Growth, Not Change
Here is a Eugene Peterson quote worth noting.
When we grow, in contrast to merely change, we venture into new territory and include more people in our lives - serve more and love more. Our culture is filled with change; it's poor in growth. New things, models, developments, opportunities are announced, breathlessly, every hour. But instead of becoming ingredients in a long and wise growth, they simply replace. The previous is discarded and the immediate stuck in - until, bored by the novelty, we run after the next fad. Men and women drawn always to the new never grow up. God's way is growth, not change.
This talks of us hurrying on to the next and leaving behind our now. We forget that God is in every part of our now: eating, bathing, cleaning, praying, working, mowing, napping, kissing, reading, riling up and calming down, laughing hard and crying softly. In every part of life we find God. It is so tempting to think that Jesus only resides in my quiet time or prayer or church service, and leaves the rest for us to figure out, but he is in the midst of it all. Growth in and through those times stands as worthy targets.
You and I have already been changed, now we grow. Remember 2 Corinthians 5:18?
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!
That newness includes a new name, a fresh start (every day), a full life, and a bright future beyond the horizon. The simple plan for any follower of Jesus is to grow into our clothes. Here's a picture for that: When we begin a faith journey we resemble the kid who tries on an outfit much too large for him or her. Patience and time brings growth to the point when we fit into the new clothes, just fine. Process. A long obedience in the same direction without chasing after the next new thing to shortcut the steps along the way.
Recently, a good friend gave me a small book, Theology of the Ordinary, by Julie Canlis. She and her husband Matt live in Wenatchee, WA but spent 15 years doing ministry as Anglican priests, mostly in a tiny village in Scotland. (You can check them out at livegodspeed.org and Matt's video is really good). Canlis writes about the blessings found in the "holy ordinary" things of life. Seeing every part of your day as saturated with opportunities to grow in our faith-life transforms the ordinary to something else entirely. Seeing the Father, Son, and Spirit inhabiting ordinary events, tasks, interruptions, crises, delays, and traffic jams, holds the potential for growth in all life, not just the extraordinary times when we get zapped with inspiration or intention.
So, if Canlis is correct that all of life is holy, and if Peterson is on point with growth, not change, being our goal, then, in what are we called to grow? Here are three arenas that come to mind:
Grow in wisdom. Wisdom is the right application of knowledge, so we must begin with knowing the word and the Word more and more. Paul gets at this when he encourages the Philippians to "Keep on doing the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you." Know what is right (from the authority of scripture) and do what you know (carefully applied knowledge). Some won't understand why you don't just go with the next fad, but you purpose to make wise choices in life.
Grow in grace. We are birthed and bathed in grace from the godhead, and our calling is to bring that same accepting, inviting, open-table, loving-beyond-the-norm kind of living to every situation we face. Peter writes to beleaguered believers to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." This is how we are to grow, bit by bit, right where we are. A fine grace question to ask is, "What does love require of me here?" Others will resist your openness to "them" but keep at it and smile in the face of critics.
Grow in community. Church isn't a place we go to as much as a group we travel with. Throughout the letters to the clusters of believers in the new testament the call resounds to hang together through thick and thin. We are likened to a body with various and essential parts. We flourish in our imperfection as we grow together to look more and more like Jesus, our head. Stick and stay and grow right where you are. Don't go solo or run to the flavor of the month. It may not be flashy, but it is family.
So, before you change what you know (like friends, a job, your church, or town) to chase the shiny new thing, give the old a chance to be that vehicle of growth in you. Instead of pursuing the next experience, look for Jesus in the everyday. Resist chasing the extraordinary and embrace the normal, because that is where we live. I believe you and I will discover Jesus hiding in plain sight if we just have eyes to see him. Let's go!
And music for the week:
And a couple of chuckles
An old couple is sitting in their living room when the old woman leans over and says to the old man, "Remember when we were younger and you used to hold my hand?"
The old man grabs the old woman's hand.
Then she says, "Remember when we were younger and you used to put your arm around me?"
The old man puts his arm around the old woman.
Then she says, "Remember when we were younger and you used to nibble on my ear?"
To the old woman's surprise, the old man gets up off the couch and starts to walk away. "Honey, where are you going?" she says.
The old man replies, "I'm going to get my dentures."
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"You just go ahead," the man in the shopping mall said to his wife. "While you're shopping, I'll browse in the hardware store."
An hour later, she returned and saw him at the checkout counter. The clerk was ringing up the last of a pile of tools and supplies that would fill two wheelbarrows.
"Are you buying all this?" his wife asked incredulously.
"Well, yes," he said, embarrassed. Then waving his arm toward the interior of the store, he added, "But look at all the stuff I'm leaving behind!"