Darryl's Blog
The myth of competence
I was flipping through Bill Hull's latest book last night - Choose the Life: Exploring a Faith that Embraces Discipleship. This quote jumped out at me:
The myth of competence is the idea that we will outgrow our weaknesses, difficult sins, fears, and disappointments. We will reach a place of spiritual competence where we have it together. It's a myth because that time never comes; in fact our dependence on God grows as we become more like Jesus. Brokenness is living life in the light of that reality.
More to come from this book. Free resources on the book are available here. Thanks to Naomi for recommending this book.
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Darryl,
Thanks for posting this. We forget that we are still human and rely on God. We will never be able to acheive spiritual perfection on our own. According to John Wesley;The process of sanctification, or Christian perfection, begins when we are justified, made right with God. The process of perfection lasts a lifetime, cleansing away all sin with God’s gradual work on the soul. Although it is possible to be perfected in love, it is not possible to be without errors, which flow from our human imperfect logic. “It is as natural for a human being to mistake as to breathe,” Wesley explained.(p.56) It is also possible to be tempted, and even stray from that perfect love. At all stages of spiritual growth, even perfection, it is possible to “grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Eph 4:30), so we always need Christ, to give us grace, atone for our mistakes, to be the root of our spiritual growth. I posted from this post and the one on God's leadership model.
Thanks,
Abi
St. John's Rev Abi
Excellent quote-pick Darryl. (You have a knack for that!) Part A of this response, titled ‘Embracing Inadequacy’ is found 2 days below, following your excellent Allender quote. I can’t resist sharing some of Dwight’s words about this weakness, dependence, brokenness subject. (You’ll have to inform me of word limits here D. This’ll be about 1½ pages total. A personal note follows at the end, re this ‘myth of competency’).
Part B –‘Who, Not What’ from Dwight Edwards’ Revolution Within
‘Another word to describe this embracing of inadequacy is brokenness. What I mean by brokenness isn’t primarily anguish of heart (though that, too, may be present), but absence of self-confidence.
It’s tossing overboard all hope of producing anything good on our own. Until Paul could say with heartfelt conviction, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells,” he remained too strong for God to be able to help.
We must come to the absolute end of our spiritual rope. As long as we call out, “O weak man that I am, I need help to make it,” we’re still too strong for God’s power to fully intervene in our lives. We’ll be ready for Christ to start moving us forward toward victory only when we cry out in despair, as Paul did: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
That means turning for help in the right direction, as Paul did, and not reaching for a counterfeit rope that can’t do the job. Paul didn’t ask, “What will deliver me?” but “Who will deliver me?” He then gave the answer: “I thank God–-through Jesus Christ our lord!” Only the indwelling Christ can overcome the downward pull of sin’s power in our flesh. Tragically, most sanctification systems pursued by Christians today are based on a “what”–spiritual disciplines, counseling, Christians service, and so on. These can be helpful in leading us to the “Who,” but they’re impotent in themselves to deliver us from sin’s power.
Until we ruthlessly shed all hope and confidence in our own ability to carry out God’s will, no amount of sound Bible teaching on the subject will make any practical difference in our lives. That’s why many of us need a kind of reconversion in which we come to Christ for sanctification with the same desperate dependence we had when we came to Him for salvation. Or in the words of Paul, “As you therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” Continue just the way you began–-utterly needy, radically dependent.
***********
On a personal note: I’ve recently had the competence myth exposed within. I’ve been stubbornly, fervently, piously –and unwittingly– aiming for this, under the guise of necessary & radical sanctification: ‘If I can just get abiding down’ or, ‘if I can just get my death-with-Christ down; or whatever-piece-of-truth-it-is-I’m-missing down, I can be the all-out saint for Christ that I know He calls me to and that He deserves.
Instead –to my shock and surprise – (don’t You want me to be 100% committed, 100% abiding, 100% faithful Lord?) He’s decided to tell me to stop focusing on all the sanctification/ abiding issues and rather embrace my inadequacies, to be ‘at peace’ with them so to speak and to trust in His Son’s New Covenant presence and work within.
I think it’s called giving up control.
What it amounts to, is having to let go of any other core focus -–even as commendable a one as personal sanctification (similarly as ‘building His Church’, or ‘leading a ministry’ would be) in order to see Christ, Himself, moved into the central, core, ‘driving place’ of one’s life and ambitions.
Terrifying –the letting go. I think it’s also called ‘repentance’. Turning from whatever system ‘holds your life together’ in order to ‘believe’ in Someone Else, who intends to do that for you. But on His terms and ways, always, not yours. He’s in control; He gets to call the shots.
Repent & Believe the Gospel; Time is fulfilled; the Kingdom is at hand.
Who would have thought He means to drive everything out of His way?