We will never become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to become so.
– Phillips Brooks
Have you heard of “Lawnchair Larry” Walters? In 1982, Larry fulfilled his lifetime dream of flying, and he did it in his own unforgettable way. He purchased a full tank of helium gas and over forty weather balloons from a nearby Army/Navy Surplus store. He anchored his lawn chair to the bumper of his Jeep and then filled up the balloons.
Larry had a plan. He was going to cut the tethers holding him to earth, float lazily up to thirty feet or so above his girlfriend’s backyard and watch the scenery from his flying perch. He was prepared to spend a few hours in the air, loaded down with a plate of sandwiches, a six pack of Miller Lite and a BB gun to shoot the balloons, one by one, when he was ready to descend…but things didn’t go exactly as planned.
When his friends cut the tethers that were holding the lawn chair to the Jeep, Larry and his lawn chair were catapulted from earth by the four-foot diameter balloons. He finally leveled off, not at 30 feet, but at 16,000 feet elevation. At that height he felt that he couldn’t risk shooting any of the balloons. So, he stayed up there, drifting with the wind, cold and scared out of his mind, holding his beer and sandwiches, for more than fourteen hours.
During his adventure, Larry crossed into the primary flight corridor for Los Angeles International Airport, where he startled a lot of airline pilots, who radioed reports of a guy floating by in a lawn chair.
Eventually, Larry gathered the nerve to shoot a few balloons, and slowly descended. Ultimately, the hanging tethers tangled and caught in a power line, blacking out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes. When he climbed down to safety, he was immediately arrested by waiting members of the LAPD. As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter dispatched to cover the story asked him why he’d done it. Larry replied, A man can’t just sit around.
In a recent article by Alex Hutchinson on “Want to live longer?” the subheading was: Scientists crunched the numbers to come up with the single best predictor of how long you’ll live—and arrived at a surprisingly low-tech answer. Then, the article after reporting varied ways people try to increase their life expectancy had a simple sentence, The message to remember is: move or die.
Do you want to be healthier in 2025? You can’t sit around and we want to be healthier. God expect us to be wise stewards of these “earth suits” that He’s given us. Yet, most of us are more concerned about our physical health than our spiritual health. 1 Timothy 4:8 point outs that For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
As we’re on the brink of a New Year, it’s important to keep moving when it comes to your physical health, but it’s much more important to keep moving when it comes to your spiritual health. Your physical body’s health is only for this short life. Your spiritual health is for all eternity.
We struggle with keeping our focus on the eternal and truly significant. This temporary world screams at us to divert our attention to it while our spiritual life sits quietly untouched. Your spiritual life is the most vital one.
God’s desire is for each one of us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3;18). As Christ-followers, our responsibility is to continually keep moving in our faith. We must strive for a deeper understanding of Scripture and actively practice what the Bible teaches. Spiritual growth isn’t giant leaps. It’s a gradual process of becoming more like Jesus and aligning ourselves to His will. It requires dedication, perseverance, and faith in God’s plan for our lives. The movements forward we take aren’t always easy, but with the power of the Spirit, we can continually make progress towards spiritual maturity.
As we enter 2025, please take some time to pray and reflect on what steps forward would make the biggest difference in your spiritual life. You might ask a spiritually mature friend for their input. Before we look at steps forward spiritually, we must know the big obstacle to spiritual growth.
The first and huge hindrance to spiritual growth is sin: We must repent of known sin. When we give in to any kind of sinful behavior, it breaks our connection with God, making it difficult to move forward spiritually. Many times, we have a pet sin or habit that we know is wrong. It’s where we need to begin. The solution is surrender and repentance. 1 John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You can’t move forward until you first remove this spiritual roadblock.
All of us are at different mile markers in our spiritual walk. Here are some basic steps to help you keep moving forward.
Read Your Bible.
A first step forward in spiritual growth is reading your Bible regularly. It’s as vital as eating is physically. It’s how we grow in faith and move toward spiritual maturity. Reading Scripture helps us understand who God is and how we can become more like Jesus.
Serve the Lord.
Jesus continually served others. Remember when He washed His disciples’ feet. Serving helps us become more like Him by showing compassion, kindness, and mercy, yet we all struggle with selfishness. As we place our focus on helping others rather than ourselves, God uses that to transform us making us more like Jesus.
Share your faith.
Early Christians talked a lot about Jesus and what He meant to them. The book, “Foxe’s Christian Martyrs” shares this insight: In that age every Christian was a missionary. The soldier tried to win recruits…the prisoner sought to bring his jailer to Christ; the slave girl whispered the gospel in the ear of her mistress…everyone who had experienced the joys of believing tried to bring others to the faith.
Everyone you meet is going to spend eternity somewhere. God placed you in their life to be His witness. Your family, neighborhood and workplace are your mission field.
Build relationships with other Christ-followers.
Loneliness is an epidemic. Without healthy relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ, what do we have to offer a lonely world? Spending time with other believers is a wonderful way to grow spiritually. Having others who love and encourage us helps us learn from their walk with Christ and gives us an opportunity for encouragement and accountability.
All of us need to keep moving spiritually. What steps do you need to take? Like Larry the Lawnchair man said, You can’t just sit around.