Growing Pains

In memory of my crazy, funny, oh-so-loved brother in law, Vann Whitt

Growing is rarely easy...whether it's growing physically, mentally, financially, or even spiritually, there often seems to be some pain associated with that growth. I can remember being a little girl and my aching legs waking me up in the middle of the night. My mom would rub them down with rubbing alcohol, the warm/cool effects would ease my pain, and eventually I'd drift back off to sleep. Over time, it became obvious why my legs had hurt so much...my legs were growing while I was sleeping. There was one year between 9th and 10th grade I went from being one of the shortest to one of the tallest in my class. No wonder there was pain involved...my body was stretching :)!

Recently, we have experienced some growing pains in our spiritual lives as well. As many of you already know, we spent the first 10-12 years of our marriage growing our family and our finances. Big houses, big country clubs, big cars, big toys, and big vacations slowly became very important to us...and as our children grew older, those things were becoming important to them as well. Over the last few years God has been working in us little by little to rid us of some of those selfish desires, and we knew that our decision to come to seminary would mean even more life style changes. The fear of not obeying the Lord's calling was enough to motivate us to move, so we willingly got out of the boat to follow Him.

After almost three months of making adjustments, forming friendships, and living on a new econo-sized budget, we finally had a moment where we realized we were having growing pains. Although the Lord has already chiseled away some of our worldly, materialistic natures, we saw that there were still hints of it in us all. There was still within us all that desire to have more...more clothes, more toys, more shoes, more money, more ALL! In A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God, he says, "There is within the human heart a tough, fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets things with a deep and fierce passion." We all have this fallen nature, and we will all face the temptation to allow our things to take the throne in our heart. Tozer goes on to say "The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser will not lie down and die in obedience to our command. He must be torn out of our heart like a plant from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw...." In order to know God on a more intimate, personal level, we must go through this testing. This recent event in our family was painful for us all...all five of us cried...all 5 of us struggled with our old natures...even the kids experienced that hunger for their "old" lives. It was painful...it was ugly.But let me just tell you...God is good. He picked us up, dusted us off, loved on us, restored us and comforted us like no other Father could do. A horrible evening ended in group hugs, tears, and a renewed sense of direction for our journey. This is not just Chris's journey. It's all our journeys. I firmly believe that the Lord is just as concerned with MaryBeth's, Benton's and Brandon's time at seminary as He is with me and Chris. There was divine purpose in our pain...WE WERE GROWING!!!

We are all on our own journeys, and God wants to use us all. I challenge you to ask yourself..."Who is on the throne in my heart? Am I willing to possess nothing to be more like Christ? Am I willing to go through the growing pains of being stripped of some temporary comforters that I love so much in exchange for the One True Comforter? I hope our transparency on our journey can be an encouragement to you on yours. Pray for us as we pray for you.

Out of the boat,

Chris and Amanda
MaryBeth, Benton and Brandon

p.s. Happy Birthday to my nephew Alex Williams...16!!