Every little growth is a celebration

I watch as Matteo learns how to use his hands, locking and wiggling them as some evil genius. I hear him as he tries to sing with me and locks into a note or a vowel. I am amazed and overjoyed, as this little man goes from a blank canvas to exploration and learning.

The ironic thing to me is that I am amazed at this amazement. Why am I so amazed? I think in the voice of those mocking comedies, with someone like Will Ferral saying "He's just moving his hands or singing a tone, what's so impressive. Let's see him fix my car or win a gold medal"

Then the opposite voice arises in me and asks, “why don’t we celebrate all the little growths?” Sure the comparative isn’t as stark; from a baby's zero mobility to even recognition of their hands is a pretty big comparative step, but our little growths can be just as stark or just as important.

In faith, these little growths are even more important to recognize, in ourselves and others. Even something as simple as repentance, a changing direction to aim for God, can create in people a stark difference and can create an even starker difference in the long term. It’s like a rocket firing into space, a decimal place of an angle will change its trajectory so much that it is likely to mean life or death. Even movement compared to stagnation in faith is a stark difference, as it can basically mean the same thing. If we don’t move, how are we ever going to get to where we need to go?

It can be hard to notice these small growths, but I celebrate every time someone asks me a question about faith or joins a bible study, or I see committing to a new ministry, or I see having a conversation about faith. I remember one woman starting to say God bless you instead of Goodbye. For her, this was an immensely brave first step to sharing faith and it may not be sharing the gospel, but it is such an important first step. Every step we make in faith towards God is important and good, no matter what our starting place is and I would encourage everyone to just try to grow a little, every day and every week.

The second part of this is that we must be careful how we compare ourselves or others. Of course, a baby compared to an astrophysicist is going to look small, but even comparing us as adults or in our faith is just as unfair. We all come from different places, we have different gifts and our little growths are not less because someone already did it, or because someone else is going in another direction. Comparing can be helpful, because it can give us something to aim for, a direction for our growth, but even then we must be careful because our growth needs to be different.

I remember watching a documentary on Mother Teresa and I found myself a little jealous of her courage, faith and humility. My mind convicted me and said, “Why can’t you be like her?” The truth is though, that I can’t be like her. My conviction from God, the gifts he’s given me, and the place he has put me in are different. Sure, I can learn a lot from her story, like what humility looks like, what godly courage and faith can do in the face of danger, fear and difference. Her example even gives me depths of faith to grow into, but I believe defining myself by that comparison in itself is a sin, it is evil and belittling to what God is doing in me right here right now. Conviction should come from him and not through a comparison or our expectations.

The point to all of this is that we should find immense joy in ever little growth, because they actually mean so much and are so important. Very rarely do we race to the finish line and even when we do we probably miss a lot of important things along the way. What is your little growth right now that you can celebrate? What is that next growth? Just as Matteo is learning how to use his hands, how might we learn how to use our hands for service, create habits and synapsis build for Godly worship, love, humility, courage and more. God has a next step for you and the amazing and joyous thing is that in God we can keep growing and become something far more than an infant in faith.