Growth as a child of God… How is it measured?
One of the metaphors left in the wake of the modern church is the metaphor of the steady, uphill climb. It’s the idea that though the way is rocky and often challenging, a “successful Christian life” is marked by movement up the hill. Mapped on a bar graph we would see many ups and downs, but as a whole there would be definite movement upward. Sound familiar?
The central problem with this metaphor is that it is our progress that seems praise worthy. The higher our climb, the better we feel about ourselves and our time with God becomes a type of “spiritual self-actualization.”
We measure our spiritual progress by counting the steps we’ve taken toward and away from God, and take for granted that, in the big picture, we’re always getting closer to God. Yes, we worship God but if we were honest with ourselves we’d have to admit our own development is right up there.
In this metaphor God becomes the destination, while the journey is left largely in our individualistic hands.
Allow me to propose another metaphor, (I would greatly appreciate feedback as to its soundness). Rather than a steady uphill climb to our destination (God), I propose we think of our journey with God as a dance.
In this dance God is the central character, for God is the one standing on the dance floor with an outstretched hand of invitation awaiting our response. God is not a “one day” destination but our ever-present partner; dipping, leading, spinning, and wooing. The safest place for the dancer to be is in the arms of God. Struggles, difficulties, pain, joy, delight – these are just some of the many tunes God leads us to dance through. And as long as we abide in the embrace of the Divine it really doesn’t matter what the tempo is because we dance together. We are the Beloved’s and God is ours.
And so the question remains. How does a follower of Christ measure growth?
My response: we can’t. If that’s our question than we’re asking the wrong one. I don’t measure growth in my relationship with my life partner. If my relationship with my partner endures the stuff of life, we depend on each other, and we make it through life together then we’ve been successful. It is not that we don’t sometimes take a step back and celebrate God’s work in our life, but our focus is praise to God and not a scorecard of our points. So it is with God. Living life in dependence on God, and doing so until God takes us home.
The dance of dependence; Jesus called it abiding. Christ made it clear that the fruit is out of the hands of his followers. Our only responsibility is to abide – to keep dancing – to stay close; God will do the rest, God will lead, God will aid our development, God will produce the fruit. Just don’t walk away, cut yourself off, or go looking for a different partner. Our desire to see the fruit is a reflection of our desire to exalt ourselves.
peace, dwight
