Growth

October is upon us again and as the trees turn their brilliant displays we're reminded of the looming change in weather. I've been thinking a lot about change recently and how God has really created us to never stop changing. Ari, my 3 year old daughter, is noticing her changes daily as well. She keeps saying that "When I get little again, like a baby, I will _________." It's very cute from a 3 year olds point of view, but of course as we all know we can never go back to the former years/sizes that we used to be. 

Our faith is very similar. Ephesians 2 reminds us that we are no longer what we used to be if we follow Christ. We were dead, but now we've been made alive in Christ. Part of being dead means that there's no change other than further decay. If you're dead... that's it, you're dead. We, however, are not dead (though we sometimes look like we might be.) If we are following Jesus Christ then we are called to be alive and to be alive means that we are growing. Are you growing? If we asked your friends, would they say that you look more like Jesus today than you did yesterday? Hard questions, I know. But some I've been processing for myself these last few weeks. 

Just like Ari cannot return to being a little baby, so to we who are following Christ (with a genuine heart) cannot cease to grow. If we aren't growing then there is something severely wrong. Maybe it's malnutrition, possibly a disease or something like a parasite robbing us of our growth. Malnutrition usually means we've not been spending time eating meat, I'm alluding to how we study the Word of God. Do we just give it a few seconds a couple times a week, maybe only on sunday while Pastor Jeff speaks... There is a disease we all suffer from and it's called sin, if we're struggling to grow spiritually then what sins have their decay deep inside of us? Jesus wants to free us from that by the way. Finally maybe it's just simply a parasite robbing us of the spiritual nutrition we're taking in. Parasites come in many forms but most are just that false idol that robs us of what God intends for us. What's in our lives taking the place of God? 

A favorite quote of mine comes from a guy named Mounce, who says: "By definition life is growth, where there is no growth there is no life." May we be a Community of life in Jesus Christ.