1 % Of The Population Experiences “Profound” Love
Boom. What if that statement is true? A question came up the other day when I was discussing spiritual growth with someone and how we can recognize if we are growing spiritually. The question was, “what does it mean to have “profound love”? This phrase or idea was used as a descriptor of the highest levels of spiritual growth. The top. The absolute ceiling of what we are capable of as humans when it comes to our relationship with Jesus and with other people. Let’s look at the word “profound” for one second so we can get an idea what we are talking about. When we look at the synonyms for “profound” we find, heartfelt, intense, keen, great, extreme, sincere, deep, overpowering, radical, overwhelming and fervent.
Love Equals Time
Looking at some of these ideas made me think about how we measure things such as love, devotion, faith or obedience. How would you measure your love for your spouse? How about your child? How can you tell if your love grows and gets stronger and more “profound”? One thing we know is that love is invisible, until we see action. Our actions are a reliable indicator of whether or not our love is “profound”. It can be seen in how we spend our time and what we do with that time.
Someone may say, “I know that I have a profound love for Jesus.” Well, is this love evident in our actions and in our priorities? These are questions that I am aiming at myself. How about a “profound” love and compassion for other people? Am I exhibiting “overpowering, radical” love in my actions at work or at home? When I ask myself these types of questions, it makes me realize the pain of truth. Truth burns and truth hurts. But it also burns away all the lies that we tell ourselves when we create a self that is false. So in essence it leaves us with truth and our authentic self, which is exactly what we are after.
But what is our authentic self? How can it be defined ?
Our authentic self is the image or vision that God had in mind when He created us. It is who we were meant to be, doing what we were meant to do, using the gifts we were meant to use, with the love we were meant to share. The key to getting there is a growing thriving relationship with Jesus. We can’t know ourselves and be who we are until we know who He is.
All of these ideas came about because I am in the middle of the editing process on my third book. It’s main focus is on overcoming fear and breaking out of complaceny on the road to fulfilling our purpose. The writing process is complete, but just recently I came across some research and statistics that really grabbed my attention and I felt compelled to incorporate some of these ideas into the book. These ideas are supported by cold hard data. The kind of data and statistics that are rare and hard to find.
The Barna research group acquired this data over a period of six years conducting surveys on spirituality, Christianity and spiritual growth. All the data and statistics are summarized in the book Maximum Faith. Based on surveys looking at over 15,000 adults, the researchers concluded that there are 10 spiritual “stops” on the spiritual growth journey.
Faith With No Direction Or Meaning
Before we look at the 10 spiritual stops, I want to include an excerpt from “Maximum Faith” that is quite startling to consider as we go through some of these ideas. Here is an excerpt from the introduction of my new book,
As we are looking at the ideas of fear and complacency, we are going to use statistics and data supplied by the Barna research group because this data is unique, powerful and compelling. The Barna group collected and compiled data gleaned from surveys over a six year period that involved over 15,000 people. From the data we have found that:
More than 100 million American adults who describe themselves as Christian contend that despite their commitment to God they are still searching for clarity regarding their purpose in life. Tens of millions of self-described Christians feel unfulfilled in life, admit they lack direction, and are disappointed that their faith has not produced the kind of meaning and identity they need, and question whether their life makes a difference.
George Barna- “Maximum Faith”
From a statistical view of things, we know that if we have 15,000 subjects as part of the analysis, there is real power in that study. From my experience in medicine, if there are 15,000 people in a study, pay attention. It means that the data is powerful.
Looking at these numbers makes me realize that there are large groups of people who are going about their lives in their Christian faith, still searching for clarity and purpose. Millions upon millions of Christians:
1. Feel unfulfilled
2. Lack direction
3. Are seeking meaning
4. Are seeking identity
5. Are looking to make a difference
This was somewhat startling to me. We are not talking about people who have no faith, we are talking about believing Christians who are going to church and are involved in faith based activities. I have used the analogy of the “walking dead” as far as unbelievers who are going about their lives with no aim or purpose and I have discussed the futility and danger of living our lives in such a way. The problem is that the data is telling us that believers are going through the same type of behavior with no fulfillment, no direction, no meaning and wondering if their lives make a difference. Why is this happening?
The Ten Spiritual Stops
Hold on to your hat because we haven’t even gotten to the 10 stops of spiritual growth yet. This is when it gets really interesting. Just a warning, I showed these numbers to a couple of people just to get an idea of what they thought and they immediately began to look at themselves to see where they were on the “spiritual spectrum.” These stops and numbers are not listed to guilt or shame anyone into anything. They are just to give us an idea of where we are and to give us an idea of where we should be heading. I know from my own experience, I am no where near the highest levels of spiritual growth, but I believe a list like this is helpful because it allows us to aim for something greater than where we are now. In essence, what we are looking for is an authentic, loving, more Christ like version of ourselves. It is a vision of ourselves that God has in mind.
