Life is simple for my five-year old daughter. She knows nothing of the world other than her family, her likes, her dislikes. There is a very complicated world that surrounds her, but she is incapable of perceiving it because she is five. For me, life is not quite so simple. I have lived through mistakes, I have witnessed tragedy, I have seen real evil, I have a depth of understanding of life and the world that my five year-old daughter does not. I know about bills and taxes and cancer and rape and abortion and economics and politics and history. Because I understand more, I am able to perceive that my daughter’s simple life is couched in a much more complicated world.
I teach my daughter at the pace she is able to comprehend. If I tried to tell her about all the other things in the world that lay outside of her simple perception of it, it would make no sense to her. Whatever I tell her would mean nothing because she has no ability to relate to it, because she is five, and she has only experienced simplicity. As we go through life and we gain experience, as we walk through myriad circumstances, both good and bad, we gain understanding. We gain depth. It is the same way with our relationship with God.
I have four daughters and I deal with each of them at their level of understanding. All four of my daughters’ lives began in simplicity. But as they grow and experience life, they grow in their understanding of the complexities and difficulties of their world that they were incapable of perceiving at a younger age. My job as their mother, is to prepare them for the complexities and difficulties of life that they will inevitably encounter. If I were to continue to relate to my teenager as a five year-old, I would never prepare her for all that she will encounter as she matures. On the other hand, if I were to attempt to relate to my five year-old as a teenager, I will expect things from her that she is not yet capable of understanding.
It is the same way with ministry. We deal with people at various stages of spiritual growth and understanding of God. When we speak of deeper things, those who have not experienced those things are baffled. When we speak of simpler things, those who long for the deeper things are frustrated and demand more. A good shepherd is able to maintain the balance. When you minister solely milk, the mature starve. When you minister solely meat, the immature choke. Discernment is needed to know how to give the proper food at the proper time, because the goal with both milk and meat is preparation. Ministers are called to work according to the will of God in a person’s life, discerning the leading of the Spirit in such a way that they help bring sheep to maturity and to prepare them to stand before their Lord.
(Matt 5:7) Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
(Matt 24:45,46) Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the others their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.
(1 Cor 3:1-3) Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready, for you are still worldly...
(Heb 5:12-14) Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is still an infant, inexperienced in the message of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.
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