Stop Giving Spiritual Advice

It is amazing how many of us tend to give advice, especially when it is unsolicited. Someone has lost their job? Let me tell you what to do. Someone has suffered some immense heartache? Let me tell you how to fix that. And when spiritual matters arise, it can be all too tempting to play the guru.

I know this from my own life. Those who turned me off from religion were consistently those who rushed in to reinterpret the world for me.

They did not understand what my actual questions were. They did not understand all of the things that I was struggling with; and it seemed like they didn’t want to know either.

Stop doing that. Stop giving advice but especially spiritual advice when you have not been asked. We Christians did not convert the world two thousand years ago by rushing in to solve a problem that others did not know that they had; and if they did, by force feeding them the solution. No, we changed the world, as we will in our time, by living lives worthy of others’ questions.

Why are you so good to me? Why are you more patient than others I know? Why are you so joyful?

When they know that you have the answer, it is then that they will ask you.

And then sure, give them some advice.