You are the Garden

The Myth of Spiritual Growth

Photo by Erda Estremera on Unsplash

After 14 years of being a pastor I can’t begin to tell you what spiritual growth is.

I can tell what it’s not though. It’s not doctrine or knowledge. It doesn’t take place in the head. It’s not found in a creed. Or a weekend experience. Or an Alpha event. Or a program. It’s not found in a book (nope, not even that book). You won’t find it in a podcast, or any other tool used to transfer information.

Actually, I’m not even sure that spiritual growth is real…at least not in the Merriam-Webster definition of growth. Can you expand the sky? Can you make the ocean more wet? Much like nature, I think spirit simply is. Yet in our pursuit for more we’ve hidden it from ourselves.

We strive to be smarter. To be certain. To know.

We ravage books, devour podcasts, and binge sermons—convinced that on the other side of effort is growth. But what if the striving is the problem? What if that energy keeps leading us into the desert instead of the garden—instead of into ourselves?

Maybe we’re the gardens and the seeds have always been there. What if our work is to tend to our lives and remove what’s blocking the seed from breaking through? Pay attention to what naturally grows when we remove things from our lives.

In the absence of threat, kindness sprouts.

In a land without scarcity, patience blooms. When there’s nothing to dread, joy flows. When you remove judgement, worry, and insecurity you cultivate gentleness, peace & self-control.

There’s nothing to add to spiritual things. They just need space to be expressed. Maybe our work is to heal. To let go of the lie that we’re dirty and broken things. To remember we aren’t bad things pretending to be good, but good things who simply forgot who we were. Beloved.

We can live simply and generously with all of creation. We can love ourselves and believe that that same love can restore all things.

We don’t have to keep frantically searching for the car keys in our hand—convinced that we’ve lost them.

The work of being formed into embodied love is simply to heal from the illusion that you’re not.

✌🏼🧡