The Gospel of John ends with a fun bit of hyperbole:

“There are many other things that Jesus did. If every one of them were written down, I suppose the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25, NET)

It’s a clever ending, reminding us that knowing all there is to know about Jesus isn’t the point. The question is, what will we do with what we know? Christian spirituality isn’t simply the collection of particular beliefs about God, it’s an honest attempt to live what little we know.

We often have far more questions about God than answers – and that’s okay. The testimony of scripture provides us story after story of people who had sincere questions about God, often failed in their attempts to honor God and continually “learned the hard way.” The pursuit of Christian spirituality shouldn’t be viewed as, nor measured by, an accumulation of beliefs, but rather what we do with them.

This week, endeavor to have honest spirituality by living out what little you know. Don’t just believe certain things about God, let those beliefs change the way you live.

To help with this rhythm, write down a small list of the very basic things you believe to be true about God. Now, think about how those beliefs can affect your life this week.

For example: If you believe that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son for our benefit, this belief carries enormous weight in our own lives and should change the way we see others. This belief requires us to acknowledge that every person means enough to God that he would be willing to give up the very best he could possibly offer on our behalf. If we take this belief seriously, and attempt to live as if it’s true, we recognize that:

• we are incredibly valuable and loved.
• every person we know, friend or foe, is incredibly valuable and loved by God.
• loving God means we must love others, because it’s impossible to love someone and not care about the things that they are most passionate about.