Growing In Christ

Once we step onto the path to Christianity, most of us expect our new life to come rushing to us in one outstanding experience. We tend to think in windfall terms, of suddenly being immersed in an avalanche of abundance.

So does it happen that way?  Sometimes yes, but not usually. And for a very good reason. Windfalls of happiness can tend to be distorted, often bringing as much discomfort as comfort and as many questions as answers. Ask any lottery winner, which I’m not, and you’ll come to understand that a windfall can prove to be just as painful as the pain we are trying to escape.

Every problem you have, every lack and every limitation has a purpose or it would not be in your life. To expect these experiences to suddenly disappear without that purpose being revealed is to expect to be cheated out of the good each experience brings. Instead of wanting them to quickly disappear, which is a form of resistance, we’re much better served when we simply ask them what good they have come to bring.

You see, it is not an eradication of these problems, lacks and limitations you need, it is a new understanding. Were Christianity to rush in, it would only deprive you of that understanding and leave you unprepared. And happiness never remains long where a place for it has not been lovingly prepared.

Christianity, therefore, is more apt to arrive softly and without fanfare, like a gentle breeze wafting through an open window in the night. It comes upon us gradually, not in a fell swoop, but with calm and quiet consistency. This way, rather than looking up to suddenly find ourselves surrounded by unaccustomed abundance, we look up one day to marvel at how easily and effortlessly we grew into an abundant new life.

By all means, invite Christians into your life and do so daily. But do not expect it to rush at you, for in all likelihood, it will not. That would require a quantum leap in consciousness and very few of us are prepared for such mental leaps through time and space. Instead, be willing to trust that Christian values are flowing to you just as it should: in a time and manner you can most perfectly benefit from.

Even now, as you read this, God’s love and warmth is flowing to you like a gentle melody. Listen closely and you may hear its song. But you must listen for a whisper, not a roar.  Above all else you must trust that it is flowing to you in such a way that is divine.  This is just as Jesus says a seed will grow up in

Mark  4:26-29:

And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.