Becoming Mature…
Spiritual Formation. The process by which God forms us more and more into His image over time as we walk with Him. But how does it work? Can we see it? Can we feel it? YES!!! But it’s not a curriculum we follow or a class we take. It’s a bit more complex, and definitely more challenging! This is how James describes it in his letter:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, BECAUSE you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4
Consider it PURE JOY… that’s a tall order! But let’s unpack it. What is James telling us to find joy in? The trials? Who in their right mind gets excited about encountering pain and struggle and hardship? No one I know. Instead, James says, we find our joy not in the difficult circumstance, but in the outcome it can produce – MATURITY. James gives us a formula: 1) trials are the ingredient that test our faith; 2) tested faith produces perseverance; and 3) perseverance over time produces a mature and complete life in Jesus.
But here’s the catch: becoming mature and complete is not a guaranteed outcome. It’s not the trials themselves that produce the perseverance and maturity, but how we RESPOND to them. We can go through trial after trial and just become increasingly angry, bitter humans. We can blame people, we can wallow in our circumstances, and we can choose to keep God at arm’s length.
OR we can do the more difficult but much more rewarding thing. We can invite God in… into the mess, into the anger, into the brokenness, into the place we find ourselves. And we can say, “God, I know that walking this trial is going to take time. But I want to take every step with you. I want to experience your love, hear your voice, and be transformed so that I look more like you and less like me when we get to the other side.”
Often our desire is to escape the discomfort as fast as we can. “Put it behind us and move on.” But, when we invite God in, He reminds us that it’s not the absence of pain that is His goal in our lives, but the sharing of our journey with Him.
One of my favorite quotes is by Jean Pierre de Cassaude in Abandonment to Divine Providence...
“I have visited all your studios and admired all your creations… but I have not yet become abandoned enough to accept the strokes of your brush.”
In other words, God I love being awed by the beauty and majesty of your creation. I love watching you work in the lives and situations around me as you transform others. But I’m still learning to abandon my own life to you as you “create” and transform me.
Lord, help me be willing to be transformed by you, to be abandoned enough to accept the strokes of your brush, and to trust your lovingkindness in every situation and circumstance of my life.