What Does Spiritual Growth Look Like?

A conversation with some online friends last night got me to thinking about spiritual growth, and how it doesn’t always look like we expect it to.  We can sometimes be guilty of selling ourselves — and God — short, because we don’t see the kind of growth we’re looking for, so we assume we haven’t grown.  I’ve observed, however, that spiritual growth can take on several forms.

Obvious, Fast Growth

There is, of course, the obvious growth, where we can look back over the year and see the change. This is like seeing leaves on a tree, or big, juicy  fruit, where before there was nothing but bare branches.

Obvious, Slower Growth

This same type of growth can be more subtle, too: obvious, external, but smaller in degree.  In this case, someone else may notice it more readily in us than we notice it in ourselves.  We almost certainly notice it more when looking back over a longer period of time than we do in the week-to-week or month-to-month.

Restful “Growth”

There is also a restful sort of growth, like in a sabbath year for the land:

And the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD.  Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD.  You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard…for it is a year of rest for the land.'”  (Lev. 25:1-5)

Okay, so maybe this can’t strictly be considered growth, but it’s a healthy non-growth; it isn’t a lack.

It’s a time of restoration, that growth might be more productive in the coming years than it would be without this time of rest and restoration of nutrients.  In the meantime, the trees/vines/plants still produced.

Invisible Growth

The last type of spiritual growth that came to mind for me, though, is the one I’ve given the most thought to, and been most encouraged by.  See, this is the kind of growth produced during those times of “just surviving,” and it’s the type of growth I have personally become most acquainted with in recent years.  We have had several years of a “just surviving,” desert time, from which we are just now beginning to emerge.  During this desert time, I often felt as though I was not growing at all.  I’m learning as “spring” is beginning to be restored for us, that that is just not true.

The last type of growth isn’t directly visible, because it’s underground – the growth of roots.  Now, I’m not saying that we can’t grow any spiritual roots in easier times!  But in these desert times, like trees, our roots have to plunge ever deeper in search of life-sustaining water.

The tree in drought may sometimes even appear to be dead, because every bit of energy it can muster is diverted to this quest for water.  The energy is thus exhausted, and there is nothing left for the production of fruit, or even leaves.

This growth, however, is significant!  It is what allows the tree to remain standing, remain living, until easier times.  It looks like nothing is happening; indeed, it may even look like its health is deteriorating, but below the surface the tree is growing ever stronger.  And, when more normal conditions are restored, the branches will begin to bud again, as green and fruitful as ever — and stronger than before the drought.