On Completion & Growing Up

Last updated on: August 16, 2018 at 2:22 pm by Zach Hoag

On Completion & Growing Up 2018-08-16T14:22:02-05:00 Zach Hoag

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

God’s intention was to make known to them just what rich glory this mystery contains, out there among the nations. And this is the key: the king, living within you as the hope of glory! He is the one we are proclaiming. We are instructing everybody and teaching everybody in every kind of wisdom, so that we can present everybody grown up, complete, in the king. That’s what I am working for, struggling with all his energy which is powerfully at work within me (Colossians 1:27-29, KNT).

There are times in life when profound completion happens and we really, truly, grow up.

Recently, I completed (I mean, actually, totally finished) my first book Nothing but the Blood: The Gospel According to Dexter. Writing this book was not just hard because writing books is hard; it was especially hard because of the season of life in which I wrote it. Intense growing pains. Wrenching transition. It began with the untimely death of a woman who was like a sister to me, and it continued with conflict and opposition surrounding our 3-year-old church plant (which has since entered a season of replanting after the conflict). It also included the birth of our second little girl, Pippa, and all the change that brings to family dynamics, routines, and rhythms. Oh, and it entailed moving, twice, the latter of which occurred a week and a half ago into our very own fixer-upper complete with all kinds of projects and tasks.

But in the life of faith, the outward changes often serve as signposts of spiritual shiftings. This is what Paul is explaining to the Colossian church – it’s all about growing up spiritually into a kind of completion. Not that we ever fully arrive at some pristine spiritual maturity before the resurrection and renewal on the last day; but perhaps Paul is hinting at a kind of tangible spiritual life stage that is something like finally entering adulthood. It’s a completion in the same way that marrying, having children, and settling down in a direction for your life is a completion. Development never stops – but it does crest the ascent in events like these.

At any rate, Paul and his apostolic collaborators aim to “present” the Colossian community complete, grown up, in the king.

Underlying this explanation, I think, are all of Paul’s covenantal themes and thoughts: the old covenant of tribal law was a babysitter for, well, babies. The new covenant of Israel’s Messiah for the whole world is here to make us grown-ups. Likewise, the church – the new people of God, defined by faith and not tribal markers – are a growing-up kind of people in a particular sense. That is, the spiritual core of the human condition – the heart, the spirit, the light within us (Jn. 1), the imago Dei, our true self – is barely tapped by human beings before they enter the Messiah-people and begin the process of becoming truly human in him. As Wright has said, this is a different kind of virtue, one that entails becoming human in a way most people never imagine. It is unique to the church of Jesus. Completion does not exist outside of it.

That is not to say that many churches exemplify this reality all that well. Which brings me back to the conflict of this last season. It had a purpose, given by God – it was meant to grow us up. It was meant to bring us to completion. This does not mainly have to do with outward church success – but it does have to do with the people of God ascending to that new height. It does have to do with each of us, and us together, finally knowing ourselves as we are in the King, not being tossed with the waves of identity like sailors stranded on a dinghy.

Stable. Rooted. Steadfast.

Anchored.

Complete.

Grown up.

One may actually have this experience spiritually, and a community may even have it together (by and large), though it is not universal in the churches, sadly. It takes time. It takes workers struggling with all the energy that God works within them. It is the path of much resistance. But it’s worth everything.

Lord, let it be that this is occurring, even now, in my life, and in the lives of those you’ve entrusted to me in your church.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

July 22, 2012

Pentecost & Planting

Next Post

August 31, 2012 One Year and a Book

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2018 August 2018 July 2018 July 2017 May 2017 January 2017 November 2016 October 2016 August 2016 July 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 March 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 March 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz