The Process of Deepening

This morning my daughter called from school.  She rarely calls from school.  Her request today was for her "crazy hat", her Mardi Gras hat, compliments of a friend.  Today was a crazy hat day if you provided for the "Fun for a Buck" school technology fundraiser.  We had done that earlier in the week, but had forgotten the hat today.  She had worn a ski mask to school to keep warm today and I attempted to talk her into allowing that to be her crazy hat.  I don't know why I said I would do it, but I agreed to bring the Mardi Gras jester hat to school.  I have never brought anything for her that she has forgotten to school in the K-5 years that she has been there.

On the way, I wondered if there was more reason than the silly crazy hat.

On my way out of the school, I turned to greet someone coming down the hall and stopped for a brief conversation.  We had a short, but good conversation about how things are going and where things are in her life.  It was awesome to hear how God was leading and guiding!  I believe that was one of those God-appointments.

Then, I come back home and start my devotional reading for the day.  In A Guide to Prayer for All God's People (red book) I read a quote that struck me as relational to the conversation I had just had.  The quote resonated with me on other levels as well because I've been on a journey of going deeper since 2006.

Here is the quote that I read.  It is by John Wijngaards from his book Inheriting the Master's Cloak (1985, p. 83).  In the Guide to Prayer it is found on pages 338 and 339.  I found a website with this book online, so the quote comes from there:

"Christian faith must constantly grow. It cannot remain static. Either it will slowly wither and die, or it will mature and bear ever more fruit. And as the stem grows higher and the branches heavier, it needs to strike deeper roots. Without deeper roots, there is little hope for survival.

“Some of the seed fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds sprouted, because the soil wasn’t deep. Then, when the sun came up, it burned the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up” (Mk 4:5-6).

Perhaps we are under the impression that Jesus himself did not need to undergo this process of deepening. Such an idea would be wrong. It is contradicted by all the indications that we can glean from the gospels, no less than by the explicit statement that Jesus grew in wisdom and grace (Lk 2:52). Being truly human in every sense of the word, Jesus needed to reflect, to incorporate new experiences into his self-concept, to reinforce his ideals and nurture his heart and mind with new images. Jesus was the most vibrant, open, sensitive, keen, inquisitive religious leader that ever lived. If his humanity, as we believe, presented “the exact likeness of God’s own being” (Heb 1:3), it reflected also the irrepressible vitality of God. At the same time, being one of us, Jesus needed to learn - “Even though he was God’s Son, he learned through his sufferings to be obedient” (Heb 5:8). And the need to suffer was precisely a very upsetting discovery Jesus made."
http://www.womenpriests.org/jnmwbooks/inherit8.asp

Several things strike me from this quote.  First, "Christian faith must constantly grow".  Christian faith must constantly grow.  Christian faith must constantly grow.  Christian faith must constantly grow.  As I reflect upon this statement, there are several key words compacted together.  This is powerful.  That's why I repeated it three times with the emphasis on each different word.  Our roots must go deeper or else there is little hope for survival.  Ouch!  That's harsh sounding, or at least difficult to hear.  If we aren't growing deeper, then it is likely that we won't survive.

This growing deeper stuff, striking deeper roots, how does that come about? 

I know this image won't resonate with most folks, but I thought of the 80s arcade game "Dig Dug".  The little guy had to dig deep to get through the course, avoid obstacles, blow up enemies, etc.  It's not fully theologically sound, but it gives an image of going deeper.

When I think about roots needing to strike deeper in the soil, that can't be easy either. If the dirt is packed solid, the roots must work their way slowly and tediously as they attempt to break away some of the dirt to find a path deeper. Rain may soften the ground to make the process easier.

In life, in our Christian faith journey, there can be pain, suffering, loss, and often chaos during the process of deepening.  We are often shocked that we must go through these things.  But, as we are reminded by Wijngaards here, Jesus went underwent the process of deepening through suffering, so why do we not expect it?

As my friend pointed out this morning, we are typically in one of three places on the journey-- in the garden praying out to God, on the cross suffering, or experiencing the glory of the resurrection.  Just as Christ experienced these on different stages of growth, we will too, albeit differently from Christ.

Regardless of where we find ourselves, hopefully we will recognize the change and the growth taking place as we go deeper.

The process of deepening is worth it!

Here's to going deeper!

~Debra