By John Roy
How do we measure? Inches? Pounds?
At first, weight is something we are putting on. As we age, it is something we labor to take off.
In a land of competition like our own, we measure just about everything.
We measure time, wealth, profit, size, inventory, and IQ, and that’s only a sample.
Our culture is obsessed with numbers. How many calories should I eat? What’s my cholesterol reading? What’s my GPA? Numbers, to us, are the primary way to measure.
You can only manage what you measure. We have graphs, we make charts, and we create spreadsheets. The easiest way to measure growth, of course, is by numbers. But how do you measure maturity?
Your daughter ran out of gas several times before she finished high school. Now in college, she never runs out of gas. That’s MATURITY. As a young couple, you usually ran out of money before you ran out of month. Now you don’t. That’s MATURITY. You once said “yes” to anyone’s request for your time. Now you mix your yes” with “no” because you can’t do everything that’s MATURITY.
Maturity is when we change. We become more grateful, generous, forgiving, faithful, joyful, and selfless. We become less demanding, judgmental, bitter, and envious. When I survey our congregation, I see growth everywhere. I see people maturing, like mature trees now providing shade, like wine preparing to be tasted. Maturity is when people move from waiting to doing.
It is a joy to be a part of a place where there is growth and maturity. A place where people who once were watered are now doing the watering. A place where “in Christ . . . old things have passed away, all things have become new.
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