Looking at these stops or steps made me realize, I got a long, long way to go.
1. Ignorance of the concept of or existence of sin (1 percent of the population)
2. Aware of and indifferent to sin (16 percent of adults)
3. Concerned about the implication of sin (39 percent of adults)
4. Confess sin and ask Jesus to be their savior (9 percent of adults)
5. Commit to faith activities (24 percent of adults)
6. Prolonged period of spiritual discontent (6 percent of adults)
7. Experience personal brokenness (3 percent of adults)
8. Surrender/Submission to God (1 percent of adults)
9. Profound love/intimacy with God/Jesus (.5 percent of adults)
10. Profound Love and compassion for people (.5 percent of adults)
Just for convenience and to help us get our minds around these numbers, let’s put these categories into groups and look at the size of the population.
Group A Ignorance of the concept of sin and aware of and indifferent to sin (17 percent of the population)
Group B Concerned about the implication of sin (39 percent of the population)
Group C Confess sin, accept Jesus and commit to faith activities (33 percent of the population)
Group D Prolonged period of spiritual discontent and experience personal brokenness (9 percent of population)
Group E Surrender/submission to God, profound love for God/Jesus and profound love and compassion for people (2 percent of the population)
Just to reiterate, these numbers are not to guilt or shame anyone, but they are rather stunning if you look at the groups. If we stop to think about ourselves and our family and friends, it isn’t that hard to be able to categorize people who you know and love. Also, if you believe there is value in spiritual growth and in growing in intimacy with Jesus, you will take special notice of the word “profound”. Not only that, the numbers are screaming to us that it is extremely difficult to get to the highest levels of love, if this were not so, more people would be reaching this level.
Here are the synonyms again, heartfelt, intense, keen, great, extreme, sincere, deep, overpowering, radical, overwhelming and fervent.
Here is some commentary I found about this data that I thought was quite fascinating,
Most Americans, according to the research, never get beyond stop three (awareness and concern about sin and its effects, but not cooperating with Christ to alleviate that problem). Among those who become “born again Christians,” most never move past stop five (i.e., having invited Christ to be their savior and then engaging in a lot of religious activity). In other words, a majority of the American public never reaches the second half of the stops on the journey to wholeness. Barna also determined that most church programs are designed to help people get to stop five of the journey but not to move farther down the road to Christ-likeness.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/robertricciardelli/faith/god-transforming-lives-a-10-stop-journey-by-george-barna/
If you are one of the 100 million Americans who describe themselves as Christian, but who feel unfulfilled and lack direction or are still trying to find meaning, looking at data like this can help you to move forward in your faith. The whole point is that everyone is at a different point in their spiritual life and in their spiritual growth. Clearly the majority of the population (56 percent) are concerned about sin or are indifferent to sin, but don’t feel the need to do anything about it or don’t see the value in committing to Jesus. As we grow in our faith and we have a better understanding of the value that Christ brings to our lives, it is incumbent on us to share our testimony. Either way, wherever we are on the spiritual growth stop list, we all have work to do.
If you have read my books Brave the Wave and Discover Your Passion, Release Your Power, there is a focus on self-examination and self-awareness because they are absolutely critical on the path towards authenticity. In my next book on overcoming fear and breaking out of complacency toward growth, the emphasis is still on self-awareness, but there is also a focus on personal responsibility. It is the attitude of “it’s on me.” That is a clear prerequisite to overcoming our fear and breaking through complacency. If we don’t closely examine our own behavior and then compare and contrast it with the perfect model of the life of Jesus, there is no growth, no power, no passion, no direction, no meaning and no hope of getting to a place that brings peace and love to ourselves and our families. If we want all of these, it truly is on us.
Here is a link to the books in the Authentic Self Series, Challenge Your Fear, Empower Your Spirit , (Transform from worrier to warrior in the power of the Authentic Self).
I do need your help though, if you are a fellow Christian believer and would like to help spread this message, please take the time to leave a review on one of my books. This is the only written review I have for my Challenge Your Fear book that has been on sale for 1 year.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 12, 2022
It is clear from the moment of the introduction that Challenge Your Fear Empower Your Spirit was written by a Christian for Christians, and there is plenty of helpful tips that do not involve faith.
One thing I have learned is that this is a huge war we are in as Christians. We are going to face ridicule, rejection and criticism, just like Jesus did. But we need to stick together and help each other.
What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man. When that happens, be happy! Yes, leap for joy! For a great reward awaits you in heaven.
(Luke 6:22- 23 NLT)
I’m not asking for money, I just ask that if you buy one of my books, please take 30 seconds of your time to leave a written review that can help to counter some of the anger and hatred that comes when anyone mentions Jesus.
Also, if you are currently experiencing persistent symptoms of fatigue, body aches, brain fog, or shortness of breath even months after a bout of Covid, you can learn more here,