In three weeks, seventy other ladies and I will spend an entire weekend around the subject of Spiritual Maturity, and it is constantly at the forefront of my mind.
When you're (spiritually) younger, it's so easy to be who people think you are.
Because, like clay, their thoughts and their words about you can push you into corners and folds and make you fit into the idea they have of you.
Your mother who thinks you are lazy.
Your teacher who thinks you are hopeless.
Your husband who thinks you are cold.
Your sister who thinks you are stuck up.
Your boss who thinks you are stupid.
However, when you are (spiritually) a little older and have had more time in the sun, it is usually not so easy. Because now your Self is no longer so flexible and manipulable. Now you realize that you don't have to shave off your corners to the point of bleeding just to fit into the round hole of their ideas about you.
The thing is - a large part of our understanding of who we are is our understanding of who we are not. And we are not necessarily what other people see in us.
Have you maybe shared my thoughts that we are David in the story about the fight with Goliath?
David was brave.
But sometimes I don't feel like it.
David steps forward despite others' fears for his future.
Other people's fear sometimes become a cobweb around my sunshine and dulls its shine.
And I wonder if I am David, or rather part of the less-brave battalion that takes a step back when Goliath steps forward and starts shouting?
Which reminds me of our camp theme.
When I was (spiritually) younger, I thought I was David.
And I had to admit many times over that I was not.
When I was (spiritually) younger, people's fears about my future also became my fears.
I thought it was safer to be careful.
But at some point I must have unconsciously realized who I was and where I stood in this story, because suddenly I could decide who I wanted to be.
And I think these were the first baby cries of a spirit that wanted to grow.
Because David was brave.
And now I am often braver too.
David steps forward despite others' fears about his future.
And now I step forward more often despite others' predictions about my own.
I am not David.
Jesus is.
I am not called to be David.
I am called to be like David.
The One who challenges the enemy to a fight because He knows that the victory is already His, urges me to make every day a David day.
I don't have to look at David and get discouraged at my own failings.
I can see myself stepping forward from the crowd behind Him that has already flattened the front line.
He already won the fight.
Now I can go and collect the dog tags.
"I fear no evil,
for You are with me…”
Psalm 23:4 AMP
Your inspiration for the week: Seed of faith
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