From Addie Zierman: 10 Questions To Ask Instead Of “How’s Your Walk With God?”

I loved this post from Addie Zierman: 10 Questions to Ask Instead of “How’s Your Walk With God?” Here are a few of my favorite lines…

It’s a subtle shift in language, but an important one. After all, there are a million miles between what should be and what is, and so many of the Christian Living books and blogs and music and “devotions” out there focus on the former.

Believe me, I’m acutely aware of all of the ways I’m not measuring up.

I don’t need seven simple steps toward a vibrant spiritual life – seven more ways to fail. I don’t even really need an “accountability partner,” that churchy staple – to ask prod me toward more intentional time in the Word and in prayer.

I do need people to ask me questions and to move alongside of me in my spiritual journey. But I need those questions to be asked with exceptional gentleness and care, without agenda, making room for me to recognize that God is already here. God is already at work. 

I think this is something that each of us needs, but it’s particularly important for those like me, who are coming blinking into adulthood from blinding-bright, “on fire for God” spiritual adolescence, where performance and spirituality were so tied together. We are hyperaware of the inherent expectations in loaded questions like, Are you reading your Bible? and How’s your walk with God?

We need to be asked better questions if we are going to re-engage with our faith in any meaningful way. Questions that focus not on what we are doing or not doing…but what God is doing.

After all, the healthy, whole spiritual life is not about hustling to read the Bible more, pray more, be more, try harder. It’s not even about feeling God – a lesson that I have to continue learning and relearning.

It’s about attentiveness. It’s about recognizing God, as Alice Fryling says, here, now – in what is actually happening in my life.

So what does that look like?

If we’re not going to ask “How’s your walk with God?” in that off-handed, expectant way that we’re used to, what should we ask? If we’re going to be mindful of not offering suggestions and tips, what should we offer instead?

check out the entire post here