A friend recently described a garage cleaning job completed a few weeks back, and a sudden, unexpected need to store bags of a relative’s belongings there. Happily, the clean garage meant a clean resting place for those bags.

“We never know what we will be grateful for having done,” she said. How true that is of so much in life, and even of our spiritual lives.

We’re smart to prepare ahead spiritually for unknown future times when our spirits will seem to run dry or threaten to crash into unbelief. When times are good, when prayer is enjoyable, when belief in God seems as natural as breathing, it may be tempting to relax, rejoice and simply coast instead of working to grow stronger in faith. We might even think we’ve reached some sort of pinnacle and that our happy, or at least contented, little bubble of faith will be maintained indefinitely.

God, however, doesn’t rest in His quest to make us worthy of heaven and to fill us with His own love, so we will reflect His face in all we are and do. We need to practice ahead of time — disciplining ourselves to give of ourselves on behalf of others — when it is easy and fun, and when it is difficult and even when it is a bitter task.

Generally, it is easier to sacrifice something —  our time, talent or treasure — to help someone we love. It’s harder to go out of our way on a stranger’s behalf, and perhaps even more challenging to stretch past our usual day for someone we don’t particularly like. For us to strive to turn away from self-serving actions and be selfless on behalf of a person who hurt, or tried to hurt, us, is unthinkable to many people. But it is not beyond God’s vision for us.

The “Dog Eat Dog” and “Look Out for Number One” cliches may well trump the “Do to Others as You Would Have Them Do to You” that we, as Christians, are called to do. Letting go of desirable things in order to provide them for others does not come naturally.

Because it is such a challenge to accomplish such a call, we will be grateful at some future point if we work to clean up our spiritual act now.

Think of it this way: moving around in new ways whether for exercise or recreation or work — is awkward and rather “lurch-y” at first. Gardening after a long winter, running outside after months of indoor track and treadmills, first attempts at pilates or swimming all start out with some muscular protests and bad form.

In those physical situations, we can give up and let the weeds grow and return to perpetually-flat surfaces and comfortable lifts — or we can work ourselves a bit harder each day until we are up-to-speed in our new manner of moving.

It is not that different a process with spiritual growth.

We can begin with a decision to be more selfless, pick some specific ways to practice that virtue, and then keep at it day after day until it begins to come naturally and freely. For example, we might start with giving the bigger piece of pie, the closer parking spot, the more scenic view to someone we love.

Once that becomes more automatic, we can start those selfless practices for people we don’t like or don’t know.

As we progress, God will give us more graces and make us able to do such more and more often — but only if we choose to keep doing so. We choose whether or not to keep growing in grace.

The same can be said for expanding our ability to carry on our good practices without complimentary feedback. As time goes on, God might start to train us to keep doing good things when we receive discouraging or even negative feedback.

Such spiritual training will lead to spiritual strength. We can learn to love the unlovable, bear greater trials, and give thanks for favors that earlier would not have been appreciated.

We don’t know when or how our spiritual work today will make greater works possible in the future. But that kind of progress does follow the usual pattern God uses with His friends. He created our spirits to be able to expand and get used to moving in new, holier patterns and directions. We are designed to learn and grow spiritually all through our lives.

No matter what our chronological age, on this side of death there is always more growing to do. Unfortunately, we can fool ourselves into believing that we’ve done enough.

But it is worth cleaning our spiritual “garages” before we discover they need to be clean. It is wise to push ourselves past where we think we need to be right now.

Let’s try to be aware of the opportunities for spiritual growth — and to take advantage of them.