Adulthood

Recently I have been reading a book called "The God Who is There" by  Francis Shaeffer. It talks about some of the philosophical trends that have happened in the last century that have to do with denial of absolute truth in the like. In it, he mentions two French philosophers who talked about self actualisation (I forget who they were). Basically, to self actualise, you just have to do an action. You have to make a choice - so helping a lady cross the street would be no more or less valid than beating her up and stealing her bag.

Simultaneously I have been coming across a lot of material (blogs, sermons, and, who knew, a complete recording available for free online of C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" - gold) which have been talking about adulthood or maturity in the faith and the journey onward to salvation.

The theme of a lot of it has been something clearly biblical, yet which I think many mainstream theologians have either overlooked or downplayed. I have heard it a lot from those who would be considered "heterodox" - like Greg Boyd (highly recommend looking him up) and Rob Bell. It is the idea that the New Creation that will happen when Jesus returns is a certain type of place. In this life we are trying to practise and exercise our wills so that our characters will transform more and more into the type of character that can exist in a place like that.

This is a really cool way of thinking about life here, and it also gives me a context in which to understand the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox idea of "work's" role in salvation - this character transformation happens only through our exercises of will and the actions big and small that we carry out each and every day. So even though we are justified through grace alone, our "salvation" in the sense of becoming completely free from sin and surrendered to God, does happen through works.

So why have I called this post adulthood. Well, it occurred to me that the real and true way of "self actualisation" is, paradoxically, to give the self more and more over to the will of God. In the words of John the Baptist "I must decrease, He must increase."

God is calling me, and all of us, to adulthood. To self actualisation by submitting our will more and more to Him. To growing up into the character that will be made completely ours in the new creation - and thankfully by His grace, we can do this without feeling we have to prove ourselves or justify ourselves. Little by little, we can practise, and change, and grow.

The Parable of the Geraniums

I was out watering my garden this morning and I found a flower on one of my geranium plants.

This is interesting because I originally had two geranium plants, one of them I planted in pretty shallow soil and the other one in deep soil. The first geranium plant bore lots of flowers after about two days. I was overjoyed, but puzzled as to why the other geranium didn't have any. The flowers lasted for another couple of days and then died. This geranium has slowly been dying ever since. Now there are a few green leaves on it but most of them are brown and its stalk is all withered.

The second geranium just sat there for weeks. Its leaves were still green so I knew it was alive but it didn't seem to be thriving. Its leaves were sort of slightly curled up and it was... well... just sitting there.

But today, at least a month later, probably more like two months, it finally has a single flower, and still looks happy and green.

This reminded me in a really concrete way of Jesus' similar parable. And it made me realise the point of that comparison - it's not actually a good thing to do lots of good stuff and look like you're doing really well straight away. If you bury yourself deep in the soil of God's love and His word, then the fruit will come.
But you have to be patient. It won't come straight away, and you might only get one change at a time.

I find this so comforting because it makes me realise how true Jesus saying was "my yoke is easy and my burden is light." I mean seriously - ALL we have to do is revel in God's love? We don't actually have to work changes in those impossible areas ourselves?
I also find it comforting because it shows me that sometimes there might be times in our lives where we feel like we are not bearing much fruit. But that doesn't mean we're "backsliding". A church I used to attend used to tell us that if you aren't moving forward in God, then you're backsliding. You can't just stand still. And I understand what they mean but at the same time that idea can cause lots of anxiety if it's taken wrongly (or presented wrongly).
Sometimes you might feel like you are at a standstill. But if we rest deep in God's love we will never stop bearing fruit.

The Seed

Jesus put another parable before them, saying "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."

The other parable that inspired this is "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."

The gospel is a seed inside of us that grows without us knowing how. It grows quietly, but even though it starts off so small as to be invisible, it becomes large and fruitful within us. But not because we do anything - God makes it grow in us.

There's a great song by Sara Groves which runs "in the hearts of the sons and daughters, this kingdom's coming" which talks about growth happening little by little, as we live our lives, exercise our faith, put our trust in God and allow Him to produce growth in us through the small events in each day.

That's sort of what this doodle is about. And the end result? Gladness!
May that be true for me and you.