The Process

             We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. (II Thessalonians 1:3) 

          It’s likely that every passage in the Bible is a battle passage at some point, for some person. Today’s fits into the Vision Verses category because it is a weapon to use against impatience and perfectionism. It’s easy to fall victim to these enemies when we see ourselves not living up to what we think we should be. Didn’t Jesus reprimand His disciples and the Jews for their failure of faith? Surely, ours can’t be even as miserable as theirs. After all, they saw miracles performed so often that the beloved disciple proclaimed that all the books and all the ink in the world could not have chronicled them all. If we had seen what the disciples had seen, we would not doubt nearly as much as we do – and possibly nearly not as much as they did.

          We may not want to think that way. We may know such thinking is wrong, but at the end of a long day that has not turned out well, sometimes, thoughts like those creep in. Sometimes, our own good sense is strong enough to do battle, but whether our good sense is strong enough or not, having a weapon from God’s Word will make the outcome more secure.

          Paul visited Thessalonica at some point during his second missionary journey, between 49 and 51 AD. His second letter to the Thessalonians has been dated at 51 AD. He only visited for a few days, and his two letters were written soon after he left. The church was young when Paul commended them for their growing faith and love.

          Then, we look at our lives and they fail in comparison. We assume that Jesus would chide us. After all, haven’t we claimed to be Christians for years, and we aren’t perfect yet! It could be that Jesus does chide us, if chiding will spur growth. It may also be that He would commend us for the growth that has taken place in us even if we don’t recognize it.

          This is a common difficulty for us. When I get a puppy, I tell myself to take lots of pictures, because I know that they are going to grow, and I want proof of it. I usually fail to take enough. When my mother was dying, my brother, who lived near enough to visit a few times, commented how hard it was to come because she had slipped so far. Since I lived with her, I didn’t notice. The same happened when my sister visited toward the end of Dad’s life. She saw the changes as one big blow, while I watched them in tiny increments that didn’t register.

          At the same time, when something grows, it is not generally at a uniform, constant rate. Like children, we may wonder if we’ll ever grow up to be as tall as our parents, and then, one day, we’re looking down at them.

          As we find ourselves impatient with the process or despairing that we will ever “measure up” this verse is a reminder of the process.