Growing and Evolving

It's that time of year when many young people are in transition.  They have finished school or college, completed their exams, some already knowing the results and are contemplating the future.  With each year, they have moved on, moved up into the next year at school until now when their formal education is all but finished.  And such is life.  Everything has a season.  Things change and evolve.  We change and evolve.  Our lives are not the same as they were 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago.  Sometimes the change is so gradual we don't even notice it while at other times it is a result of certain decisions we have made.

At the moment in the garden we are enjoying our strawberries.  They started off a few years ago as very small plants.  In the spring we look for the flowers appearing, a sign of what sort of harvest we might enjoy.  The more flowers should produce more fruit.  If the plants did not produce flowers then I would be tempted to dig them up and discard them. They are obviously not going to come to anything, certainly not produce the fruit that we planted them for.   We look for the first signs of those small buds and then for the flowers to open.  But on the other hand it wouldn't be natural for the plants to keep flowering all summer, even if they do look nice and the bees like them.  In creation the buds have to give way to the flower.  Then the flower must die in order to allow the fruit to grow through.


Each stage is necessary and we build on it for the next season.  That doesn't make the original stage wrong, it's just that now we need something more, something different.  A baby begins by drinking milk.  But if an adult consumed only milk, we would know that there was definitely a problem.  Just because the total milk diet was right and proper at the beginning doesn't mean that it must always be so.  An adult needs more than milk to be healthy.  The milk was right for that time but not now.  It reminds me of the words of Paul when he says to the Corinthians, 'I gave you milk not solid food, for you were not ready for it.  Indeed you are still not ready.'


I have on occasions asked why certain things are done in a particular way only to hear the reply, 'Well we've always done it that way'.  Sadly in our church system we find that we can go week after week, do the same things in the same way and nothing changes.  Change seems to be frowned upon.  Many seem stuck in a time warp, not willing to grow and evolve.  I have even heard church leaders saying things like,'We've been here before', and yet they continue to go around in circles coming back to the same thing again and again.  It's as though in our spiritual lives our growth is stunted as we continue to drink the milk and haven't progressed to solid food.  We are happy to just sit passively and be fed.  We just drink what is easily digested instead of taking in real meat to chew on.  On many occasions Jesus said that even though Moses had given them the Law, he was saying something different.  He came to fulfil the Law, in other words to move on from it.  It was right at the time but now they need to have a different way.  It's not natural or right for mature adults to have their parents keep telling them what they can and can't do or organising their lives for them.  They have the maturity to make their own choices. 


We can't go in to the next chapter if we keep on re-reading the last chapter.  The questions I need to ask myself are - am I just going round in circles in my spiritual life? what have I learnt about God that I didn't know or understand before? do I prefer to just sit and be fed or am I willing to seek food for myself? am I still holding on to and reliving past experiences or am I continually moving on? have I grown in the past year?  

What Hierarchy?

Most of the young people at school have now finished their exams.  There has been quite a fuss about one particular question on a Maths paper that really puzzled the students to the extent that the whole business has become very public and mentioned in News bulletins.  The problem seems to be that it would seem that the whole future of a student depends on the exam results, which in turn often depends on pure academic ability and not so much to do with character or amount of effort put into the study.  There are those who try very hard but academically they just don't cut it.  And yet end of year exams seem to have such a bearing on their future - what sort of job they will be able to get and subsequently how much money they will earn as a result.  For some, the most important thing is to get a place in Uni and get some degree, any degree as long as they can say that they have one.  Otherwise they feel that they are left on the scrapheap of life.

Success is counted as to how far up the social ladder you are able to climb.  This is often seen in terms of the size of your house, the sort of car you drive,  where you go on holiday and how many of the latest gadgets fill your home.  It always seems sad to me that success is measured in material possessions and not how we do our job or the sort of people we are.  Are we honest, helpful, caring, accepting, including others and making them feel wanted?  How often those who reach 'the top' do so because they don't care about anyone else or who they tread on in the process of climbing up the company ladder.  Some of the most honest and caring people I have met have worked at menial jobs earning a fraction of those considered to be successful.  And very often they have been so generous in helping others.  The story of the widow's mite comes to mind.

The Winter of Discontent.

A customer once asked a cleaner in a large store where a certain item was and the cleaner replied that he didn't know as he was only the cleaner.  The customer replied that he wasn't only a cleaner as cleaners made a very important contribution to the success of the store.  After all who wants to shop in a dirty store, that is if Health and Safety don't close it down for hygiene reasons?  Some might remember some years ago when the refuse collectors went on strike and the household rubbish wasn't collected for some time.  And yet how often is someone working as a refuse collector thought of as being successful?  He or she might not own a big house but society grinds to a halt if they don't carry out their valuable work (as the above photo shows).  How often we picture a sort of triangle of hierarchy with the manual workers at the bottom and the CEO and Directors at the very top.  It is the aim of most people to gradually climb their way up to the top.  The thing is though that if those who form the basis of society are not thorough and good at their jobs, the whole triangle tumbles down like a house with crumbling foundations.  The base needs to be firm in order to build on it.  If those doing menial tasks don't do their work well then the whole company folds.  Without the cleaner there is no store manager.  There is no store.  The one earning a six figure salary depends on those on minimum wage doing a good job.  There is a problem when there aren't enough at the bottom supporting those at the top.  As the saying goes 'Too many chiefs and not enough indians'.

Jesus' teaching on hierarchy was 'the first shall be last and the last shall be first'. He, who is God was servant of all.  So, let's be honest, are we more impressed with someone who has some grandiose title or is a manager of a large company or the person who sweeps the floor and cleans the manager's office?  Hmmm!  We are all human seeking to do what we can to contribute to society and making the world a better place.  There is nothing wrong with improving ourselves and seeking to 'do better' but let's not adopt a false sense of importance.  In God's kingdom there is no hierarchy.  We are all equal in his eyes and he loves each of us equally.  And that applies equally to those in organised religion.  The most sought after speaker and the person who cleans the church toilets are thought of and loved equally by God.  We should do likewise.