Creating Capacity

Andy Crouch, author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, did a seminar at my school today. There may be successive posts on the various ideas discussed, but for now, this was the highlight:

"God does not dump relief on us without creating capacity in us."

While Crouch made this statement in a different context, I found it applicable to spiritual formation. Over the last few years, I have thought a lot about how people grow as they follow Christ and what I can do as a minister to facilitate growth and transformation in others.

We often pray for quick solutions: immediate victory over sin, resolution in a conflict, or provision for a need. But God often answers by taking us through a process. I work part-time in an elementary school and three times a week I am in a 4th grade class during math time. As the students work through problems, they ask me if they got the right answer. In response, I ask them how they got their answer. Because it's more important to me that they know why an answer is correct, than it is for them to have the right numbers written on their paper. Maybe there is more to be learned in seasons of unanswered prayer, when relief is denied so our thought processes or character will be developed in a new way.

I like the idea of God creating capacity in us because it speaks of having greater ability than we did before. This is the result of difficulty and struggle, what some call growing pains.

In every season of my life, more is demanded of me. Whether it's thinking on a deeper level, accomplishing a greater number of tasks, or taking on increased responsibility, each new season challenges me to stretch beyond the ability I think I have. In the beginning, I find the new season impossible. I cry and scream and protest because it's difficult and sometimes painful. But as I grow and adapt, somehow I find a way to meet the new expectations. At the end of that season, I see that my capacity has indeed increased and I can do more than I thought was possible.