Approaches to Growth

Approaches to Growth

Growth can come in many forms. And while it can be tempting to rank our methods of maturation, life requires a diversity of learning environments to foster depth and wisdom. I want to briefly touch on two here.

Practice

There’s a type of growth that comes from repetition; practice, essentially. This is the type of growth that occurs when rehearsing a piece of music on a piano. To master the piece, it requires playing and replaying the song. By the tenth time of playing through it, you aren’t likely introduced to any new notes. However, your brain and body is slowly becoming more familiar with this particular arrangement of notes on a page and translating them into musical expression.

In a life of spiritual maturity, there is much that requires simple practice. Often these things are called ‘spiritual disciplines’. Holy habits, if you will. In the midst of the struggle to maintain our dedication to these things, it’s easy to miss the significant long-term positive impact these practices have on our thinking, speech, and decision making. The Christian life is certainly more than these, but it isn’t less. That being said, if we become too rigid with our particular pattern of Christian living, it can come at the cost of further growth.

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