I think this relates to my post last night. Some like Dallas Willard, others loathe him. I think those that loathe him do so due to his emphasis on our role in spiritual growth and maturity, thinking his focus puts too much stress on our effort, and I agree that when we look too much to our own power we are doomed. However, as the title of this blog reflect, I like balance, and I think he does possess a good amount of it. Therefore, I wanted to post this quote I read in his "The Great Omission" that I picked up last night:

We must approach current disappointments about the walk with Christ in a similar way. It too is not meant to run on just anything you give it (JPN note: his analogy a paragraph earlier focused on a the fictional tale of his neighbor who was having car problems, he thought it was a lemon, but then found out the neighbor was adding a gallon of water to each tank of gas, cars weren't meant to run on water). If it doesn't work at all, or only in fits and starts, that is because we do not give ourselves to it in a way that allows our lives to be taken over by it. Perhaps we have never been told what to do. We are misinformed about "our part" in eternal living. Or we have just learned the "faith and practice" of some group we have fallen in with, not that of Jesus himself. Or maybe we have heard something that is right-on with Jesus himself, but misunderstood it (a dilemna that tends to produce good Pharisees or "legalists," which is a really hard life.) Or perhaps we thought the "Way"we have heard seemed too costly and we have tried to economize (supplying a quart of moralistic or religious "water" now and then.)