Recently read a post from one of my favorite writers: Sarah Bessey from 2013, and she said something that echoed so strongly with me, I have had what she said in my heart for a while but I never found the words to express it. She said ‘the longer I know and love our Jesus, then the less I want to write or pontificate about being a Good Christian‘. *Some commotion for finding words to your hearts expressions*.

Might not make sense to someone and I am happy to break it down, and possibly give you a peak into my heart at the moment (ps. I am on retreat, and as with most blog posts that come when I am on retreat, it is straight from a deep, gnawing, reflective place.

We live in such a prescriptive generation. It used to be very descriptive some generations ago (not like either is better), but lately, I see it is so prescriptive. Having prescriptions, methods, procedures and just how-to-do conversations, blogs, podcasts and lives in general. The average man hears of something and all they want to know is ‘How do I do it like that too?‘, or the person who has done it thinks ‘what are the steps I can prescribe to give to others?‘.

Only recently have I found that my heart loathes this concept in Christianity, especially as it relates to discipling and growing ourselves to maturity in Christ. We reduce very spiritual, sacred things to checklists and procedures, which in the process lose some essence, and half the time, it is the essence that matters most.

For a long time in my life, I have answered so many questions on ‘how do I…’, ‘what do I do when…’, ‘Whats the best…’, I even had an entire aspect of Foch woman we started in 2019 called #QuestionAnsweringFriday on our Instagram page, where we answer questions people send in relating to God, love, life and relationships. It has been a very successful concept since inception and frankly, we do not plan to stop, but lately I have been thinking of how much of it goes as ‘this is how it is’ (experience) rather than ‘this is how it should be’ (prescription).

I am seeing that more Christians want answers to heart questions, but for the purpose of knowledge, not necessarily to live out and so I have started to challenge myself, both in the seat of the one asking questions, and the one who answers questions. What is really the end goal?

Most of March, there was no podcast episode up because I had so many prescriptive topics to discuss and the more I looked at the list, the more my heart was just struggling to close that gap between my prescription and the hearers experience. I know this might read a little all-over-the-place, but please, stay with me.

I think what I am trying to say is, as we grow, we get to this place where our lives, formed by our experiences, highs, lows and in-between’s become the only message we can give, not the procedures that come in ‘5 ways to…’, ’10 steps for…’. We actually begin to struggle with the answers of procedures, rather than simple experience.

Please do not get me wrong, we will teach and we will preach of and about Jesus, but our method of delivery will not be merely recommended, it will be an invitation to what we have seen and experienced, and what people can too.

So part of my goals for this retreat is really searching my heart, seeing how much of prescriptive Christianity rules, and resetting it to experiential. My hope is that it cascades down to my deliveries, on the blog, on the podcast, and on everything that bears Rubie.

I do not think Jesus is merely a prescription to us, I think He is an experience that we must live and become, and not merely receive as a recommendation.

So I am inviting you on this journey for your personal spiritual health too, beyond the recommendations of Jesus we receive daily, how much of Him do we really experience?