Who towers above all the other saints in antiquity? Who holds the highest spot of spirituality in the ancient world? Without a doubt, it has to be Simeon Stylites. Simeon was born in the Turkish province of Adana which, in 395 AD, was part of the Eastern Roman Empire. Before he was 16 years old, he entered monastic life; and he took to it with reckless abandon. In fact, he embraced the austere lifestyle with such fervor and passion that the other monks judged him to be unfit for community life, and they dismissed him from the monastery. But who needs a monastery to practice solitude and silence when you have a hut in the desert. For the next year and a half, Simeon enjoyed a life of quiet seclusion in search of a special spirituality highlighted by going without food or drink for the 40 days of Lent (people said it was a miracle). To further his spiritual progress, Simeon also gave himself over to praying for extreme periods of time, standing upright while he prayed (his “amen” came when he lost consciousness and fell over). Life in the hut, however, did not accomplish his spiritual goals, and so Simeon moved to a cave. Unfortunately, by this time, Simeon had developed a reputation for spirituality, and pilgrims began to make sojourns to the cave to seek counsel and prayer. There were so many pilgrims that Simeon didn’t feel he had adequate time to devote to his own devotions. It was time to move, and he found a perfect new home. It was a small square platform on top of a ten-foot-high pillar. Every once in a while, boys from the village would climb up the pillar to bring him some bread and goats’ milk, and then he installed a pulley system. Simeon figured he could live there for the rest of his life. But then, the pilgrims started coming in groups, and that ruined the neighborhood. And so, Simeon began looking for a new tower. After trying several out, Simeon finally found “home” on top of a fifty-foot-tall tower. He built a small platform (it was one square meter wide) and surrounded it with a small fence.He also tied himself to the pillar with a rope so that he would not fall off accidentally. And this was essential because Simeon loved to pray enthusiastically by touching his forehead to his ankles repeatedly (someone counted the repetitions, but stopped counting when Simeon went over 1244 times). And here Simeon lived, during the summer heat and the winter rains, for the next 35 years. After his death, he was declared a saint. He even has a feast day in his honor.  I guess we can say he towers over all of us in terms of how far he would go to achieve spirituality.

Here’s today’s question: Do you think Simeon was a spiritual giant? I have nothing against Simeon, but he would not be my model for people to follow in regard to their spiritual life. Yes, he was super committed, but my definition of what it means to follow Jesus includes engaging the surrounding culture in meaningful and attractive ways with the claims of Christ. And, in my opinion, you can’t do that if you live on a pillar in the wilderness. Now, there might come a time when that is our best approach, but we are not there yet. Our calling as members of Christ’s body at River’s Edge is to be relevant (to engage our culture in ways they can understand). We define this core strength with these six descriptors:

  • I am trying to engage the people God puts in my path in culturally-relevant ways that they would find appealing and meaningful. 
  • I am having more spiritual conversations with unchurched people that are winsome, gentle, gracious and engaging.  
  • Any unchurched people that know me would say I was compassionate and caring.
  • I am growing in my awareness of the needs of others (both here and around the world) and how I can make a difference in their lives.
  • I feel I am removing (and not creating) barriers to faith in the lives of people around me so that the only barrier left is the clear offense of the cross.
  • I am growing in the grace of listening, of asking great questions and of speaking the heart-language of the people God has entrusted to my care.

Let’s get to work on being relevant. There are six steps.  

First, SURVEY and PRAY. 

Reread the six items in today’s category and evaluate each of them compared to how you have grown in the last year. Give each a numerical value. If you have lost ground, give yourself a one. If you have stagnated, give yourself a two. If you are growing slowly, give yourself a three. If you are growing steadily, give yourself a four. And if you are discovering new breakthroughs, give yourself a five.

Pray that God would lead you through this process and reveal to you how you are doing in being relevant. Let God reinforce your strengths and show you your growth areas. Receive both with thanksgiving.  

Second, SELECT and DETECT.

Select two of the six items for you to work on this week and write them down in a prominent place.  

Again, pray that God would give you opportunities to work on these two items this week.  

Now, as you go throughout your week, you are to detect those opportunities that God has prepared for you (Ephesians 2:10). Our privilege is to seek as many ways as we can to put these two items into practice. Our task here is found in being aware of opportunities as they come our way (remember they come at us fast). Also, we need to remember what Churchill said: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Have courage and take notice of every opportunity.  

Third, EMBODY and EMBRACE.

Here is the crucial moment. When we see these opportunities before us, we must step out in faith and embody these skills. God has not given us these opportunities only to see them, but to act on them. The key here is to keep these two items in the foreground of your thinking and in your prayers all week long and to believe that God is going to show up dramatically.  And when God opens that door, our job is to step through it; and as many times as God opens a door, we are to step through it. And with each successful step, we should give thanks to God for working in us so that we can grow in grace.  

But our task is not just to embody these two principles, but to embrace a lifestyle of all of our qualities. We want to be a people driven by grace, a people who invest in loving relationships, a people who share their faith with others joyfully, a people who are called to grow in faith and who understand that we grow only as we give ourselves away. We grow as we live authentic lives before a watching church and world; and we grow as we are relevant (able to engage the people in our culture in rich, moving and meaningful ways). Of course, we can’t put every item from every category into practice; and so we choose two, then we discard one and keep the other to work on during this whole series. Today, we ought to have eight items on our agenda (one from the previous six items and two from this week). It should be a great week of seeking to be relevant.

Was Simeon a great saint? He sure was committed. I wouldn’t live on a fifty-foot pillar to grow closer to God! But Simeon did. And there is great value in solitude and in the practice of silence and fasting and living simply, but there is also a great need to reach people outside the church and be salt and light in our world. And that means we need to invest ourselves in being relevant so that we can speak into our culture in meaningful ways. It is what it means to be the sent-out people of God.

But there is a deeper reason why we need to invest ourselves in this pursuit. Scot McKnight writes: “‎Those who aren’t following Jesus aren’t his followers. It’s that simple. Followers follow, and those who don’t follow aren’t followers. To follow Jesus means to follow Jesus into a society where justice rules, where love shapes everything. To follow Jesus means to take up his dream and work for it.” Our question now is clear: Did Jesus engage his culture in rich and meaningful ways? I don’t think there is any doubt that he did and that means we need to follow him in reaching out to the people in our culture in ways that speak to their hearts. It is what we do if we are followers of the one who came to earth to bring us salvation in a way that we could understand and that was meaningful to us.  

Here’s the bottom line: Don’t try to escape the world by hiding yourself on top of some pillar surrounded by good church people. Instead, go out and engage your world in Jesus’ name in a way that speaks powerfully to those around you. Not only is engaging your culture following in the steps of Jesus, but it will also be a real high!