4 Points About Processing Information and Spiritual Growth
Ever wonder why things don’t make sense? People need time to process.
Matthew 13 says: 10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “‘You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. 15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’ 16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Ever wonder why things don’t make sense? People need time to process, and through processing, things make sense.
Here are 4 point from the text about processing information and spiritual growth:
(1) Parables challenge us to think
Parables help us grow.
Parables challenge us to process allegory and apply it to our lives. Parables, because they’re heavy on allegory, also help us connect the dots more easily. It helps us grasp concepts more quickly. The disciples had greater access to Jesus than did the crowds, and so they had more time to ask questions and get direct answers. Jesus knew that His time with the crowds was more limited, so He had to help them connect things more quickly, so that they would be able to take the truths of God with them in memorable and longer-lasting bits of information.
The easier we can make connections, the easier it is to grow. We must be about the business of helping people make connections that click between the Bible and their lives.
(2) Having a foundation or framework is necessary
I believe that one of the reasons that Jesus chose the twelve was that they had a decent foundation in the Old Testament Scripture. If they had not had a proper foundation, little of what Jesus was doing would have made sense. But because they had a foundation, Jesus was able to build on it with His teachings and His miracles.
Having a foundation is necessary for us too. That is how God grows us, by adding layers of what we know. You can’t jump to the hard stuff without the basic understanding, or it will never make sense. There are just some classes, and things we have to study, in order for the complex, perhaps more fun stuff to come together. You can’t get to calculus without first working through algebra. The same thing goes with God; you can’t understand the deep, special secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven without first understanding the basics of Jesus, faith, and the nature of God.
(3) People need time to process
We often don’t take the time that we should to reflect on our experiences. We’re so busy, we constantly move from one thing to the next, possibly never taking the time to learn from our mistakes as well as being able to celebrate our wins. If we don’t intentionally build time into our schedules to reflect, things will continue not to make sense. Ask questions, write notes, reflect, and use these things to process where you’re stalling or what is working.
(4) People won’t grow when they don’t care
You won’t grow if you don’t care because it shows you don’t want to grow. We just want what’s at the end of the rainbow. It’s a process and it calls for intentionality. We have to be serious about growing in God if we want to understand the deep truths of the Bible and make the world better. That only comes from caring about the entirety of God’s Kingdom, not just the selfish part we want of it.
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God needed a way to get people prepared for the difficult way of thinking about the cross. No one wants to think about the severity of sin and the penalty we all deserve for our transgressions. But God’s grace, along with some difficult teaching and a compassionate teacher paved the way for what would stun the world about how far our Lord was willing to go to make things right. If we connect the dots, have a foundation/framework, take the time to process, and we care, then God will show us even greater things. Amen.
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