Demystifying growth – the one crucial ingredient that’s often overlooked.

BY DERMOT COTTULI

Growth is one of those topics that we’re all interested in. Growth and life are intimately connected from the moment we’re born till the moment we step off the planet. We’ve all experienced growth and for the most part, we’d all like to experience more growth.

It’s drilled into us from a young age that if we want to get ahead in life we need to grow. We’re sent to school from the age of 4 to start growing in our knowledge and understanding of the world and we’re encouraged to develop and grow any natural talents or gifts we might have. We’re told that the people who apply themselves to growing, academically, physically, musically, etc are the ones who eventually succeed in their chosen profession and for the most part, that’s what we see happen time and time again.

Success in your profession brings with it rewards–financial security, status amongst your peers, personal satisfaction and fulfilment just to name a few. Yes, we can become obsessed with these to the detriment of other areas of our lives of equal importance but it doesn’t take away the fact that growth is something that we all reach for.

And why wouldn’t we? The dictionary definition of growth paints a very rosy picture.

Growth – An increase, as in size, number, value, or strength; extension or expansion – sounds good to me!

Our desire for growth is what drives many of our activities in life. Farmers don’t plant seed in the ground and not expect a crop to grow. They plant seed in the hope that there’ll be a harvest which will be many times the size of the seed originally planted. You don’t give up time which you’ll never get back, to sit in a classroom studying just to cram more and more knowledge into your head. Your hope is that along with growth in your understanding and knowledge of a subject will come the opportunity to work in a particular field when you’ve finished your schooling.

Growth in itself is neither good nor bad, it simply describes a process. And here is where we come to a fork in the road. Because sometimes growth can become a negative in our lives rather than a positive. It all depends on our intention, on our motive, on why we want the growth.

Darlene Zcheck, when being grilled on all the money she had made from her Christian music career, laughed and said she loved making money, as it enabled her to do more good in her world. That’s a healthy motive and one that I’m sure God is pleased with. There are others though who’ve pursued more money out of personal greed and in the process destroyed themselves and those closest to them.

“Most of us don’t really want to grow, we just want the benefits of being grown.” Matthew Fredericks

The challenge of personal growth for many of us is often its’ cost. If I were to ask you “Do you want to grow?” you’d immediately think of the end result of growth in a particular area and your answer would most likely be “Yes!” I mean who doesn’t want to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, who doesn’t want to be more loving, have greater faith, maturity, endurance, patience, compassion, resources, strength, wisdom and joy? We all want it, but we’re not as keen to pay the price to get it when push comes to shove. How do I know that? Personal and practical experience over the years have shown me that most people balk at pain and discomfort and are great at coming up with excuses and justifications for their lack of progress. You only have to look at the number of people that set out to get fit only to give up after a few weeks, to realise that this is a problem facing all of us. Knowledge isn’t the issue; will and the ability to follow through, is. I’m convinced that most people in churches don’t need more knowledge as much as they need to act on what they already know and stick to it.

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHAT THE MECHANISM THAT DRIVES, OR CAUSES PERSONAL GROWTH, IS?

Growth at its’ most basic breakdown, is our natural automatic, adaptive response to stress. Be that physical, emotional, mental or spiritual.

We find ourselves in a situation where we’re struggling to cope and our body’s inbuilt growth mechanism kicks in by causing us to grow stronger in that area so that we can counteract the stress that caused it. A person that makes a point of trying to avoid stress is doing themselves a disservice because they’re removing the trigger from their lives that causes growth to occur. Long term chronic stress can have a detrimental effect on our lives true, but stress in itself is a natural occurrence in life and part of our human condition and a key factor in every area of growth.

Throughout the Bible God is seen using times of conflict and stress over and over again to bring about change in individuals and entire nations. Our response to stress is key because it can either propel us forward or send us backward.

Whether it’s physical, spiritual or character related, growth is simply an automatic adaptation to environmental and internal stress. We find ourselves in a situation where we’re under pressure and to survive we adapt by becoming stronger.

James hit it on the head when he said

JAMES 1:2-4 (NLT)

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to GROW. So let it GROW, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

How do I grow my faith? By finding myself in situations that require my faith to grow. Where my faith isn’t strong enough to cope with the challenges I’m facing and I’m forced to adapt by becoming stronger.

Guess what? Those situations are rarely comfortable. They’re painful, they’re stressful and they can cause all sorts of mixed emotions when facing them.

GROWTH DOESN’T OCCUR IN SITUATIONS WHERE IT’S NOT NEEDED.

We need to lean in and embrace whatever it is that God is leading us through. It’s called trust, and the number one lesson that we learn in our Christian walk over and over again is that God can be trusted. It’s easy to read that God works everything for our good in Romans 8 but a totally different thing to live as though we believe it’s true.

I find within me there’s a propensity to run from conflict and seek peace in my life and that can be a good thing at times. However, there are times when God wants me to endure something because He’s using it to change me. I’ve had to learn to embrace it so that it can bring about the growth and change in my life that God intends.

In all circumstances the bible tells us to be thankful. “Consider trials an opportunity for great joy”, James said. How do we maximise our growth in any given situation? By trusting that God is at work doing what only He can do, the transformation of a human life, and by embracing the challenges we’re facing.