One of my children often expressed “I wish I was grown up.” He had ambitions limited by his age and size and thought that being an adult would fix everything. While I understood his desire for perfection, I knew maturity does not happen by wishing.
Growing takes time. Besides, why not be happy with each stage of growth? A new mother can say, “My baby is perfect” and this claim is not based on the child’s maturity. Besides, most mothers are not eager to see their children be instant adults. Rather, we want them to be all they can be at their current age and stage of life.
I need to remember that every time I think about verses like Matthew 5:48, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
Whatever God is doing, that work is “perfect” in whatever stage it is in. A baby is one example. So is a petunia or a rose. As the first shoot comes out of the ground, it is perfect. That shoot grows and gains height and strength, and is still perfect. It produces a bud, then flowers and is also perfect. At each stage of growth, any plant is where it ought to be. We might say that the plant is perfect when each leaf and flower has reached maturity, but in the mind of God, and any good botanist, perfection is just that—being what it should be right now.
When I was a new Christian, I knew I had much growing to do. I was self-focused, impatient, and in a hurry. I didn’t like James 1:2-4. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Maturity and patience have a price tag, and for me the “trials of many kinds” were not worth the results of being “mature and complete” but “lacking anything” was my idea of being imperfect, and in my self-focus, I wanted to be the perfect Christian. It seemed a terrible dilemma until I realized I was not in control of my growth or the trials that I faced.
Today’s reading from God is Enough says the obvious, “The maturity of a Christian experience cannot be reached in a moment, but is the result of the work of God’s Holy Spirit, who, by His energizing and transforming power, causes us to grow up into Christ in all things.”
This author also uses the baby illustration, that a baby may be all that a baby can be and therefore perfectly please its mother, yet it is very far from being what that mother hopes for in that child’s complete maturity. She adds that “God’s works are perfect in every stage of their growth.”
This helps me with my own impatience. Instead of being anxious that the bud of perseverance is not exactly in full bloom, I can be happy that there is at least a bud, and even if this was absent, my growth still is exactly where God wants it.
I know that seeds grow better if I don’t dig them up to see if they are growing. Why can’t I get through my head that a constant self-examination to see how I am doing is just as counterproductive? God produces the growth. He does it through His Word (so I need to keep reading) and through exercising my faith (keep obeying) and through the experiences of life. I’m to simply take each as it comes, paying attention to what He is saying about it, and let Him do the work of making me grow up.
In the meantime, or at least during the process, I can raise my leaves up to the Son and enjoy His rays and His rain, knowing that He is satisfied. As long as I am trusting Him, loving Him, obeying Him, then I’m okay right where I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment