Tag: A Word for Wednesday

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Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

My wife says road trips with me are “like traveling with a human TripTik”—once we’ve driven a certain route a couple of times, I pretty much know the mile markers where we’ll find certain fast-food franchises, specific gas station brands, and easy-access rest areas. While we’re both destination-oriented people—“just press on!”—it is helpful to anticipate where we can fill the tank, feed the stomach, dump the trash, and set out again.

We who live in Christ through faith are on a road trip of a different kind, a spiritual journey—destination: transformation. We are being changed into Jesus’ image, and Peter tells us what to anticipate ahead as we progress toward our goal: “Make every effort to add to your faith goodness … knowledge … self-control … perseverance … godliness … mutual affection … and love.”1 These are the recognizable markers along the road to maturity, the places we can rest and refuel, knowing we’re on the right path. Yet they also present us opportunities to toss our trash of spiritual immaturity and let it fade in the rear-view mirror.

What does this waste of the unseen variety look like? The early Corinthian church was a veritable nursery filled with “mere infants in Christ,”2 so let’s learn from Paul as he grows them up a bit. “You are still worldly,”3 he charged. It’s a common condition, so if our growth is likewise stunted by materialism, let’s pull over at godliness and dump our worldliness there. Are we, like them, caught up in “jealously and quarreling”?4 We can crunch up these empty bags now and discard them at mutual affection just up ahead. Suckered yet again by non-Biblical wisdom?5 Let’s leave this garbage behind once and for all as we fuel up at knowledge. What about spectacularism—elevating the worship experience above the God of our worship?6 There’s a recycle bin at self-control. Are we, in the words of Jesus, “choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures” so that we “do not mature”?7 Then goodness is where we replace these distractions with “noble and good hearts,” whereby we hear the word, retain it and bear fruit at perseverance.8

“The Spirit gives birth to spirit,” 9 Jesus said. This is only the starting point, for as we are born into salvation, so we must “grow up in salvation.”10 It’s what God hopes for us—that we leave infancy behind and press on to maturity. Destination: transformation.

Father, send your Spirit to lead me away from my short-sighted focus on worldly desires and ever onward in the spiritual growth you desire for me. In Christ, I pray. Amen.

1 2 Peter 1:5-7
2 1 Corinthians 3:1
3, 4 1 Corinthians 3:3
5 1 Corinthians 3:18-20
6 1 Corinthians 14:18-20
7 Luke 8:14
8 Luke 8:15
9 John 3:6
10 1 Peter 2:2

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Perpetual Playground?

There I was—fidgeting, enduring, gazing at the clock again, silently pleading its snail-paced little hand onward to the 3 while urging its friendlier big hand toward the 12 perched atop all the other numbers. This was the first grade, and all I wanted to do was play; whether recess, lunch or home, it did not matter—just let me play! One day while staring down my ticking tormentor, I thought, “I know school has twelve grades … and then my parents want me to go to college!” I slumped in six-year-old defeat. But what if somehow the clock hastened at my command and my curriculum became perpetual playground, my career aspirations ultimately rooted in recess? How far would tag, king-of-the-hill, and monkey bars have gotten me in this world? (Rhetorical question.)

We know the importance of preparing our children for life, and we do what we can—both at home and through school—to help them expand their knowledge, broaden their vision, and develop their capabilities, for the path to growth is largely through the mind. What we need to realize, as well, is that our spiritual maturity, which is of even greater consequence, also develops over time through understanding—both knowing about Christ and knowing Him relationally. Growing up “in the knowledge of the Son of God,” wrote Paul, we “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”1 It is God’s vision for us that we steep ourselves in the truth of who Christ is and, knowing Him, become living expressions of His godly character. For through knowledge, the Spirit develops us and expands our understanding, so that we “may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power … and giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified [us] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”2

Like engaged and nurturing parents, God knows the Kingdom experience that awaits us, so He urges us to put monkey bars behind us, grow up in our knowledge of Christ, follow Him beyond the playground fence, and bring His powerful presence to wherever we are in the world. The clock is ticking.

Father, thank you for loving me and saving me. Help me to grow up in the knowledge of your Son, equip me to bear fruit for your Kingdom, and lead me in strength and joy into the world that awaits you today. Amen.

1 Ephesians 4:13
2 Colossians 1:10-12

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Growth for a Purpose

Very early in my career, I was appointed to represent our property-casualty insurance company to agents who sold for us in North central Ohio. My boss traveled with me, initially, to introduce me to these independent business owners, so we spent a fair amount of “windshield time” together over a two-week span. He taught me much as we drove from town to town, and one piece of advice that never strayed too far from my mind was this: “Some people have one year’s experience 20 times, and some people build up 20 years’ experience one time.” It was a call to continual growth through unrelenting application—maturing in knowledge and increasing in effectiveness. Decades later, I remain grateful to him and to others who shared of their wisdom and experience, deepening my understanding and raising my sights.

At greater depth and grander scale, God desires for us a lifetime of ongoing growth and increasing fruitfulness, for the two are always linked in His Kingdom, the former leading to the latter. “You did not choose me,” said Jesus to His followers, “but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”1 He has saved us from eternal separation from God, certainly, the Spirit giving birth to our spirit2, for which we are forever thankful. Yet just as earthly parents would want for their children, our Heavenly Father longs to see us grow up and flourish, and truth be known, we want this, too, for virtually no one wants to exit this life without having brought value and meaning to someone else. As one who has gone before us, then, Peter points to the path of purpose, urging us to add to our faith other divine character traits such as knowledge, self-control, perseverance and love. “For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”3

One year’s experience 20 times? No, God’s plan for us is much higher than this, so He carries us through infancy, encourages us through toddlerhood, guides us through adolescence, and, through a mature and maturing us, changes lives around the world, for good and forever.

Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for your and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will though all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might … (Colossians 1:9-11a)

1 John 15:16
2 John 3:6
3 2 Peter 1:5-8