September 18, 2000
CYBERCOLUMN:
Spiritual aging
___By Donna Van Cleve
___What if a Christian's spiritual growth was evidenced by physical aging? Instead of lamenting, we would rejoice over new wrinkles and sagging muscles! We'd eagerly search for signs of spiritual maturity and wisdom.
___ "Honey, I believe I see a varicose vein or two popping out on that lumpy thigh of yours! Praise the Lord!"
___ Prune juice would be the preferred beverage in the Christian community. Artificial hair coloring would be shunned. In fact, we'd leap for joy when another gray hair was found!
DONNA
VAN CLEVE
___ But on the other hand, how many Christian adults would have baby-soft, wrinkle-free skin? How many young people would have a good set of wrinkles started? Our walk with the Lord would be obvious to everyone.
___ If this side effect began in each of our lives today, would our behavior change? Or would we hide out like lepers and apply age-inducing cream on our skin before we faced our Christian peers? Would we spend exorbitant amounts of money at the beauty salons to create a godly head of silver? Would some of us invest in walking canes or hearing aides in order to give off the appearance of godliness?
___ But God chose to show spiritual growth in another way. He chose the evidence of fruit ... fruit of the spirit. And the spiritual fruit our branches would bear are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23a). And the greatest fruit of a Christian is another person coming to know Christ.
___ Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
___ We all need to take a look at our branches to see if we're bearing fruit. Some Christians have fruits of the spirit hanging all over them in the way they walk and talk, in the way they act and react to situations, in the way they care and share, and in the way they know the word of God and are bold enough to tell folks about the Lord.
___ If we're hard-pressed to find any fruit, even in the midst of regular church attendance, singing in the choir and serving on every church committee--things others could outwardly mistake for spiritual maturity--we might ought to check to see if the branch is attached to the Vine.
___ Home and family are the truest litmus tests of the fruits of the Spirit. Our spouses and children know if God is working in our lives or if the fruit we bear is plastic.
___ "Kids! Cut that out or I'm gonna slap a knot on your heads! We're almost to church--honey, is my banana on straight?"
___ "Yes, dear, but your grapes of wrath are showing …"
___ Our families see if the words we spout at church are lived at home. A parent's testimony that brings tears to everyone's eyes at church means nothing to the children when they see that the testimony remains at church and doesn't come home with the father or mother they know.
___ It's ironic that we are sometimes the least successful in demonstrating the fruits of the spirit to the people we love the most. But the home should be the first proving ground of our relationship to Christ. And if we find there that the fruit of our spirits is immature, artificial or even barren, we must remove anything that is hindering the flow from the Vine.
___ Donna Van Cleve is director of the public library in Cotulla and is a member of First Baptist Church in Cotulla, where she is church pianist.
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