“Life for believers in the church is like living among a herd of half-sculpted sculptures. Some of us have a square for a head. Others, rectangles as legs. We are missing things. But God is working….”
(Eric Davis – The Cripplegate) Bamboo grows fast. Some bamboo-ologists say it grows roughly four inches per day in the right conditions. The fastest growing bamboo reportedly bursted up 35 inches in a day. That’s a growth you can watch. Oak trees are not like that. They grow about twelve inches per year. So, you can see an oak’s growth, but you can’t see it growing, unlike bamboo.
When it comes to a Christian’s growth in christlikeness, many of us are more like the oak than the bamboo. People can see our growth, perhaps. But they can’t usually see us growing.
That slow growth can cause us to ruffle each other’s feathers at times. That Christian friend of ours seems to never be able to grow out of that struggle. It’s been years, and that believer in the church can’t quite get traction in godliness in an area. “Why can’t they just grow out of that stuff?!”
Here are some things to consider as we struggle with slow sanctification.
Before we talk about others, let’s pause. We grow slow in ways too. In this life, not one of us is yet glorified. So, not one of us is perfectly sanctified in every area. Chances are then, we have been a source of feather-ruffling to other believers at some point. Our slow sanctification has pained someone sometime. Others have had to forbear our yet-sanctified areas at some point. And if we asked someone close to us, “In what ways have you had to forbear with me?”, they would likely have a tangible response. Let’s take that posture with us as we walk with others.