I have never met anyone who could truthfully say, “There is nothing in my life that needs to be improved.” Unless we can legitimately make this claim, we should always be looking for better ways to manage and execute our life.
Maturity is a never-ending quest and it requires we make a never-ending effort to discover and eliminate sin in our life. But its hard, and we get off track, and even with the best intentions we often do the wrong thing. We know how man is to live, but we don’t always act like we know. In the end, the result is not very mature.
I am a software engineer. Part of my job is to develop strategic and tactical improvement plans. Essentially, my job is to guide the organization first to accept that better practices are needed, and then to successfully implement those practices. What I do is called process improvement. I have found that the process of improving the way software is developed can be applied to improving anything, including my own life.
You see life is the process of maturing. It follows that if a process is a series of steps that lead to a result, and attaining maturity is a process, then there must be steps we can follow.
But what exactly does it mean to be mature?
It seems to me, that just like in engineering, we must accurately define the desired end state before we even begin to attempt to improve, because “if you don’t know where you want to go any road will do!” I like the expression, “Go with God!”
Let’s do that- let’s go with God. I think the perfect place to start is with Micah 6:8:
And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
And there it is in a nutshell; the end state - Justice, Kindness and a Humble walk (now, who does that sound like?).
Of all virtues, Jesus elevated meekness above the others. Why? Because without humility, we have no sense of our own shortcomings, we see no reason to change.
I've read that it is humility that recognizes when love is growing cold and humility that confesses our need for greater faith. Without humility, our virtues harden and become lifeless but, when we confess our sins, when we openly reveal our flaws and our ongoing need of divine help, we find God a ready companion to transform our lives and meet our needs.
So, now we know where we are headed - toward humility. We have a goal - an end result in mind. What comes next? Well, that’s easy.
In engineering we do a formal assessment to evaluate current practices against some standard. We need to find out exactly where we are.
In the quest for maturity we also need to do an assessment. We must evaluate ourselves against some standard; and the standard I choose is established by Christ.
It is said that if we refuse to hide from the condition of our hearts, the Holy Spirit will reveal our sinfulness, not to condemn us but to establish humility and deepen the knowledge of our personal need for grace. It will be out of self-discovery that humility comes forth, and it will be in meekness that true holiness grows and that, my friends, sounds like Christ-likeness to me.
So, our next step is to ask some tough, but revealing questions to assess the current state of affairs; Questions like:
1. Is my character strong enough to turn from evil when tempted and graciously endure the trials of life?
2. Can I show love to those with whom I disagree?
3. Am I meek enough to handle correction or rejection without being offended?
4. Have I replaced my tendency to judge the imperfections of people with a passion to intercede for them?
5. With God's help am I fearless, unintimidated and able to maintain my peace even in adversity?
6. Do I love the truth, study it, and strive in faith to walk in obedience?
Now, don’t get discouraged! I warned you the questions were tough.
If you’re anything like me, you see many opportunities for improvement. And isn’t that why we’re here - to grow, to mature. Besides, most of us are already aware of our problem issues and behaviors. We just need to force ourselves to confront them directly rather than finding fault or blaming others.
On a personal note, lately I have had to ask myself many of these questions. My own personal self-assessment has shown me one thing quite clearly. I am more focused on what I do not have than on what I do have. I am too busy examining the holes, staring into the darkness, and not busy enough being grateful for all the many blessing that surround me. I have let my need for companionship and intimacy cloud my judgment. I have yielded to my flesh at the expense of my spirit. I have taken one step too many in the wrong direction. With each step I have looked around and said, “See, no one is getting hurt!” But I was wrong!
I forgot about an important and very true spiritual rule – You Reap What You Sow. I looked around and saw that all was well, but I failed to look far enough into the future. I failed to consider the harvest – the harvest yet to come. The seeds I’d been planting were bad, and bad seeds are destined to yield bad fruit.
I fell victim to the pressure to bow to my own need. Bow down to my darker instincts… I failed this particular test. Not only did I fail… I set myself up… I put myself out there… in harms way. Miserably I failed. I’m admitting it and now I have to go to God for forgiveness. Forgiveness that I know he will give me. That’s what God does. But it cannot and will not end there. No, I must try not to make the same mistake again.
The question becomes - How do you do that? Once we have an idea about the weak areas in our life... What Next?
Ah, solutions, of course - implementing new more effective ways of doing things - Changing.
Whatever our problems may be, it is my firm belief that each of us needs to begin our move toward mature living with a humble heart, because humility is the foundation of transformation.
If we truly have a desire to effect change, we must know this about the Almighty: He resists the proud, but His grace is drawn to the humble. Humility brings grace, and grace alone can change our hearts and that’s really what we’re talking about when we talk about maturing -changing our hearts.
Here’s to change! Here’s to improvement! Here’s to maturity!
