God and I do not see eye to eye. It is a particular matter of frustration for me that God does not seem to be in a hurry concerning the development of my Christian life. I see a little growth, then nothing for a while. Growth, I think. Then nothing. Growth, perhaps? Nothing. What’s going on?

The wisdom of the eternal understands something the urgency of the temporal does not: the value of time.

There are unintended negative consequences for being surrounded by so much convenience, one of which is maladjustment to things that require time. We get bored. Restless. Impatient. Distracted. Busy. Unless we can acknowledge and be content with the value of time, we’ll go searching for growth-shortcuts, and start thinking these experiences equal real, lasting growth.

A story is told of one of seminary student, who, after having asked if his course work could be shortened, was told, “When God wants to make an oak, He takes a hundred years, but when He wants to make a squash, He takes six months.” Growth is rarely ever uniform, in a tree or in a Christian. Some months will include more growth than the entire rest of the year. The element of time throughout the rest of the year provides what growth cannot: solidification, without which new growth could not be sustained.

To experience the grace of God is nothing less than amazing. To be established, however, in the grace of God, is transformative of the whole self.

It could be that I have mistakenly measured growth only in terms of noteworthy and obvious change. If that’s the case, maybe God has been at work solidifying all along. Just not the kind of work you can hurry.

Grace to you,

chris