Let’s be real here …

Have you ever noticed programmes like 60 minute makeover, where part of a house is utterly transformed in 60 minutes – old stuff stripped off and new stuff put up – so a living room, dining room and bedroom would be repainted and papered, furniture, curtains, fireplaces and lamps etc replaced, all in just 60 minutes. Or the 5/2 diet where you can eat what you like for five days a week, so long as you don’t overdo it, and by fasting two days a week you will lose a stone in a month. Or perhaps the new exercise regime where you do  four bursts of 30 seconds high intensity exercise with four minute rests between three times a week and just six weeks of that has the same health benefits as 20 weeks of a normal exercise regime. The allure of rapid results with little effort is very appealing.

We can approach our Christian lives like that. Today there are an amazing number of quick-fix Christian books offering easy steps to an enriched Christian life. We are encouraged to add to these conferences that promise amazing changes in your life, listening to top speakers at events, and evenings of worship led by  big name worship leaders.

The only problem, and its a big problem, is that is not what Christianity is about. We don’t go to church to get a spiritual 60 minute makeover from the worship leader and the preacher, we don’t offer a stipend to a leader to sit back and watch him or her do all the ministry of the church, we don’t try to live our spiritual lives with four bursts of 30 seconds of high intensity spiritual exercise with a few minutes rest between, three times a week – or at least we shouldn’t.

Romans 8:29 tells us we are being conformed to the likeness of his Son. That process isn’t something that can happen by quick fixes. Being conformed to the likeness of his Son involves growing fruit in our lives. I’m no gardener, but I know enough to understand that if you want good fruit then you need to tend and care for the plant, as well as the ground that it is in. You need to prune and shape it, aerate the soil, fertilise it, and keep it moist. Developing fruit needs protected from pests, and  harsh weather – and you can’t plant a  tree and expect to eat fruit the next day; some trees need a few years to mature before the fruit starts to come, and then more years before they produce full harvests.

Growing fruit means cultivating love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in our lives. That can only come about by spending time with God and co-operating with his work of grace, developing new attitudes and crucifying some old ones. It means leaving everything behind and following him wherever he will lead us, it means developing spiritual discipline in our lives. It isn’t quick, but it will make us real as Christians, and as Pope Benedict said in his final tweet “May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives.”