My Wife's Niece

I was sitting at home staring at my computer when my wife giggled. We share a desk with laptops 6 inches apart. I looked over at her screen. She was watching a video of her 14 month old niece Sadie working on trying to walk. I had to admit that it was cute. We watched like awestruck relatives at this human sapling as she would struggle to stand, wobble on her feet and then attempt the step. She lifted her left foot up and it quickly found the ground again at a 45 degree angle out from her body there was a little wobble, and then she would draaag her right foot to catch up with her body. The music of course set the tone for our laughter as it seemed to be a song built for learning and discovery. She fell over once or twice when she wasn’t sure of herself, or when the tiled ground seemed to shake like an earthquake. Of course she would then stand up and keep trying to walk.

I have read what Paul has written about moving from babies milk to real meat and I love that principal about growing up in the Spirit. Babies grow pretty quickly and they learn pretty quickly and they take big stands pretty quickly. I can’t help but think that soon Sadie will be walking everywhere scaring her parents and sometimes herself. She will eventually will stand near the edge of a cliff and have a new understanding of what it truly means to stand up trying not to let her legs wobble. Paul talked about the need to grow in knowledge of spiritual things, but I think the same is true about how you choose to stand for the knowledge you are growing in. All too often we go from learning to stand on ground level carpet or tiles to using one of those little jumper seats that make babies think they are standing really well; or we grab a pink shopping cart and push it around the room thinking we are standing and walking on our own.

Have you ever met a new Christian on fire for God? Of course you have. You probably know that the fire they have will die out and they will just exist, or they will leave the church. The reasons for this are endless, but let me bend your ear on my own ideas to answer that elusive question… Why? I think the problem is a mathematical one…division.

Frequently new Christians come to their first confrontation and a number of scenarios play out as they are finding their way. Remember, this is their big opportunity to stand up for what they believe.

1. They don’t know enough, so they find some charismatic or non-charismatic face that seems to speak truth, then they make them their personal religious guide. It may not be a particular person, but it could be a religious organization instead. THEN frequently they grow in their guides’ understanding of religion and the Bible. You could say that this is the lens that they begin looking at the world. This gives them a position on the topic which makes them feel good.

2. There are many people that grow in their own personal understanding of scripture because they had no answers to the person confronting them.

3. They make something up that they have to defend forever more because their reputation is locked into it.

4. They feel hurt and leave.

Here is where it gets tricky. If they haven’t left they become more knowledgeable in all the areas they deem important and their position is more usually than not sealed in concrete. The reason we make these ideas concrete is because they become who we are not just an idea that is “currently the best to me”. The ideas become the definition of our friends, our desired change in our family members, and our hope of world change. Then the idea becomes more important than people…I really want to pause and repeat that….Our Idea Becomes More Important Than People.

Our Idea Becomes More Important Than People (Relationships, Conversations, Love)

So often we have conversations that scare us. A person may say something that we never thought of. A person may say something we disagree with. A person may act in such a way that we can’t accept them anymore. A person may become angry for something that someone says. Maybe we end up giving up the fight on what we believe and go running back into the world where we never have to stand for anything else. Maybe we push away others that stand for something different than us instead of admiring them. Most likely we give up on learning from each other. We hold on even tighter to our own views and let the division fall where it may for everyone knows that Christ said that he came to divide.

To me it seems like there are 20 Bible texts about Unity for every 1 that need to Divide.

We all need to learn HOW to stand up for what we believe. We need to learn how to decipher information. We need to learn how to have conversations with people. We need to learn how to be friends and disagree. We need to learn how to judge people without condemning them. We need to learn how to not feel defensive and condemned. We need to learn to accept people in their journey no matter where they are. We need to learn how to give the job of convicting to the Holy Spirit.

We need to learn how to stand up for what we believe like a child that is learning how to stand so that we can become champions on our legs.