangerous and threatening to our daily walk with Christ. If Jesus grew in wisdom, we should continue to do the same. Let’s understand that God is not finished with us. We are not yet what God wants us to be. None of us should have the attitude that we are spiritually mature “enough”. None of us should be satisfied with whatever progress we have made. As the new year begins, it’s time for self-examination and reflection. Have we unintentionally fallen victim to the silent killers of our spiritual growth? Are we spiritual “fat cats”? Do we think we “have arrived” spiritually? We need to resist spiritual drag. Satan can sniff it out and use it to cause our fall.
Tomorrow is January 1, 2020, the start of a new year and a new decade. What goals do you have? Most of us resolve to lose weight and exercise. Those are great physical goals. Resolve to set some spiritual goals too. Make them realistic. Begin reading the Bible daily and journaling your thoughts and prayers as you go. Keep a journal of answered prayers. Serve somewhere. Memorize some of the well-known passages of scripture. Look for someone to mentor or to be mentored by. Read the Bible all the way through in a year. Post notes around your house that remind you to pray and to thank God for His blessings. These are just some suggestions to help us resist spiritual drag that will slow our walk with God. I want to start the new decade like I’ve been shot out of a cannon. I pray that you do too! Happy 2020 everyone!
