It's Never Too Late

Spiritual Growth Against All Odds

I’ve come to an important self-realization.

It’s too late for me to learn how to shoot a left-handed layup.

. . .

To use a common expression, the ship has totally sailed.

I grew up playing football, so any basketball touch I have was delayed until the third decade of my life (I’m halfway through my fourth now). For a season, a church colleague and I would play 2 to 3 times a week with professors at the local university. It was a blast.

As Christians, we got to develop relationships in the community and pursue our new friends with the gospel. As a side benefit, it was fun cardio.

But since a few changes due to COVID protocols in 2020, the gym won’t take us back, and my playing days are effectively over.

Not only is my time playing regular pickup games in the rearview, but the time to “develop the craft” is a laughable notion at this point.

I’m a righty who never made time to practice my lefty. It’s too late. And that’s ok.

The Arc of Spiritual Growth

I feel it’s a human tendency to become set in our ways as we age.

We all experience slight changes in personality over the years, but for the most part, we are all further solidifying who we are with every passing day. If we’re not careful, we’ll find the cement setting against our better judgment.

It’s too late for me to learn to shoot a left-handed layup. It’s never too late to grow in your walk with the Christ.

Far too often, Christians can default to a mindset that suggests our relationship with Jesus is only binary and not variable. If our faith were only binary (think of a light switch—on or off), we could go about our lives satisfied because our eternity is secure and not concerned with how we live.

While we should be content with our lives in Christ, the temptation is to become complacent. When we become complacent in our faith, we ignore the Scripture’s call to “work out our salvation.” (Philippians 2:12). The call of the Christian life is to strive toward Christ—not passively hoping to ride some conveyor belt toward him.

We mustn’t believe the lie that God does not expect growth. He certainly does.

But we also must fight against the notion that we’re too stuck in our rhythms and habits to see legitimate change occur.

The good thing about growth is that God guarantees it for those who genuinely endeavor, and He has given us all the tools we need.

Tools for Forward Progress

You may have heard of these tools, often called “spiritual disciplines.”

Don’t get it twisted. The spiritual disciplines aren’t in place so that we can prove or actualize our faith. If we are found in Christ, our status is always and forever 100%.

At the same time, I don’t think it’s best to pursue the spiritual disciplines to increase our feeling of faith.

Circumstances may legitimately get us down so that the joy we know we’re supposed to experience seems challenged. God may seem distant or silent in comparison to other times in life. When this happens, the disciplines aren’t a type of Ouija board to call him back and re-up his favor.

On the contrary, spiritual disciplines help us re-embrace our commitment to God. They help ground our lifestyle according to our confessed belief. They don’t multiply our salvation, but they magnify it. By placing ourselves in more intentional rhythms, we will grow to see the gospel with greater clarity.¹

If Jesus is Lord, and if his prescription for a healthy life is to cultivate our relationship with him through consuming Scripture and praying and authentic fellowship with other Christians (to name a few tools), then the call is to simply believe Jesus and apply the prescription.

When we don’t feel like going to small group is worth our time at the end of a long day in which we’ve already spent all our emotional energy, or when we feel like our financial contributions won’t make a dent, we’ve got to remember the anchor of our faith. Jesus is Lord, and his prescription is right.

It’s never too late to begin.
It’s never too late to make a change.
It’s never too late to grow.

1. I’d like to thank my friend Josh Rives for helping articulate this idea.