Redefining Breakthrough

Recently, I met with a spiritual son who lives in a distant city. We touch base each year when he is in town. The moment we met I saw something new and fresh in his face. By his own admission, the unresolved wounds from his past had dictated his response to life. He said his change did not come from having a single significant breakthrough moment in his life. The change came from an accumulation of a series of small adjustments he made over time regarding his attitude toward God and people that led him to become a person who now exudes a life of breakthrough.  

My interaction with this young man verified something I have felt for a long time. Like my young friend, many of us have spent our time, energy and resources searching for a single significant breakthrough moment that will change the trajectory of our lives. Books, conferences and entire theologies make this promise to sell their product or invite us to subscribe to their way of thinking. These moments do happen and we should always be open to their possibility, but they are rare and not given to every life in every circumstance. To live in this kind spiritual suspension waiting for these experiences can waste a lot of life.

What I am realizing more and more is that a healthy spiritual life is a collection of smaller victories and responses of faith that when added up actually become the breakthrough we seek. A life of dedicated daily obedience and faithfulness is rare and many times overlooked in its significance.

While we always want to be open to a Damascus Road experience never forget this kind of event only happened to Paul and a few people in the biblical record. The rest of the people were living less dramatic versions of daily life. They expressed a life of breakthrough by faithfully showing up for work, managing their attitudes, loving family and friends and thanking God every day for His goodness. 

These acts of accumulated faithfulness can add up and become a life of continual breakthrough expressed over time. Examine your history. As you inventory your life look into a mirror. You might see someone looking back at you whose life has already become the breakthrough you have been seeking.