Good morning…
“I am appalled by your blog and photo,” the woman commented after yesterday’s post. “How can it be true that we all grow up into God over time? That thought is too inclusive.”
“Too inclusive.” The phrase lingered as I woke from sleep. This was a quote not from a real woman, but from a critical voice in my mind, stirring me awake, haunting and taunting. The inner voice was a personification of my worry, a worry that some people might label my way of understanding God “too inclusive.” Then I opened my first email of the day and read on my screen the voice of a real woman.
“Good morning, Sue,” she wrote. “This message is another that is profound and timely to me. I immediately thought of a grandson who has rejected the Church and learned and assumed a spiritual, political and social perspective quite foreign to his family’s. Granted, some of his opinions are understandable and in principle I agree. We’ve had enough of an exchange that I know that he respects my opinion too. He’s smart and I expect with real life experience and maturity, he will modify his thinking for the betterment of our world. So in your post I see his path, and one that IS hopeful. I’m sharing it with my daughter, his mom, for help with her concern for his soul. The progression of God’s fulfilled promises from Genesis to Revelation in one not-so-simple post is reassuring to me today. Thank you again for revealing God’s Word to me.”
“I truly think most of us struggle with the beliefs of our loved ones as they differ from our own,” I replied. “Growing up into God is a unique journey for everyone and the pace and path God takes with each one of us is different. We are in this learning process together. I find it very freeing to trust God with the spiritual growth of each of our four kids. Some are embracing wholeheartedly the movement of God’s Spirit in their everyday lives, others are not focusing their attention on God at this time in their lives, but I truly believe God is at work in each of them, in each of us. Partnering with God makes daily life so deliciously dynamic and working apart from God can feel so darn depleting. Yet our self-sufficient exhaustion turns into a blessing when we tire of going it alone and we surrender repeatedly as much as we know about ourselves to as much as we know about God. Spiritual growth is a lifelong process. I hope I am learning something new, growing up further into God’s revelations, every single day until the moment I die. Similarly I pray for gradual growth upward into God for all of our kids, future grandkids, and generations to come.”
Enjoying what feels like a wink from our loving LORD, I wake to this verse for the day on Biblegateway.com: “This is God’s Message, the God who made earth, made it livable and lasting, known everywhere as God: ‘Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own’” (Jeremiah 33:2-3, MSG).
Day after day I continue to call out to God, trusting the LORD to answer, revealing over time marvelous and wondrous thing we can never figure out on our own. Let’s worry less and pray more as we grow up uniquely together into God.
…Sue…
