It turns out I was wrong — not about everything, but about a lot of things. Chances are, if you’ve read anything I wrote in the past, some of what you read was, to put it gently, flat out bone-headedly wrong. I could probably spend the rest of my life trying to retract and correct everything I said, did, or wrote in the past that I now see differently, but I doubt it would be worth the effort. Besides, do I really want to revisit my misguided notions from yesteryear?

I’d like to think that I’ve matured, that I’ve worked through some stuff, and learned some valuable lessons along the way. By the grace of God, that’s true. But I’ve hardly arrived. Twenty years from now, I’ll probably look back and marvel at how clueless I still was in 2014.

Come to think of it, that’s a good thing. Who wants to be in the same place, with the same ideas and understanding, that they were twenty years ago? Aren’t we supposed to mature?

If you consider yourself a Christian and you’ve walked with God for more than a decade, and you haven’t had your faith and beliefs put to the test — if you haven’t endured trials and suffering, faced sorrow and disappointment, been hurt or wounded by people you trust, experienced loss and grief — if you haven’t had your life shaken up enough to force you to grow and mature and change, then I have one question for you: are you really sure you have been walking with Christ all this time? Actually I have another question as well: don’t you think it’s time you stopped stagnating and started really living — and don’t you think it’s time you let Christ actually make a difference in your life? (OK, that was a third question. I got carried away.)

Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I need to hasten with a disclaimer: growth and change isn’t necessarily the result of a continuos and close walk with God. He is, after all, the One Who came up with the idea of grace. He is a pursuer of prodigals, but He doesn’t force Himself on us.

We are either growing and changing, or we’re dead.

So, yeah…I was wrong about all sorts of stuff, and I have not yet reached a state of infallibility, nor do I expect to. God is still at work, refining me and purifying me, correcting me, and setting me straight.

And that’s a good thing…a very good thing. I wouldn’t have it any other way. (Not that I don’t balk at times, but that’s another story!)

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