Growth & Goodness

DAILY BYTE

The next important lesson about growth this parable teaches us is:

Growth can be painful, but is ultimately always good.

First of all, there is no doubt that growth can be painful. We all know this to be true from observing the world around us. From a baby crying as it teethes to a massive body builder straining in the gym – growth can be hard and painful and sacrificial.

This was made clear to me again at the beginning of the year when my little daughter encountered a new growth stage – her first day at school. Taking her to school that first day was painful, she looked so small, vulnerable and overwhelmed.

Let me tell you that on that first day of school there was pain. There were tears, there was clinging on and refusing to let go, there was a temper tantrum, there was even being marched into the principal’s office to be severely reprimanded – and that was just me!

Growth is almost always hard, but also almost always good. Just like a seed entering the dark earth, all wrapped and hidden, but then eventually bursting through the soil - so the imagery of growth that Christ taught us is of us needing to die to live: dying first to self and selfishness, dying to greed and ‘me first’ attitudes, only so that we may burst into the new life of the grand things of God.

Have you ever noticed the strange abruptness of the original ending Mark’s Gospel, ‘they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid’? It is almost like the sentence ends half way through.

But perhaps that is the whole point, that the author meant there to be no full-stop but just a comma, to act as an invitation for us to enter into the resurrection story ourselves and complete something more of it. That really is how life’s bad times can be – they should be seen not as full stops but commas! They don’t have the final say because God does!

C.S. Lewis once wrote that ‘Pain is God’s megaphone.’ This does not mean that God only speaks to us during painful moments, but that we tend to turn up God’s volume button during tough times. We actively start listening more carefully to God during difficult moments, whereas when times are good we can drift along and ignore God.

The imagery in this parable reminds us that everything is God’s and is therefore God’s to grow. The field, the seeds and the types of soil all grow not because of human endeavour but because of the divine grace which falls on our lives like refreshing rain. This imagery reminds us how dependant we are on God for our growth. This keeps us real and humble, needing to trust in God to bring us through our dark moments and into the new life that waits beyond.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O Great God, giver of all good things, bringer of life and hope and growth. I ask that you would give me all the strength I need to face the more painful aspects of growth. May your goodness mark and shape me even in tough times. Amen

FOCUS READING

Mark 16:8 NRSV

So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.