Skip to main content

Maturity

 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, (Hebrews 6:1)

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. (Romans 8:29-30)

After my father died, I started trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. I’m still trying to figure that out. Decisions that others had forced on them by necessity much earlier in their lives, I get to make, or make again. You might call it a midlife crisis, though I’m a little older than mot people consider middle-aged. I’m supposed to already be mature, but “mature” is another of those words that describe something one can’t put on a table. I don’t have a lit of what maturity is that I can check off. “Yep, got that. Nope, haven’t done that, etc.”

The Bible gives a couple clues on maturity. First off, it’s not repeatedly laying down a foundation. This is what I seem to want to do. Let anything disrupt my life and I want to go back to the beginning. Every time I move, it seems to mean that I have to start my life over, “Hi, my name is Karen Keil…”

The second passage mentions an even better picture of maturity. We’re to be conformed to the image of Christ. That doesn’t seem to mean that we all have to become itinerant preachers, but that we do what He would do if He were in our place. That, of course, brings to mind the story of a town that asked “What would Jesus do?” as part of their decision-making process. It’s a good question, but there is a better question.

When we ask ourselves “What would Jesus do?” our answer will depend on our perspective. Some people think of Jesus as meek and mild-mannered. He’d never hurt a fly, but he cleared the temple with a whip and overturned the tables. Some people think of Jesus as the mighty Messiah who is going to show up and lay down the law with a rod of iron but He said to let the children come to Him. Every time we think we have Him figured out, we’re wrong.

Being conformed to the image of Christ isn’t really about our doing what He would do, or at least not only about that. It’s also about being who He would be. And it’s a process. I find myself back at the idea that maturity has a lot of “not yet,” when I’m trying to hurry up. In fact, I find myself wondering whether there’s another phrase that follows those. “Hurry up! Not yet! Enjoy Me.”  Its terribly hard to conform to the image of Christ when we’re busy trying to conform to the image of Christ. Instead, we are caused to conform to His image as we gaze at Him, spend time with Him, converse with Him, trust in Him.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t things we should be or do – but when we start hearing “Hurry up!” we should probably start God-gazing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more