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The Subjectivity of Growth


2 Peter 3:18  

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever” 

 Before I finished school, I set the expectation of being intentional with my growth with God. I pictured myself being more knowledgeable on the bible, praying longer and contributing more ‘meaningful’ things in Bible discussion. 

If you want me to be honest, none of those things have happened, or at least what it looks like to me. I haven’t been reading my bible more, my prayers are rushed and at times ritualistic and I still say the same things in bible discussion. I’m only saying this to show you that what looks like growth to us may not be what God is trying to grow us in.

Although all those things that I wanted to do are good, they were my expectation: not Gods. And this isn’t to say that if you do any of those things you’re not growing, you definitely are. But I feel like as Christians we can manufacture our own expectations of what we want our growth to look like, and at times when we don’t see that picture in the mirror we can get discouraged or feel like we’re not going anywhere. 

One thing I’ve come to realise is that growth looks differently on different people. Maybe you’re naturally a pessimistic person and during this season God is teaching you to be more hopeful for things, that’s growth. Maybe you’ve held unforgiveness towards a person for so long and now when you see them you no longer have bad thoughts towards them, that’s growth. You should never discredit what growth is because it’s subjective and individualistic.

From reading this verse, you’re probably asking, “how does knowledge of Jesus help me to grow?” and I wouldn’t blame you in asking that question. But once we really study the life of Jesus; we see there are multiple sides to him. There are times where he is empathetic, there are times where he is loving and compassionate but also times where he can be quite bold and confrontational. 

I say all this to identify the multifaceted character of Jesus is a direct correlation to our growth. Our growth too is multifaceted and there are different areas in our life that needs growth in different seasons. So, in simple words, the different areas of Jesus are what each of us need to grow in, and God appoints us to embody those areas at different times and in different ways.

Perhaps you have an anger problem and studying the life of Jesus can teach you to adopt his patience. Maybe you come across as quite arrogant, but having knowledge of Jesus’s humility could change that. Perhaps you struggle spending time alone, and studying all the times Jesus went to a quiet place to speak with God could help you. Every aspect of Jesus’s life, every word he said, every experience he endured, calls us to grow.  

 

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