God hard-wired us for growth

Every living thing grows. That’s why we have to keep our grass mowed in the summer time, lest we
lose small children in the backyard. God created the earth and started civilization in a garden, one
that was already growing when man was created. You plant seeds in your garden, and you water
them with the expectation of growth. Otherwise, what’s the point? But, let’s be honest: you and I can’t
make the tomato plant grow. Only God can. Jesus said it himself: “The kingdom of God is as if a man
should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and
grows; he knows not how.” Gardens grow, and so do people. We started life as a zygote, a fertilized
ovum. After we were born, our parents took care of us as we grew from an infant in arms to a baby
trying to turn over and to crawl. We learned to crawl, and then to walk. That is expected growth and
maturity. If you walked by a church nursery and saw a few babies crawling around in diapers, you
wouldn’t think twice about it. Babies do that sort of thing. But if you glanced in there and saw a
couple of the adult leaders sitting on the floor and wearing onesies, pacifiers in place, playing with
toys, you would have every right to be alarmed. Babies in the nursery are normal. Fully functioning
adults in a nursery? That’s tragic.
There is an expectation of growth because God, the creator of all things, made us to grow up. We
expect it. We also desire it. Though some of us might like to go back to our childhood and have the
energy of a ten-year old, none of us wants to go back and have the stature of a ten-year old. Or the
wisdom of a 5-year old. It is natural and normal for a child to want to grow up to be a teenager, and
it is normal for a teenager to want to grow into an adult. Yes, ‘adulting’ is hard, but God created us for
growth and maturity. We do not want, nor should we want, just to maintain the status quo. Even
worse, we do not want to regress, to go backwards in our growth. Stephen Um writes, “Now the only
thing more fearful than stasis (not growing) is regression, decline, and death. We go to great lengths
to hide the ways in which we decline and regress. What is clearly known in the universe is that the
principle of decay clearly exists. As it has been said, ‘Gravity isn’t just physical, it’s also historical.’”
Growth is part of God’s plan. So is regression and decay of all things physical. Every living thing has a
growth cycle and then it begins to move towards death, quickly if it’s a fly, and very slowly if it’s an
oak tree. You want to hear some really good news? Incredible news? That is not the case with our
spiritual being. Paul wrote, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner
self is being renewed day by day.” Continual spiritual growth for the Christian is as much the plan
and purpose of God as the life cycle of an apple tree. Our bodies may break down, and they do, but
our life with Christ grows stronger every day.
This is why Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians. The church there was a spiritual nursery.
Instead of growing to maturity, the church was filled with jealousy and strife and factions. The people
were fighting like 3-year-olds, and Paul asked them, “Are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a
human way?”
God hard-wired us for growth, so we do not have to be ‘merely human.’ In Christ, we can grow into
spiritual men and women, fully equipped to do all that God has created us to do.
So, how’s it growing, church?