Several months ago Seth, on his own, began going poo-poo on the potty. (This is an interesting stage of life for me...a time when such things as poo-poo and potty training are where I see God moving--no pun intended). I kept hoping he would do the same thing when it came to pee-pee. Well, Kimberly decided it was time to move from hoping to helping. Yesterday, she began the training process. Then, today, before leaving for work, Kimberly took Seth to the potty, congratulated him on a job well done, put his "big-boy underwear" on him and reminded him of everything he was learning. Right as she was heading out the door, his little voice said, "I have pee-pee Mommy." The kid had just gone less than 5 minutes ago and now he had to go again? My gut said it was a false alarm and I just ignored him. Kimberly took him to the potty and it was no false alarm. She is so much better with the kids when it comes to things like this. Honestly, both of my kids would still be wearing diapers when they were twelve if it were left to me.
And, honestly, you and I will stay in spiritual diapers if we leave our growth in the hands of best intentions and wishful thinking. At some point I have to decide if I am satisfied with living in my crap or if I am ready to let God help me grow up. God will not force us to grow, but he is completely comfortable with letting us sit in stench and discomfort if that is what it takes to get us to start following him down the path of maturity.
Hebrews 5:12-14, puts it to me straight in these words, "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." Whoa! I don't know about you, but that puts me in my place.
I find the last line especially interesting and challenging when it says "have trained themselves." First, this is a call to take personal responibility for our own spiritual maturity. It is not the job of the Church to feed me or you. That would be like you going to a restaurant, ordering a meal, not eating a bite, leaving and then complaining that you are still hungry. It is not the restaurants' job to feed you nor is it the Church's job to feed you what you need to grow spiritually. That job, brother and sister in Christ, is solely yours. That being said, "have trained themselves" is also in the plural. While my spiritual growth is my responsibility, it is not to say that endeavor is a solo one. Spiritual growth never happens in isolation but always in the context of community. After all, what is spiritual growth other than learning to selflessly love God and others. You cannot learn to love others by yourself. Love is only love when it is received and given and that takes relationship. Spiritual growth requires me taking responsibility for my maturity along side of others who are taking responsibility for their maturity.
I want to thank you for being church that is committed to doing that. One way in which this is demonstrated is through the small groups. For example, in March an average of 447 people attended Sunday morning worship and 321 of you were involved in some form of connecting for the purpose of spiritual growth. That is incredible! Keep pursuing maturity! Seth will one day be glad his mom took the time to help him get out of diapers and as we train ourselves in maturity we will find meat is a whole lot more filling than a bottle.
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