growing pains

growth takes time, patience and nurturing; it is an ebb and flow kind of dialectic.  the maturation process can hurt, and yet the overall culmination propels our lives in an upward and outward direction, forming and shaping a good chunk of our day to day living.  we are created for growth and we see it in many facets over the course a day; a flower's first attempt to stretch it's petals out and turn it's face to the warm sun; the beginning and the end of a mcdonald's employee's first day; an old man's ear hair...all growth.  in psalms 103, david describes what it looks like to push through our own ceilings; through Him we can find mercy, grace, separation from sin and sympathy (things we need to give ourselves in some cases).  The chapter is very encouraging, especially for anyone who feels that they've been wronged somehow...and if we're being honest, that's everyone.  stunted growth has a rippling effect and regardless of the area of origin almost always seeps into multiple aspects of our lives.   

growing pains aren't easy to endure.  physically, growing pains attack our muscles & not our joints, just as sin takes shots at our hearts even when our conscious seems intact.  medically, "growing pains" is a diagnosis of exclusion, one that comes after a thorough exam and run down of history; after everything else is explained away.  sometimes when we've pushed a hurt  down so deep inside us, we can't--or wont--see that it's causing our muscles to ache.  the thing about growing pains is that they don't happen every day; we can feel certain that our muscles won't hurt today only to be blindsided again when they burn tomorrow.  

but when we were children being held and cuddled made our achy bodies feel rested and reassured.  stretches, heating pads, and promises that the pain would subside helped us get through the tears and long nights.  and eventually with our parents taking care of us, we grew beyond what we believed we could.  we even outgrew our favorite clothes and shoes and suddenly we were the ones giving hand me downs, as opposed to receiving them.  this progression of physical growth very much mirrors spiritual evolution and gain.  and for those of us willing to endure and face some discomfort in order to shed spiritual immaturity, God has a heating pad waiting in the wings & His name is Jesus Christ.

we cause ourselves and our spirits great harm when we refuse to admit that our muscles are aching.  if we can't acknowledge that we're hurting, we can't accept the grace and healing God is offering.  Job 5: 8-16 tells us that when we're able to be honest with ourselves about what is stunting our growth, He gives us reprieve & unending ways to surpass our former mistakes.  we are blessed to be corrected by God, because He is the only physician who knows our history inside and out, the only doctor who can definitively diagnose our pain.  God knows which muscles are aching and what temperature to set the heating pad on.  "unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you" (romans 12:2 msg).  

growth is not meant to be easy, it is meant to build character.  once your foundation is strong, you have the opportunity to outgrow your old skin.  God desperately wants to diagnose your hurts and to see you through them.  the question is, do you desperately want to let Him?     

kris