Maturity

We are accustomed to the prepackaged and ready to go. Everything should be within our immediate reach, so we can claim it, use it, and move on. Forget the journey, we only care about the destination. This is the voice that says, "I don't care about the process, I want the product and I want it now!"

I am convinced that we are in desperate trouble if we forget the journey. The journey is the point.

Paul said in I Corinthians 3:1-3

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, [even] as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able [to bear it], neither yet now are ye able.
For ye are yet carnal: for whereas [there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

Paul also said something similar in Hebrews 5:11,12

Of [Christ] we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which [be] the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

Paul wished that people were ready to move on but that they were still babies, still clamoring for milk when he would have liked to give them meat. What did that mean? How were they childish, not ready to grow?

First thing to note here is that there IS more to discover when you get past the basics!

What keeps us stuck on the basics? "For ye are yet carnal...[there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions..." We are stuck on the basics because we are still thinking like we used to. We still insist on looking for the differences, not the similarities. And ultimately, if you carry the 'differences' seeking approach out to its logical conclusion you will end up standing 100% alone!

If we are to move from milk to meat, we have to grow, mature. A person can only grow when they are open to the process of growing. We are to return to that child-like wonder and openness, not be childish, immature. Opening yourself is the first step to discovering something new, and growing.

Maturity is a process, rather than a destination.

Do you know that Jesus went through this process of openness, in order to grow?

Hebrews 5 tells about it:

For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things [pertaining] to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:
Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.
And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as [was] Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.
As he saith also in another [place], Thou [art] a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.

Jesus' obedience was to make himself open to whatever God wanted from him. It is very important to note that Jesus did not stop with any 'basics'. Jesus went all the way, and that's the reason we can follow him. Jesus didn't get stuck.

What does God want from you? Make yourself open to it, accept it, and enjoy your journey!