Maturity Won't Cut It

Especially as a pastor, but for all people of faith as well, maturity and balance pay off tremendously in most situations.  When we find maturity and balance in our lives, we find ways to respond and act in calm, reflective, and wise ways.  We make good decisions, love more consistently, and endure hardships in healthier ways.

But sometimes maturity just won't cut it.  Especially in our relationships with God.

A tragedy has recently struck deeply into the heart of Horizons and its connected families that will take much time and prayer to pull us through.  At my first hearing of this loss, just as any I hear about, out of maturity, I begin cancelling out my prayers to God.  I need to be mature about these things:

I can't tell God I understand it was this young man's time to go.
I can't tell God how mad I am or how unfair this is.
I can't ask God why He wasn't there or didn't protect this person.
I can't tell God I know that this is part of His plan.
I can't question what God's plan in all of this is or why it wasn't someone else.
I can't threaten God that He'd better make sense of this.

These are things we find ourselves saying and asking when we are young in our faith, in our beginning relationships with Jesus.  But as we grow, we move from those responses to deeper responses.

So as I prayed last night, I eventually found myself with only one response:

God, be with us all and give this man's family strength, peace, and understanding.


That's all I could find permission to say.  And in the moment, I realized it was insufficient.  It was a great start, but in many ways it lacked the fullness of my heart's true position.

It was then I realized how my maturity in my approach to God won't always do me much good.  How are any of us supposed to grow in true, honest, and deep relationships with our creator if we're holding so much of ourselves back--in the name of maturity?

God was waiting last night, listening, sitting with me, and saying, "don't you dare just share the stuff with me that fits.  Give me all of you."

So last night, as I went to God concerning the loss of a good friend, a former member of Horizons, a great dad, and a gentle husband, I dropped the maturity approach and let God have all of me.

That's where relationships are born.  That's what God desires more than anything:  all of us.

"Don't be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks.  Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).


Jason <><