“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.” (1 Corinthians 13:11 NLT)
“So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.” (1 Peter 2:1-3 NLT)
“There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.” (Hebrews 5:11-14 NLT)
It’s time to grow up!
Maturity is a natural expectation to have of those who have “grown up.” Our heavenly Father has designed us to grow physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. With growth comes greater responsibility and expectation. With greater responsibility and expectation comes the potential of greater freedom and benefit. However, with growth also comes pain.
The Apostle Paul spoke about putting away “childish things.”He confronted the need to stop thinking and acting as a child. It is hard to stop thinking like a self seeking child. It’s painful to let go of the “toys” that brought us so much joy as a child. So often we try to replace them with “adult toys.” If we are not careful, we will take “childish” attitudes and actions into adulthood and eventually end up in trouble. I have heard it said many times that, “the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.” There is truth in this. Growing up and letting go of some things is painful. However, growing up without maturing, and hanging on to some things that should be let go of, will eventually become even more painful.
Paul also admonished us to “get rid” of some things. While a young child may look angelic while sleeping, that same child has no problem becoming a little devil during waking hours. We are created in the likeness and image of God, but we are also born under the influence of the enemy. We are born with little to no real awareness or understanding of the world around us. We start our lives from a highly self seeking outlook. Life is all about me, me, me. Feed me. Change me, Hold me. Entertain me. The earliest wars break out in the home, school, or daycare over the lack of desire to share “my” toy, blanket, food, etc. It is painful to grow into being a positive social being with the good of others on my mind (just look around and it is easy to see that many have avoided this pain and have become a pain).
The writer of Hebrews opened my eyes to another pain of growth. This pain is a two-way street. With growth comes the expectation that I mature in my ability to think, listen, speak, and reason. It is highly painful when I am unable to grasp what someone is telling me. I suffer in the exchange as does the one trying to communicate with me. The lack of expected growth and maturity creates a large degree of suffering and pain.
I have only golfed twice in my life. The most recent experience was a corporate training weekend that included a fun golf scramble. We split up into teams of four and golfed nine holes. It was a “just for fun” outing with special activities on each hole. We had to mix in things like using the wrong clubs, being blindfolded, walking backwards, putting while laying on the ground using the putter like a pool stick, etc. This event was great fun and brought relatively little pain. That was due to the fact that the difficulty and expectation had been lowered to the current elementary level of my golfing..
My only other golfing experience took place much earlier in life. I need to share right up front that it brought very little enjoyment and was highly painful for the three of us involved. My older brother was a pretty good golfer and golfed on a regular basis. On one particular day he desired to go golfing and had no one to go with him. I am not sure what he was thinking, but he invited my younger sister and me to go with him. I had never even been on a golf course before (I think my sister was in the same boat). As expected, I was absolutely terrible. It only took two holes for it to become obvious that this outing was a shipwreck.
My brother was deeply embarrassed as person after person golfed through us. He was highly frustrated as nothing that he said or did to “help” me improve had any positive effect whatsoever. The harder he tried to “help,” the worse I became (my sister was simply silent throughout the experience doing her best to stay out of the line of fire). The gap in understanding and communication created great pain. After a few holes of misery we finished the nine holes in smoldering silence. Talk about growing pains – OUCH!
Once again, in order to rightly divide the suffering in my life, I need to remember that God is a Spirit and deals with me primarily in my spirit. The “Sufferings FROM Christ: The Pain of Growth” is speaking of what takes place within me as I am growing spiritually. As I am in the process of growth (from my spirit empowered by the Holy Spirit and directed by the Word), renewing my mind and disciplining my body, I will experience growing pains. As time goes on, if I am maturing these pains will decrease. If, on the other hand, I do not mature, the suffering and pain will only increase (not only for me but for those around me).
This pain is part of the designed growth process in order to fulfill my Father’s desire for me to grow into the likeness of his Son (Jesus Christ) in every part of my being (spirit, soul, and body). It is pain that is at least in part created during the interaction between trainer/teacher (Holy Spirit) and child/student (me). It is a form of suffering to be accepted, and even embraced, as I grow and mature from being a “child of God” into a “son of God.”
Now that we have begun to learn to discern between the “Sufferings OF Christ,” and the “Sufferings FROM Christ,” we will move to the “Sufferings WITH Christ.” We will do this after we give ourselves a minute or two to chew on…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 410: Discerned Suffering: Sufferings FROM Christ: The Pain of Growth