We have good days and bad days.

But one bad day might not capture the bigger story. Growth and progress is seldom linear.

There are good reasons to zoom in and examine a bad day. Maybe there are lessons to learn. In the Christian journey, there are sins of which to repent, confession to offer, behavior to change, justice to seek, mending and reconciliation that needs to be done.

And some days, life goes sideways and there is not much we can do other than to endure it and press on, to turn the page and start the next day fresh.

That one is over. On to the next one.

After a miss in basketball, I say to myself, “The next one is going in.” After a loss, I tell myself, “Back to work.”

There are also good reasons to zoom out and consider where you are today in comparison to where you were a month ago, six months ago, a year ago, a decade ago. You might discover you are further along than you thought.

The graph above could be misleading, since the measure of progress is “up and to the right.” Maybe all you need is plot points between A and B. One line. A is where you begin. B is where you want to be. There may be ups and downs. There might even be reversals: one step forward and two steps back. But are you closer today to B than the day you began? Can you see it? Or can trusted friends see it? Are you grateful for the change? Do you celebrate the growth you have seen? Do you live in the joy of renewal? Or do you get bogged down, zooming in on the bad days, bad moments, and become discouraged? Are you spiraling in the wrong direction? Do you need a reset?

When you have one bad moment, don’t allow it to become two. When you have one bad day, don’t allow it to become two. Instead, return to formational habits, reorient yourself toward the goal (however far on the horizon), and do the daily, small things leading to success. Be disciplined. Keep going.

In Colossians 1:28, Paul writes:

He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

The principles above apply to anyone with a goal, anyone desiring growth and working toward it. Paul had a goal in mind: to lead others to maturity in Christ. Growth is part of the Christian life. If you want to become “fully mature in Christ,” conformity to Jesus is the target. Romans 13:14 exhorts us to “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

How do we do it? By keeping a constellation of commitments while moving toward our true North Star. Prayer is a key commitment, as is worship, fellowship, study. There are other disciplines, too, any virtues to be sought, developed, and instilled, including faith, hope, and love.

Whatever the means and whatever the virtues, above them all, we seek Jesus. He will supply what we need at the time we need it. We say, “I want to know you.” We say, “I want to learn from you.” We say, “My life is in your hands. Teach me.” We say, “Open my ears, my eyes, my heart.” We say, “Whatever is wrong in me, point it out, and heal me.” We say, “Whatever it takes for me to become like you, I trust you to lead me.”

His nail-scarred hand is extended to you. You take it. You grip it tight. You say, “I will not let you go.” You go where he goes and where he sends. In his earthly ministry, he worked alongside his disciples, but he also sent them out and remained at a distance, allowing them to experience a few things. You trust he is true to the promise to always be with those who are his. Just because he may not feel near does not mean that he is not with. Growth and progress in the Christian life is relational, communal, and personal. It occurs “with God.”

Change is possible. Growth is possible. Progress can be made. The process isn’t easy, nor is it always “up and to the right.” It is seldom quick and it takes work to sustain.

Get clear on the vision. Make your commitments. And then take up the actions and assume the attitudes that move you toward the goal, not away from it. There may be bad days. I’ll go a step further. There will be bad days. But keep the bigger picture in view. Take on a broader perspective. Keep moving in the right direction.

We should always hold fast to the fear of God. It is the root of all spiritual knowledge and all right action. When the fear of God rules in the soul everything goes well both within and without. Try to kindle this sense of fear in your heart every morning before you do anything else. Then it will go on working by itself as a kind of pendulum.

Theophan the Recluse, “The Fruits of Prayer” in The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology

Sounds good, Theophan. But what would this look like?

• Consider the first thing you do each day. Where do you walk as soon as you are out of bed? What is the first action you take? Do you pick up your phone? Check your iPad? Turn on a computer? Brush your teeth? Start the coffee maker?
• Put a sign in the place you go first or on top of the first item you look upon or pick up saying, “First, God.”
• Think about God. Don’t ask God for anything. Don’t lay out your agenda for the day. Think about God. Then keep your thoughts there. If your thoughts try to lead you elsewhere, let those thoughts run on their merry way and bring yourself back to God and thoughts of God. Tell those other thoughts, “I’m staying right here.”
• If it helps you to remain with the thought of God, create a list for reference. Write down what you know to be true of God. This could be: good, just, merciful, kind, long-suffering, patience, steadfast, wise, joyful, righteous, concerned for widows and orphans, excellent, praiseworthy, holy, Redeemer, Savior, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, counselor, advocate, friend, etc. No need to read the entire list each day. Dwell on one, or two, or three. Whatever you choose, think about how that thought represents the person of God.
• After a few moments or minutes of thinking about who God is, say to yourself, “If God is really like this, and if I live in relationship to this God, and if this is a person I desire to honor, how will I live today?”
• Carry that answer with you. Keep God before you. Seek God in all you do.

That might generate a few sparks.

Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” When we keep God before us, as God truly is, much good follows.

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Luke 2:15, New International Version

I offer a weekly devotional to a small group of fellow staff members, and this Monday we turned our attention to the passage quoted above, Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. And while I have more often placed the stress on the shepherds’ exhortation to one another to “go” and “see” the sign of the baby born and laid in a manger announced to them as “the Messiah, the Lord,” I have less often contemplated the assertion that it was the Lord who had told “this thing” to them, directly. Luke tells us that the messenger is “an angel of the Lord,” and that “a great company of the heavenly host” appeared with and alongside the angel. But they considered these angelic messengers as acting at God’s behest. They claim divine revelation.

There is a distinction between having ears and hearing with understanding, as Isaiah 6:9 makes plain. Not every person who hears news about Jesus and his birth receives that message with a sense that it is the Lord who has told them, directly. But I am among those who, over time, have come to that conviction, that God communicates with us through the Word, people, and the heart-stirrings of the Holy Spirit.

To claim that one has received communication from God is a sign of the movement of God’s grace. Anyone who shares in understanding that Jesus is the Messiah can make this claim. That is worth marveling at. After seeing the child, the shepherds returned to their sheepfolds “glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

For any who have seen Jesus, who have truly beheld him and contemplated what his birth, life, death, and reign meant and mean, they can do the same.

We think it is the big things.

It is far more often the little things.

In the Christian spiritual life, think about the disciplines and practices that are foremost in your tradition. Prayer. Attending worship. Serving others. Reading or studying a Scripture portion. Fasting. Generosity and giving.

Don’t think about what doing these things might render in a day, or a week. Consider what might happen if you did these things routinely over years, even decades.

Choose a few seemingly small commitments. Keep them.

You won’t know where keeping those commitments will take you, what it will render.

But years from now, you may be very glad to have found out.