Big Shoes

Ever watch a little child trying to imitate a parent? The young girl puts on her mother's gown and maybe even sneaks on some lipstick. The three-year-old son watches with fascination as his daddy shaves and then is thrilled when his father allows him to put shaving cream on his own face. And what child hasn't tromped through the living room with his feet barely able to move a pair of his parent's best dress shoes?

Growth is a natural part of our lives. Perhaps that is why a lack of growth in one's spiritual life is so sad. Imagine being trapped in babyhood forever. You would miss out on so much that life has to offer. The famous South African minister Andrew Murray has this to say about believers who never grow up:

We notice from what we find in Corinthians, four marks of the carnal state. First: It is simply a condition of protracted infancy. You know what that means. Suppose a beautiful babe, six months old. It cannot speak, it cannot walk, but we do not trouble ourselves about that; it is natural, and ought to be so. But suppose a year later we find the child not grown at all, and three years later still no growth; we would at once say: "There must be some terrible disease;" and the baby that at six months old was the cause of joy to every one who saw him, has become to the mother and to all a source of anxiety and sorrow. There is something wrong; the child can not grow. It was quite right at six months old that it should eat nothing but milk; but years have passed by, and it remains in the same weakly state. Now this is just the condition of many believers. They are converted; they know what it is to have assurance and faith; they believe in pardon for sin; they begin to work for God; and yet, somehow, there is very little growth in spirituality, in the real heavenly life. We come into contact with them, and we feel at once there is something wanting; there is none of the beauty of holiness or of the power of God's Spirit in them. This is the condition of the carnal Corinthians, expressed in what was said to the Hebrews: "You have had the Gospel so long that by this time you ought to be teachers, and yet you need that men should teach you the very rudiments of the oracles of God." Is it not a sad thing to see a believer who has been converted five, ten, twenty years, and yet no growth, and no strength, and no joy of holiness?

--from The Master's Indwelling by Andrew Murray

So let's not settle for being spiritual babies for the rest of our lives. After all, if we are to be conformed to the image of Christ we have some pretty big shoes to fill.