Flow

...it's possible to spend years trying to achieve perfect stability without moving to higher levels of flow and pull. Experience suggest that this will lead to cycles of stability: dropping back to instability, reattaining stability, and on and on. The reason is that there is no motivation to sustain the higher levels of capability because the system is not tightened to require the improved level. In a large batch operation without flow, a high level of stability is actually not needed and thus the only motivation to continue using disciplined processes is to keep 'lean managers' off your back.—The Toyota Way Fieldbook, page 59

<idle musing>
I'm reading this book for work, but the parallels jumped out at me. It sounds like some people's Christianity, doesn't it? Just substitute spirituality for stability and you describe where they are; they jump on the treadmill and work like crazy to attain “spiritual maturity,” only to fall off again.

Now substitute Holy Spirit for flow, and we see why this happens. With the Holy Spirit in charge of one's life, high levels of spirituality are automatic; there is no falling of the spiritual wagon—he keeps you there. It is no longer work, but a natural out-flowing of God himself living in and through you. No works, just a new life—no longer I that lives, but Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2:20)
</idle musing>