Growing or Stunted? … Hello Weekend Musers … how are you growing? I ask this because we have this wonderful large garden at our ‘campsite-home’ at Lake Abiquiu, courtesy of the previous hosts, and stuff is just growing. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, lettuce, even sweet corn! And, since I love columbine, I have two cultivated beauties, the original peace flower-blue and white, and a gorgeous red beauty. This growth made me think of my spiritual life and I asked myself, “am I growing spiritually?” What are those indicators that you are or that you are not. Take a look with me in Romans and a story of migrants and I think you’ll find a good lesson to muse on about your own spiritual growth. Have a great weekend…I’ll be checking in campers and yes–working in my garden!

So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship. Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect. —Romans 12:1-2 [NCV]

Going back into some history of the mid-1700s, there is a story about a shipload of migrants who landed on the northwest coast of America, which is unusual for that time. Delighted to be in the “new world” as it was called, they got busy right away, establishing a site to build their town on. Once that was done and folks were somewhat settled, they needed government so they elected officials, set law and order in place and the town grew and grew. By the third year with their government decided they should expand so they built a road that stretched over five miles westward into the wilderness. Remember, in those days, five miles was quite a distance!

Good so far, right—but then things started to unravel. Sometime in the fourth year, dissent settled in and a bunch of the folks tried to overthrow their government. Why—they believed that building a road five miles into the wilderness was a waste of money. I know this sounds silly when you think of their beginnings and how sailed thousands of miles of ocean which likely was perilous, to get to the “new world!” And—add to that all that they had accomplished in over 4 years with hard work. One has to ask, what in the world happened? History gives no easy answer.

But this story made me think of many of us who claim Christ as our Savior but somehow, reach a point in their faith-walk where they say “I’m done now, there isn’t anything else I need to do” and go into a maintenance-mode to keep themselves in their cozy dens, never moving forward, stunting their growth and getting stuck—but oh, that’s OK because nothing changes and that’s just fine with them.

When this “un-spiritual comfort-ability” invades our hearts and souls, we stop growing like a stunted tree and we stop seeking and asking God. Our prayer-lives have become flat-lined, and if we were honest enough to face ourselves in the mirror, we’d see a spiritual void that is eating away at us and we’d have to admit we really are NOT comfortable at all!

We need to grow spiritually to find joy in this world where darkness can so easily overcome us. As we grow, those “5 miles” become a short sprint because we are looking ahead with hope for a future we may not know, but we trust in the One who does know and gets us there. In that growth we will find what St. Paul wrote in Romans, “we’ll be changed within by a new way of thinking, and we can make good decisions, living what is pleasing to God.”

I don’t know all the answers, but I have a few ways that we can turn our stunted growth into a growing faith-walk again—try this: First, read God’s Word daily and set aside a time of prayer and conversation with God. This is where we’ll hear God, sense the touch of Jesus our loving Savior, and feel the breath of the Holy Spirit that awakens us again to take up that faith-walk with gusto and determination. Plus, we m ust stay in community with one another—whether it’s on-line or in-person worship or a home group, etc. There are so many ways to encourage and be encouraged which fires up our desire even more in our spiritual lives.

I want to grow like my vegetables, fruits and flowers because like them, they give life, they give joy and are a pleasure to be around (let alone munch on). All of which reminds me of that verse and the song I love to sing with it, “The fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control, against such there is no law!” (Gal 5: 22-23).

Cyndy’s Musings for Thought:

  • Why do you think becoming “spiritually comfortably-stuck” is so common?
  • Some say they don’t even realize their spiritual growth is stunted, why do you think that happens?
  • Has stunted-spiritual growth happened to you? If so think why, and what changes did you make to go from ‘stuck-to-growing again’ — and if you are still stuck, what are going to do about it?