Maturity

"Christian maturity is incremental and it is ongoing. It is almost imperceptible at times, yet it is expected and necessary. That's why it helps to have the earthly example of Jesus Christ. He is one who has already finished the race. He has pioneered our course. He has shown us how to run the race and finish strongly."1

Philippians 2:5-11 (I'll let you read it) reminds us that Jesus accepted full humanity (v. 7). There was no 'God Button' that he would push to make problems go away. The miracles, the pain, the wisdom, the came from a man. Having said that we must not forget the that He is also fully God or else He would not have had the power to save. I think the race analogy is very important to our faith. Christianity is not a sprint. The Holy Spirit gives us the energy to keep going, though at times that may be difficult. When we read the stories of Jesus documented in scripture it can be very easy to view them as a bunch of individual events (this view is fed by the way scripture has been divided up...it is helpful but can lead us to avoid seeing the Bible as an ongoing story). We don't have a comprehensive list of every thing Jesus ever did. The important thing is to realize that throughout this life we cannot help but mature. You can help what you will become. Sometimes maturity means giving something up that's getting in the way, sometimes it means dropping things from your schedule that are important to you because you 'have no time for God'. The road Jesus paved for us is a long, narrow one. We are called to continue on it, even if someone offers us a free ride.



1: The Complete Disciple, Dr Ron Habermas, Nexgen Publishing, 2003