Practical Christianity, Pt. 1

The great enemy of the faith is the banality of our perception and experience of the everyday world.

If you happen to live in interesting times (as the Chinese saying ironically puts it) you're exempted. Most of us, though, are not waking up to a world where we are being chased by a crowd of Muslims with machetes.

So obviously part of the Christian faith is combating this banality of perception and experience of this everyday world.

This is difficult because it calls for self-motivated effort. It calls for directed effort regarding our very presence moment-to-moment.

We can no longer just sleepwalk through our average day allowing everything, every impression and thought and event to come to us, prodding us into action when necessary, yet us all the while residing in comfortable and easy sleepwalking. I.e. we can, as Christians, no longer rely solely on external shocks which keep us doing the minimum and surviving at the most basic level. Because with that comes the banality of perception and experience of the everyday world, which keeps the faith if not dead in us then subdued and overpowered.

Again, so obviously part of the Christian faith is combating this banality of perception and experience of this everyday world.

Example: the Mediatorial Kingdom of Jesus Christ exists now, in Heaven, where Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father. We, as regenerated by the word and the Spirit Christians, are connected to our King Jesus Christ and His Kingdom by the Spirit of Christ which is the Holy Spirit Himself. Right now.

As I walk down the street today, in all the banality of sidewalk and traffic and weather and mechanical thoughts and everyday needs, I have a King in Heaven I am connected to by His Spirit. Now. Right now. In this moment. At every step.

How do I perceive and experience this reality?

By being awake in the moment to it. (Which is not as easy or simple as it sounds.)