“Grow in grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
(2 Peter 3:18 MSG)
I tried to spend my evening walk last night listening. Occasionally, my eyes drifted downward, to stay aware of uneven sidewalks and scattered path hazards. On one such glance, I noted the pavement beneath a towering walnut tree, marked by the oily tears of its fruit. Walnuts fall green, you know, like some sort of tomato-encased stone. If not gathered, the shell rots away before the treasure within is exposed.
Growth is messy. It feels a lot like falling, like loss, maybe even a bit like dying before we can break free of ourselves and dig down deep to become someone new.
Sometimes we feel that that oily, greasy mess smeared on the sidewalk, marking up the world with something ugly instead of the beauty we want to become. But really, our surrender is essential to our re-creation. We must shed flesh in order to return to original design, to give way to a life that is vertical from root to limb.
Growing in grace and understanding includes shedding our sin nature. It might be just about as messy as a walnut sloughing its rind. This reduction is a painful process: first becoming aware that our flesh tendencies won’t serve the Kingdom and then the dispossessing of them. Thankfully, our Orcharist is patient and purposeful. He doesn’t leave us to rot on the sidewalk alone. He stands over us, speaking words of encouragement and waiting out our occasional insolence along the way.
“There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.” (Philippians 1:6 MSG)
A walnut that falls and sheds it’s rind is ready to be planted; to be buried and rooted and start stretching towards heaven. Keep that in mind in the mess; all the discomfort is producing something worthwhile if we’ll keep at it, if we corporate with the Orchardist’s agenda.
Lord, we still long to grow, even though we know it’s messy and painful. Help us as we shed our flesh nature. Walk us through the prolonged process of becoming more like You. Give us perseverance and the long view on life. Messy flesh-death today can produce something towering in twenty years. Amen.