I love elephants and I’ve been learning a great deal more about them by watching nature documentaries. Did you know that a baby elephant can stand on its own nearly twenty minutes after birth? And within the hour, some can even walk! Even though they are walking, they are still mere babies. The ability to stand and walk so swiftly is essential to the livelihood of animals, like elephants, so that they can move with the herd. It doesn’t make them instant adults.
I find that so fascinating because it’s somewhat different from our growth as humans. Imagine the mischief we would get ourselves into if we could stand and walk as fast as elephants! Instead, we go through our own growth phases. Through it, we learn to utilize our fingers and toes, crawl, walk, run, and eventually, turn those babbles into actual words that can lend to some interesting conversations. The point is that there is a process. While it may not look the same for all of us, we do have the same goal. Maturity.
If you’ve observed anything in the animal kingdom, it’s that walking doesn’t automatically equate to maturity. The same can be said of us. Being able to utilize some of those learned motor skills in no way means we’ve learned all there is to know in life. In fact, there is so much more to learn, even as adults. But those early lessons and skills developed become foundational for us in the future. Think about it. It would be unusual to have learned to run before you can crawl. Crawling helps with the development of muscles and even our equilibrium. Things that are core to being able to remain firmly planted on our feet when we are standing. Without having learned something essential, then the odds are greater that we will stumble and fall down often.
That’s not that different from a spiritual stance for a believer. In the beginning of your faith walk, you may feel a little unsteady on your feet. This is new and uncharted territory. That’s what is so important about your beginning. You don’t have to hit the ground running, so to speak. That’s a lesson learned from the parable about the mustard seed. For all of us, we have to begin somewhere. But there is an expectation of maturity in the form of spiritual growth. I’m not always crawling around or sipping on milk. At some point, I should be growing and my appetite will as well. While milk was once enough, now it’s time for solid food. As we grow comes the need to understand the things of God and to spend even more time with Him then we did the day before.
I love to think about this in terms of algorithms. There’s a give and take system in getting these programs to understand us, right? Like Google, we feed it certain information and it begins to learn our interests. Eventually, those services will predict your text or make suggestions via ads or the like of similar things that they think you may hold an interest to. I think about that because it illustrates for me the importance of what I’m feeding my spirit. If I keep nursing milk forever, then I’m going to find myself lacking somewhere. So it’s important that I spend time in the presence of God so that I’m ensuring that I am feeding my spirit the appropriate things. Assuming you want to continue to grow and be a mature Christian, that should be the goal. Leaving the milk behind and taking in solid food.
Stay Sunny!
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