Room to Grow

My son got a pair of hand-me-down shoes that is four sizes too large.

I kept them, knowing that they will be useful someday.

However, he wants to wear them now. Today. 

It’s funny how children love having room to grow, while we adults get very comfortable filling every nook and cranny of every space we have with the familiar.

My wisdom looks at the too-big-shoes with room to grow and says, “But you will trip and fall and hurt yourself.”

My son’s quest for maturity says, “But I am a big boy and my old shoes are too tight.”

Why do I resist room to grow?

In the garden, we planted little red corn seeds and hoped they had plenty of room to grow. The seed packet suggested eighteen inches. We spaced accordingly. 

There in the garden, room to grow isn’t a threat to my comfort zone. It’s a necessity for fruitfulness.

When we planted potatoes, we dug deeply and churned the dirt so that the potato roots had plenty of room to stretch downward, reaching for the nutrients and water they would need to produce football sized potatoes. Well, maybe they won’t grow that big, but we made sure there was room if they had a mind to!

Spiritually, I tend more toward the shoe scenario and less toward the gardening. What does it look like to leave room for growth spiritually?

My comfortable, old spiritual life with the routine devotions and rote prayer pinches and inhibits growth sometimes. I expect church to be the same, discipleship meetings to follow predictable patterns, and even emergency ministry calls to be well within my comfort zone and capability. 

What if I’m handed something too big? What if I trip and fall and hurt myself?

The questions are revealing. Because my spiritual life fits like a glove, without room for growth, I expect to balance myself, maintain myself, and sustain myself. Jesus plays no part. 

If He hands me a larger pair of shoes, I will have to ask Him for help in putting them on, tying them, and even walking in them. I will look childish.

But then, He shows me an alternative view. There He is, sowing the seed with a smile in the garden, leaving plenty of room for growth. If I join in, I am no longer childish but rather child-like as I learn from Him and copy His movements. 

I will have to admit that I don’t know how to do it. I will come face to face with my total inability. I will have to ask Him for help. 

Every summer, I spend some time evaluating our last school year. What worked? What didn’t? This inventory helps me prepare for the coming school year before I even get to the nuts and bolts of curriculum.

Perhaps, summer is a good time to take a spiritual inventory with the Lord’s help. What is working? What isn’t? Where does He want to make more room to grow? 

The same Savior who took me from separated, alienated, and estranged to be a citizen in His kingdom desires that I would never grow comfortable without room to grow! A little awkward discomfort may be just the thing to help me follow in His footsteps.