BitterSweetLife

Normally, Thursday morning finds me sitting with a couple friends in a café. We drink coffee, talk about the Bible and admit the past week’s moral lapses. Uh…sounds fun, you say. Fortunately, we divulge the previous week's victories too. Shorthand for this interlude is “accountability.” We're there to help each other stay on-task. We want to live determinedly for Christ, and we don’t want to pull punches—so we recruit each other for help. Not everyone has the guts for it, but such good-but-painful authenticity is invaluable.

Left to ourselves, we can invent a creative motive for anything. It only becomes ludicrous when someone else laughs at it. All alone, we can default into reprehensive habits and cycles. Someone else may need to remind us we can get off the ride.

Recently, though, I’ve been absent from our weekly talks. Lindsay and I have a “work schedule” that’s constantly in flux, and between ferrying her to a subbing assignment and rushing to make my first class, the accountability time has fallen in the cracks. In the final analysis, eating won out over regular spiritual tune-ups.

With the arrival of summer, this problem will resolve itself. In the meantime, though, I’m highly conscious of the value of the Thursday morning sessions—crucial, but often overlooked. Asking questions like How much money can we afford to lose for the sake of accountability? has a way clarifying things.

If you seriously want to know Christ, you learn to be transparent. You develop heart-honesty—with God, with yourself, with a few close friends. Accountability is not for everyone—but that’s like saying that good health is not for everyone. Serious Christ-followers need a time to be in earnest.