Maturity Sign #10: Stand where you’re supposed to be standing and let God provide the rest.

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.”

— Philippians 3:12-15

ADVENT: WEEK 1

Here we are ending the first week of Advent, and appropriately, as I write, it is gloomy, cold, and rainy outside. Advent is a season of darkness and waiting. We have hope and each week the light grows brighter, but we are reminded that we are waiting for the Second Coming and full redemption is yet to come. The world is broken and bent and evil runs amok, and we live by faith, not by sight. Yet, Christmas is coming! Can you feel the tension? Let's keep walking together through this season in faith.

Is believing God is present and active and good easy for you these days or difficult? Part of the reminder of Advent is that if it is difficult, it will get better, and if it is easy, just wait and difficult days will come. So, we sit and wait and hope and long for Jesus. May he meet you in fresh ways in this season.

This week we close out our Maturity Series with Father Ron Rolheiser's tenth sign of maturity or Christlikeness:

10 "Stand where you are supposed to be standing, and let God provide the rest."

With this letter we close out this series and #10, like each item on the list, would not have been on my list but was obvious as soon as I considered it.

I have thought about this one quite a bit since I read it last year, and I am struck at how often immaturity is revealed as we seek to fill the gaps that only God is meant to fill. Let's begin by clarifying what Rolheiser intends with this language of standing and letting God provide.

CONTENTMENT

The root of "standing where you are supposed to be standing" is contentment, but simply recognizing this does not explain how to do it nor does it give enough to help us move forward, so we need to dig some more.

Let's think about it this way, I would say that a longing to be somewhere else is a sign of youth. How many young people don't dream of leaving their locale and making their mark on the world? This is not a bad thing, but it is a sign of immaturity, almost by definition.

As we grow and move out and become independent and work and build community and become self-aware and step into our gifting and purpose, we realize that we can rest in God's sovereignty and goodness. As I often say, "we can only be where we are", and many of us find ourselves in a restless place, unsatisfied, and discontent, wanting something more from life.

This falls into two categories. One includes those who want to do great things (for God), who are focused on leaving a legacy and being significant. They live with a sense of unfinished-ness and are constantly striving for more. Their thinking: If everyone would just get on board, we could do great things. Each place is just a steppingstone to the bigger and better. Most of us know these people. I was this person for a long season earlier in life. Often, these people have a deep wound driving them, but they are unaware and use spiritual language to mask it in righteousness.

The other group is made up of people who have taken on a victim mentality. The world is against them. If only they could get a break or did or didn't have the bad boss or teacher or spouse or kids or disability or fill-in-the-blank, then they would be successful and happy. This isn't to question the wrongs done to them. I'm neither judging nor condemning, just describing. Just like the first group, this group needs to know they are loved by God and to either repent and/or get the deep healing they need.

You will find adults of all ages in these groups. Although true that longing to be independent is a mark of youth, discontentment with our place in the world doesn't discriminate against age. Thus, it is a sign of spiritual maturity to trust God has us where he wants us and can do what he needs to do to grow us.

In which group do you find yourself most often? Or have you moved into a place of contentment with where you are in life?

SUPPOSED TO BE?

Hopefully this makes sense, but the question arises as to how we know where we are "supposed to be standing". Does this mean we should never move? What about a desire for growth? Are missionaries wrong for wanting to go across the world? What about people in business who want to get promoted? Can I move to a different region of the country? Of course, the answers to these questions are contextual ("it depends..."), but does that render the point meaningless? I don't think so.

Young Luke Skywalker is the quintessential character for us to consider. He was immature and discontent, but he was also not where he was supposed to be. What was Yoda's criticism? Luke was always looking at the horizon and never present where his body was. This changes as he ages to the opposite degree with him unwilling to leave his island by his last movie.

But let's focus on some non-fiction models. The Bible contrasts King Saul and King David. We see in Saul the deep sense of unworthiness, insecurity, and discontent to the point of being harassed by evil spirits. King David, on the other hand, is content to be with the sheep or on the battlefield or in the palace or in a cave. He failed miserably with Bathsheba when he wasn't where he was supposed to be, but he repented and learned and matured. In the New Testament, we see this contrast again with another Saul who became Paul. Paul is always on the move (as he was before conversion as the ambitious Saul) but being on the move is where he is supposed to be. He is not restless and seeking to go from an immature anxiety but rather out of a calling. When the Spirit tells him to stay, he stays. When he is in prison, he worships God. When he is driven out of a town, he flees. He trusts God to "do the rest".

The final example to reflect on is the Israelite horde during the Exodus. They are not supposed to be there, but they listened to the cowardly, faithless spies, so they were stuck. However, once they were stuck, they followed God's leading through the pillar of fire and the cloud. When the cloud moved, they moved; when it stopped, they stopped. This is God's call to us. Abide, we seem to always come back to this simple invitation. "Abide in me..."

CONCLUSION

Thus, we close out this letter and this series with the truest sign of maturity, fully present, trusting God to do the work he has promised to do using the means at his disposal. It isn't about not moving or not desiring or not wanting more or being resigned. No! It is about being fully where we are with God in community. Then, when the call comes to go, we go, fully present with our body, with Jesus, and with our community.

God can mature us in any and every situation or context. I can spend my whole life in a rural village and grow to full maturity or I can be in the big city or constantly on the move or highly educated or only having a fifth-grade education. It doesn't matter to God. We all give assent to this, but have we taken the time to live into it?

I pray that each of us grows in this direction for it is the challenge of our age in a way that it has never been before.

Finding a person who is abiding in Christ, joy-filled, grateful, fully present, non-anxious, free from distraction, and engaged in healthy community is perhaps the rarest occurrence on the planet today. May God multiply these people and may each of us have one in our life.

“Contentment is the only real wealth.”

— Alfred Nobel