For God's sake grow up!

I came across a story recently about a Scottish lady whose name was Margaret. Perhaps it was the recent loss of my own dear friend Margaret that made the story stand out for me? Margaret was dying from cancer of the throat that was so badly constricting her breathing that she was slowly being strangled to death. People would come and visit this lady and so often the conversation went along the lines of, ‘Oh Margaret, you’ve suffered so much and now this’. Margaret became so frustrated that – now unable to speak – she wrote her own statement of faith as a response to give to visitors:

This is not the worst thing to ever happen! Cancer is so limited. It cannot cripple love, shatter hope, corrode faith, eat away peace, destroy confidence, kill friendship, shut out memories, silence courage, quench the Spirit or lessen the power of Jesus.’

That my friend is a gutsy earthy faith! I am well over the wishy washy, anaemic little thing that seems to suffice for some and yearn for a good belt of Margaret faith.

Last week my theme for the day was ‘Come and obey’ and I suggested that it would be absurd to still be breast feeding our children into adulthood, putting forward the radical idea that likewise there is a place where we might need to ‘grow up’ spiritually. I’m glad to be able to report that at least one person in history agrees with me:

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, Hebrews 5:13-6:1

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Ephesians 4:14

I am seeing a bubbling up of desire for some solid food these days. Oh, there are not hundreds beating a path to my door, indeed it doesn’t even number in the tens; but this Pentecost season I am seeing some bubbles! I am being inspired by the way in which people among us have taken some massive hits and yet still stand! More than that; they are moving forward; groggy, but determined to not only rebuild but offer themselves yet again to God, daring to ask how they might better worship, witness and serve him. Gutsy faith.

A lot of faith for me is BCEF – Baptism, Christmas, Easter and Funeral. Get the child done so that grumpy god is appeased, then we will drop in to have a look at the baby Jesus or be brave and reflect on the cross of adult Jesus, until its time to stamp our passport for heaven at our funeral service. Here is the good news! We worship a God of infinite love and this God cannot help himself, it is intrinsic to the divine nature – God will bless.

God doesn’t have off days when he takes time to have a sulk and go through the good book crossing off names in a fit of temper!

God is love! However, I think that the Jesus story tells us that there is so much more for us to seek. We tend to settle for the easy bargain basement toys of life. We are after all not here for a long time but a good time? Recent days have reminded me of just how great is the love of the Father that we might be called children of God. I think that is something worth thinking about.