2. Sometimes "try harder" helps. It can help me to clean my room, or run another lap. But for deeper change, I need a greater power than simply "try harder" can provide.
3. Often the people in the gospels who got into the most trouble with Jesus were the ones who thought they were working hardest on the spiritual life.
4. If trying harder is producing growth in your spiritual life, keep it up. But if its not, here is an alternative: Try softer. Try better. Try different.
5. A river of living water is now available, but the river is the Spirit. It is NOT you.
- John Ortberg
"Faith does not need to push the river because faith is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing. We are in it." - Richard Rohr
Don't push the river.
Try softer means focusing more on God's goodness than our efforts. When I try softer, I am less defensive, more open to feedback. I learn better. I stay patient if things don't turn out the way I expected. It means less self-congratulation when I do well and less self-flagellation when I fall down. It means asking God for help.
There is a river of life all around. But you can't push it.
Try Softer.
-John Ortberg
There is so much relief to be found in the acceptance and understanding that the spirit moves in our lives as a river. All I've got to do is follow the flow the spirit is pulling me in, and it is constantly pulling. I can try to push the river forward or to one side or the other but that would be a waste of time and energy. I'm going to learn to try softer.
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