I was in the 6th grade and my teacher, Mrs. Richie, was just about at her breaking point over the antics of the silly boys and squeeling girls.  She quieted the class and calmly told us these words of wisdom.

“You better pay attention!  When you go to Junior High, they aren’t going to spoon feed you over there.  You’re going to have to dig in and learn with some effort!”

The kids around me, including myself, just stared at her with our heads cocked to one side and mouths open.  All of us ended up in Junior High with what I would consider a good hearty portion of spoon feeding.  When I was leaving Jr. High, I actually heard the same speech about going into high school… no spoon feeding over there.  And they spoon fed us.

The story repeats itself as I left high school and bound for college, the same speech (no kidding) came to us that the spoon feeding was over.  I landed in college… spoon fed again.

Leaving college into life, however did not find the same speech.  It’s almost as if I had anticipated some sort of spoon feeding conversation as a rite of passage… no spoon feeding speech was offered.

It’s quite shocking to find out that life doesn’t spoon feed us… after being spoon fed for so long.

When we finally come to a place where we find faith, the shocking reality is that we are terribly spoon fed.  Our faith never matures beyond a simple belief in God and we are not prepared for the valleys and low points in life.

I get so tired of people yelling at God and walking away from their faith because life dealt a hard blow to the gut.  Don’t blame God for your lousy decisions!  Spoon fed Christianity is to blame.

Spending a day in church once a week or twice a month is not even remotely close to living a life of faith.  Waiting on your pastor to bail you out of trouble or give you some nice, comfortable words of hope is nowhere near the reality of walking with God.  Being spoon fed amongst your fellow believers does not prepare you for the reality of life.

Living Bold requires you to dig into God’s word and find application for your life.  It demands that you come into the company of other believers in order to help one another see past the current crisis.

Spoon fed Christianity leaves us sitting in a lukewarm pool of water where we would just rather soak and not be bothered.  I can’t emphasize enough how Christ Jesus felt about lukewarm believers.  (I’m not going to spoon feed you – go look it up in your bible and read about it.)

It’s time that we grow up and understand that faith is more involved and more important than a nice, long prayer or a comfortable word of encouragement. Throw away the spoons, stop eating from the spoon, and start digging into life with tenacity and passion for your faith.

Living a life of faith in God is a challenge, and I find tremendous joy and contentment in the pursuit.  May you put down the spoon and dig into the real meat of faith.

Peace,
Greg Arnold
Acts 4:31
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