Growth Chart

When I was younger I was always concerned with being taller. I wanted to grow—I wanted a longer wingspan, I wanted to be at least 6’4, and I wanted to put on weight.

My love for basketball was responsible for my desire to grow. I was a big fan of Nick Anderson, who was the first player ever drafted by my favorite team, the Orlando Magic. My brother and I had a life-size cutout of the shooting guard in his white #25 jersey, and I remember charting our growth progress next to him.

As a shooting guard myself, I knew that my measurements had to be close to Nick Anderson’s 6’6, 205 lb. frame if I were going to make it to the NBA. I surpassed my desired height (barely), and eventually eclipsed the 205 mark; unfortunately, there is more to being a professional athlete than just the measuring tape.

But the truth is my height came as the result of my genetic makeup—my dad is 6’4—and not the result of my will or determination. No matter how hard I tried, I could not add an inch to my stature.

But that is not the case when it comes to growing spiritually. Colossians 2:7 tells us to be “rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”

Being “built up” refers to growing; we may stop having growth spurts at some point, but we should never stop growing in the faith. The difference here is that the amount we grow in the faith is totally up to us; this is not left up to genetics, but to the amount of work we are willing to put in.

We need to have the desire to grow—the same desire that makes an NBA-driven kid want to get taller. With that desire, we can pray for God’s Spirit to lead us into truth, then open His Word and begin to learn. We also need to be faithful to our local churches and anywhere else the Gospel is taught. And don’t be afraid to ask questions from those who are more spiritually mature.

I hope you will hit a growth spurt today. 

Incorruptible Seed

March is here, and my seasonal allergies are officially in full swing. Having grown up in Orlando where the only seasons are hot and hotter, the fall and spring seasons of South Carolina’s Upstate were quite a shock to my body. As you probably know, the plants die in the fall, then spring back to life after the winter; in essence, they are born again.

We too must be born again. We all have been born once (obviously), but our physical bodies will wear out just as a lily will not live through the winter. What is important is that we experience a second birth, a birth that is incorruptible.

I Peter 1:23 tells us that Christians have been “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” We experience this second birth when we choose to believe what the Word of God tells us about Jesus, and then we surrender our lives to Him.

When something is born there is a definitive point of no return, that is, it can never go back to being unborn; it can only grow and move forward. My question to you is not if you have repeated a prayer or asked Jesus into your heart. My question is have you been born again? Has there been a definitive change in your life, and are you growing in the Lord?