Got Milk? The milk campaign has been long lived. I remember in public school the milk box promotion - if you opened your carton and it MOOOOO’ed, you won a prize! Then it moved on to commercials of famous athletes and hockey players with a milk mustache accompanied by exposing a little muscle. The point was to get more people drinking milk because it is a great source of calcium and vitamin D which promotes healthy bones etc. This idea is debated by some, seeing as we are the only mammals that wean from mother’s milk and then continue with the cow’s version. None the less, its fairly normal us to drink milk.What is not normal, is what my little eyes saw today.
I was driving out in the country when I observed something that made me hit the breaks, raise my eye brows….and scratch my head. As I pulled over to rub my eyes and refocus….I discovered, my eyes were not fooling me. I was witnessing an adult cow, a heifer drinking from another heifer’s udder. Yes, a grown cow was drinking milk from another grown cow?
How weird, how awkward, how un-natural looking!
I rolled down my window with hopes that English could turn to cow-an-eese …. “Hey….guess what….you are past that now….no milk for you – you are suppose to graze on the ground now…WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”
I continued on my way home…kind of offended at the graphic picture, with a couple jokes also running through my head while wanting to laugh my head off. I shared with Jeff what had just saw, and we belly laughed at the thought of the awkward image. His suggestion for a post title..."This Teet's Not For You!" This had me in hysterics for sure.
Seriously though, this real time illustration was too good for me not to share, because this is totally what we can be like. No, not reverting back to breast feeding days in a physical sense, but sometimes people’s spiritual growth takes a back seat and growth is stunted. Sadly, I’ve known people who’ve both lost their growth by walking away from God, and some who’ve became apathetic. I’ve witnessed others stayed in the same life patterns, and not really grown up in God's plan for their lives. The issues that contribute to stunted growth are diverse…hurt, rejection, sin, abuse, sense of entitlement, business, and selling out to chasing a dollar, self indulgence, or love in all the wrong places. None the less, their pursuit of God stayed in park.
The writer to the Hebrews says, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.” Hebrews 5:11-13
There are so many things that can distract a person from their relationship with God. But when we allow distractions to win, growth stops. In fact, scripture would indication that you can revert back to a “spiritual infant” of sorts. First, human nature tends to forget, and we like the path of least resistance. Second, if we are not ingesting God’s truth then we are more bound to buy into untruth and find ourselves far from God’s intention for our lives. The more time and distance there is between you and God’s Word, the easier it is to make decisions based on human wisdom, not God’s.
God has a greater plan for us that to remain as acquaintances, or to only know tid bits of scripture. He wants a deeper relationship and more intimate knowledge of who He is. He offers more than infantile fragility – but to grow our faith to maturity that is unshakable. This comes through consistency, and positioning ourselves to learn about the more in depth character of God.
Hebrews 6:1-3 continues on the same theme, “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment all over again. And God permitting, we will do so.”
Did you catch the last part of that verse? There is value in starting over, or picking up where you left off. You aren’t out of the race…And if you are going strong, keeping things in place to endure. Move beyond infancy in your faith, towards maturity….staying where you don’t belong just is awkward….like that adult cow drinking from an udder. Get the real stuff…the sustenance you need to grow.
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly;” 1Corinthians 9:24,26 So you can say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 1 Timothy 4:7
