Gospel.com Blog

It’s easy to forget that God is present in everything that we experience. And when we do remember that fact, there’s a human tendency to attempt to imbue all of those rote experiences of life with a sort of spiritual seriousness. Oswald Chambers argues that those “shallow” moments of our lives life provide a context for the real spiritual moments of life, and when we spiritualize mundane experiences of life, we invite pride into our lives. We should remember that Jesus had many shallow experiences during his life on Earth, and that was okay:

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person God became a baby.

To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, A disciple is not above his teacher . . . (Matthew 10:24).

Is there any area or activity in your life that you’ve wrongly overspiritualized?