Spiritual Growth

So I'm teaching this course on character at my church the other night, and one of the guys in the class asks me to define spiritual maturity or spiritual growth. Wow! What a difficult question! Of course, I wanted to have a snappy answer.

I wanted to confidently just jump right up there and explain it all to him. The truth of the matter though is that it wasn't that easy. As I stood there trying to think of an intelligent response to his great question, I found myself more than stumped.

Finally, I began to explain to him (and the rest of the group) that when I had first become a Christ-follower, I gained a new awareness of a level of ignorance I never thought I had. In fact, my own ignorance seemed to lie before me like a vast, unfolding sea or ocean. And it looked that endless. The more focused I got on God and His agenda, the more aware I became of this sea of ignorance that seemed to surround me.

As I have grown in Christ, however, I find that the ignorance begins to dissipate. Slowly - but surely, I get grounded in God's truth. I learn God's truth and hide it in my heart ... with regards to relationships, life, who I am, who God is, how the world works, and other such matters. To be sure, there's a lot of learning there to be had.

The coolest thing I've discovered about God's truth is that it defeats ignorance. Every time. God's truth, revealed in God's people, overpowers ignorance - just like it overpowers evil. In fact, I've come to equate ignorance with evil. They both seem to have the same effects. And the fact that both are defeated with God's truth, from God's Word, revealed in God's people - quite frankly excites and invigorates me.

So the question was to define spiritual growth. I finally defined it as a fading away of my ignorance. And someone else (a pastor on staff at our church) added that it would include a growing awareness of God. Of course I agreed with that. When evil and ignorance are overpowered and defeated, God Himself is revealed.

We often talk about people as being spiritually mature, having a level of spiritual maturity, or growing in spiritual maturity. But you know, I don't think I've ever heard anyone really define what that means. Without a succinct definition, maybe it's just a religious platitude that should be disregarded. But I think I'd rather wrestle with the definition.

It's still true ... that I've never been more aware of my own ignorance than I am today. But it's equally true that ignorance isn't a place God will ever allow His people to live in. No, He leads us from that vast sea of ignorance - and into His truth. And God Himself is revealed. Lord, help me grow and be more spiritually mature than ever then!

Paradigm Shifts

Honestly, my spiritual - and emotional growth as a Christian amazes me sometimes. There are truths revealed, and learnings accomplished that I can barely even comprehend. It is a knowing deep inside of you that is difficult to put into words. And yet ... you know without a doubt that it's there.

More than once in my life, I've started off on a journey with one purpose or objective in mind. But sometimes before the journey is even halfway through, I realize the purpose is different. An example might be a job or a project. I dive into it thinking I'm going to contribute this or that, or accomplish this or that. But halfway through it, I realize that God is doing something in me instead.

Often what I realize is that my involvement in that place or time is not even about the project that I'm on. So I may work for a bank or a church, but it isn't about the bank or the church. It's about what God wants to teach me, or He uses that workplace to accomplish something in me. At other times, I might think I'm helping someone out ... only to find later that I'm the one being helped.

I realize that we serve an amazing God. His powers and His ways are so far beyond any realm of human understanding. And I sit and wonder how many people can appreciate even this much of Him. Most people would consider me to be a reasonably intelligent individual. And yet, I struggle to get my mind around the paradigms that God shifts for me. Often I'm standing there thinking, "Okay, what just happened here?"

If I'm that intelligent and I have that much of a challenge, what's it like for someone who might not be as intelligent? Does it just fly completely above their heads? I guess it was about a dozen or so years ago, when I realized that my level of ignorance was pretty vast. Mind you, my ignorance was always there - I just wasn't cognizant of it.

It seems that the older I get, the greater the sea of my ignorance expands before me. To put it another way, I never before knew how much I don't know. Today, I'm a little more aware of how much I don't know. But quite frankly, the level of my own ignorance is still dawning on me. And there it is, another paradigm shift straight from God.