We learn and grow in stages. Never all at once. Thankfully, we have a patient God who gives us room to stretch, fail, and achieve our spiritual milestones.
“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The kids ski school here where my children attends. Places and promotes the kids in ski classes based on sets of criteria met for each level.
Red for beginners to green for more advanced skiers.
Red. Orange. Yellow. Green.
Does this sound familiar? Colors seen in traffic lights.
There is a final advanced group. Mountain X. Blue. The best level possible where the kids ski on the toughest slopes. Blue is representative of the sky. The highest.
Thus, each color reflects the progression of skills. Red for the starting point. Orange and yellow symbolizes the acceleration of the driver/skier. Green for full throttle ahead. Blue, where the sky is the limit.
- Red
- Orange
- Yellow
- Green
- Blue
Similarly, in our journey of faith, we encounter stages where we learn and grow.
Arrive. Survive. Thrive. Alive.
Arrive. “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink…Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life.” —Isaiah 55:1-3
Survive. “Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down…But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be made whole.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s path to follow our own.” —Isaiah 53:4-6
Thrive. “The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an overflowing spring.” —Isaiah 58:11
Alive. “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for He forgave all our sins.” —Colossians 2:13
Each spiritual stage of life brings obstacles for the believer to overcome and victories to obtain. Gain in pain. But oh, how each stage moves us to a deeper love, closer intimacy, and more sweeter eternal treasures that we are storing not here on earth, but in heaven.
Once you’ve progress to the next stage of spiritual journey with God. Once you’ve tasted the showering of His hope and mercy when you didn’t deserve or earn it. The stretching of your faith, mind, and heart. Too much goodness to ever want to go backwards.
From the darkness of arriving, to merely surviving, to working at thriving, to finally being fully alive in Jesus Christ.
Learn and grow well in each spiritual stage. Give God the glory for the passing of each milestone. Go bear much fruit and feast on these Real Truths.