There is only one life and no time for spiritual mediocrity. No space for playing religious games, no eternal glory to be had from treading water, merely marking time. Faith believes, hopes and trusts. But I know Christians whose approach to life and faith assumes that God does less than all we ask or imagine, rather than immeasurably more. Woe betide us when we do that. Not believing in God doing the humanly-impossible is the heart of faithlessness.

I wonder if the reason we don't tell stories of God working is that we are afraid of slightly superspiritual people, or because we don't want those with no such stories to feel devalued. If the latter, that is pastorally noble, but incorrect. If they never hear that God works for us, then they will never hunger for him to.

The worst thing is to settle for having no adventures in the Christian life. That is the definition of faithless spiritual mediocrity. Do we somehow think that travelling with God to see new vistas, new things he is doing, new fields to reach for Jesus won't be wonderful? If our watchwords are "caution", "safety", "risk-free", "comfort" we will have a really boring spiritual life. At the end of our lives the tragedy will be that we realise that there were escarpments to climb that we never climbed, rivers to ford that we never crossed, panoramas to marvel at that we never glimpsed, adventures with God that we politely declined.

John Piper is SO right to say that the Shorter Westminster Catechism should read "the chief end of Man is to glorify God BY enjoying him forever."