For far too long the church has had an unhealthy and unrealistic expectation that all people should be at the same place at the same time.
I love this quote from “When The Heart Waits” by Sue Monk Kidd,
“If all souls developed in cookie-cutter fashion, we would have spirituality by duplication rather than by waiting and transformation.”
In so many different ways we often communicate…
Everyone should be happy. (But at times even Jesus was sad.)
Everyone should be balanced. (But doesn’t God speak to us in our seasons of imbalance.)
Everyone should be serving. (But didn’t Jesus commend the woman who just sat at his feet.)
Everyone should relate to God in the same way. (But isn’t Scripture full of examples of different people relating to God in different ways.)
These expectations have done immense damage to the body of Christ.
We need to help people begin to understand that God can and will meet them in the midst of whatever season they may find themselves.
We need to help people begin to understand that God can and will work differently in your life than He has worked in my life.
I don’t have all the answers, I just know souls don’t develop in cookie-cutter fashion and churches were never intended to become factories which cranked out people who would be at the same place at the same time.
