OK, I think I reported a few weeks ago that Cooper was up and walking around like a mad man now. Actually, it's more like a Franken-Cooper, he still teeters from side to side, and has his hands out in front of him for the most part. He's getting much better though, which is the subject of this post. You see, even though he's been walking pretty well for a few weeks now, he's still had a problem. Anytime he fell down, which happens fairly regularly, he had to crawl to something like a wall or a couch or a chair or the like in order to get back up again. As of today though, he's figured out how to stand up straight right in the middle of the floor. It's actually kinda funny. Do you remember those videos you've all seen of the African safaris, where the giraffe is wanting to get a drink of water, but in order to do it, it has to spread it's front legs far apart and do a weird bending and kneel at the same time? Well, that's what Cooper does to stand up, except in reverse order.
I'm sure this is the same thing that all kids go through, and Cooper is no exception, but it's still interesting to see the learning process happen right before your eyes. One day he can't do something, the next day he can. As with many things about watching kids grow up, it's a process. Talking starts as grunts and groan, leading into sounds that remind you of words but actually aren't, then the actual words come along, and after that they're put into complete sentences. A process. There aren't many times in a child's life that it goes from doing one thing to another in an instant, with no practice, no rehearsal, no testing the waters. One of the only things that I actually can think of is right at birth. At that instant, a baby goes from receiving it's oxygen from it's mother to taking it's very first breath on it's own. It's amazing. It's awe-inspiring. It's....well, breathtaking. But there just aren't many of those moments that come along. With most any growth that babies have, it's a process of try hard, fail, try hard, fail, try hard, fail, try hard, almost got it, try hard again, getting better, try harder once more, finally did it!
And now, if you'll allow me, I'll put the Sunday School teacher hat on for a moment. You see, the above process that I described for babies is normal. It's expected. It's natural. No one makes fun of a baby the first time it tries to walk and only takes two steps before it falls. No, if it's your baby, you laugh, you clap, you hug him, and you tell him how proud you are of him for trying, and that you're sure he'll do even better next time. There's no judgment there, no ridicule. There's no shame in trying and failing for a baby learning something new. It's just a part of the process of growing up.
With Christianity, I can't think of a better model than the process of a baby growing when it comes to new Christians growing in their faith. Much like babies making a sudden change in taking that first gasp of air at birth, we are changed instantly and for forevermore at the moment of conversion, or salvation. We are, at that moment, justified by God's grace, never to return to the previous way of life again. We can't go back, no more than a baby can go back to living off of an umbilical cord. It's not a process; it's a sudden, life-changing moment. After that, much like a baby growing and becoming an adult, we do in fact go through a process. We call that sanctification. We should begin to learn, and grow, and stretch our legs, and increase our knowledge, and draw ever closer to the One that gave us this new life to begin with.
However, for some reason, it seems that for many people this growth is stunted at some point along the way. For some reason, a large amount of new Christians really enjoy their new life, but they fail to continue to grow. They call themselves Christians, and I believe that they actually are, but they are baby Christians. Now, there's nothing wrong with being a baby Christian. We all were one at some point. The problem is that you aren't supposed to want to stay that way. You are supposed to want to grow, to learn, to mature. So why don't we? Why do so many new Christians seem to stay in that infancy mentality? Why isn't there growth? Where's the process?
I don't have the answers to those questions. Some would say they do. Some would say that those people were never Christians to begin with. Some would contend that they didn't have proper mentoring and discipleship. Some would offer that they were backslidden, whatever that means. Some would argue that those individuals were not babies at all, but actually very mature Christians, as evidenced simply by their high rate of attendance at their local church, but is that all there is to being a mature Christian? I would argue no.
However, the reason that many people fail to mature is not really the topic of this treatise. You see, the Church is full of these baby Christians. Some of them have been Christians for a few months, and some for 60 or 70 years. And they know it. You see, if Cooper were not to have ever learned to walk, and we pushed him to kindergarten in a stroller or wheelchair, it would be very obvious to him and to all the other kids that he had never learned to walk. There's nothing physically preventing him from walking, he just never learned how. Pretty quickly he would be embarrassed about it, and he'd soon start thinking up ways out of the embarrassment. First he might lie and say that he had hurt his leg, or stubbed his toe, but eventually he'd have to get more creative. He might say that he could walk if he wanted to, but that he enjoyed the wheelchair more. Or he might say that he wasn't made to walk, that something physical was preventing him from walking. Whatever the excuse, it would all be a lie. And here's the sad truth: the one thing he wouldn't do is try to walk. At least, not in front of the other kids. You see, as joyous a moment it would have been had he gone through the process as a baby, it would now be utterly and completely embarrassing. Can you imagine a 5-year-old, with no physical infirmities, trying to learn to walk? Truly, it would be a sad sight. All of the other kids in his class would make fun of him, he knows that for sure. So instead of biting the bullet and actually breaking down and saying that he can't walk because he never learned how, and asking the other kids to help him, he would make excuses.
Now, that story sounds just ridiculous, but how many of us have seen it, over and over again? How many of us are that 5-year-old that can't walk because we never learned? How many of us sit in pews every Sunday with those non-ambulatory Christians all around us? Aren't we the same? Don't we make excuses? Don't we act different on Sunday morning than we do on Thursday evening? Don't we say that we could talk to others about Christ, if we wanted to? Or that we're willing to, but our personalities don't lend themselves to discussing such things with our friends? How many of us don't even come close to scriptural prayer, and we know that we don't, but are afraid to say so? How many of us know what we're supposed to be doing, but have no idea how to go about it, and have been faking it for so long, that it would be extremely embarrassing to ask for help in those areas of our lives? How many of us tense up whenever we're asked to pray, or divert our eyes when someone is looking for a volunteer to read a few Bible verses? And the really sad thing is, it's not that we're trying to grow and we can't; it's that we know we should already be to a certain point in our walk, and we're nowhere close. Just as babies develop and mature at different rates, so do Christians. Some amount of deviation is expected. But, also, just as if your 5-year-old had never learned to walk, or your 10-year-old had never learned to talk, you'd know that that wasn't normal. There are certain expectations, certain milestones that mark maturity, growth, and development. Simply getting older is not one of them. Birthdays aren't milestones or levels of achievement, any more than saying that you've been a member of a church for a certain number of years is a sign of spiritual maturity. They're false indications.
At this point, normally one would expect to see some resolution to the above conflict, some answers to the questions, some well-thought-out miraculous fix. Well, I don't have one, and that's why I brought up the subject. I wish I did, I really do. I wish I knew exactly why this happens, how to fix it, and how to prevent it from ever happening again. Rick Warren would send you around the baseball diamond, and although I'm not sure that's most scriptural method of discipling Christians, it's certainly one. Baptists tend to prefer the Sunday School, or Bible Fellowship Classes, for this purpose. Other churches do other things. So, let me just lay it out there...what does your church do? What do the ministers and leaders do to promote maturity, sanctification? More specifically, what is to be done to help those that are already at that point of embarrassing immaturity to admit the problem and allow someone to help them grow and develop into strong Christians? Give me your thoughts. In the meantime, I'm going to pray. I'm not very good at it, but I'm doing it anyway. Try, fail, try, fail. That's the only process I kno of that works, so that's what I'll do. Eventually, I'll get it right.
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