DID GOD REALLY CREATE EVERYTHING? Part Twelve — Why Does Spiritual Growth Take a Lifetime?

 

DID GOD REALLY CREATE EVERYTHING?

Part Twelve — Why Does Spiritual Growth Take a Lifetime?

By Reverend Michael Cook, D.Div.
Red Bull Illuminati Ministry

If God desires humanity to become wise...

Why does wisdom take so long?

If love is the highest good...

Why do we spend so much of our lives learning how to love?

If truth is eternal...

Why does it often take us years to recognize it?

These questions have occupied seekers for thousands of years.

Perhaps the answer is found not in how God works...

But in how love itself grows.

Look around creation.

Nothing truly valuable appears all at once.

The tallest oak once existed as a tiny acorn hidden beneath the soil.

The butterfly begins its journey crawling upon leaves before it ever takes flight.

A river does not carve a canyon in a single afternoon.

It shapes the earth through countless years of faithful persistence.

Creation itself teaches patience.

Why should the soul grow differently?

We often expect instant transformation.

We pray once...

Read one book...

Attend one service...

Have one profound experience...

And expect our entire lives to change overnight.

Sometimes remarkable changes do happen.

But lasting transformation is usually much quieter.

It unfolds one decision at a time.

One lesson at a time.

One act of love at a time.

God seems to delight in process.

Not because He wishes to delay our growth...

But because process forms character.

Imagine if someone handed a child the keys to a great kingdom.

Would that child know how to govern wisely?

Power without maturity becomes dangerous.

Knowledge without wisdom becomes destructive.

Freedom without responsibility becomes chaos.

Character must develop before greater responsibility can safely be entrusted to us.

Perhaps this is one reason life unfolds in seasons.

There is a season for learning.

A season for struggling.

A season for healing.

A season for serving.

A season for teaching others what we ourselves have learned.

No season is wasted.

Even winter prepares the earth for spring.

Many people become discouraged because they cannot see their own growth.

They compare today's struggles with yesterday's failures.

They forget to look back ten years.

Five years.

Even one year.

If you pause for a moment...

Are you the same person you once were?

Perhaps you are more patient.

More compassionate.

More understanding.

Perhaps you have learned to forgive someone you once believed you never could.

Perhaps you no longer fear what once terrified you.

Perhaps your priorities have changed.

Growth often becomes visible only when we look backward.

The gardener rarely notices the flowers growing day by day.

Then suddenly one morning...

The garden is blooming.

So it is with the soul.

God is not merely interested in changing our circumstances.

He is interested in changing us.

Many people ask God to remove every difficulty from their lives.

Yet some of our greatest virtues are born through difficulty.

Patience cannot grow where nothing tests it.

Courage cannot grow where nothing frightens us.

Mercy cannot grow where no forgiveness is required.

Hope shines brightest in darkness.

Faith becomes strongest when certainty disappears.

This does not mean God delights in our pain.

Rather, it reminds us that love has an extraordinary ability to bring beauty even from life's hardest moments.

One of the greatest mysteries of spiritual growth is that we often understand yesterday's lesson only after today's challenge arrives.

Life has a way of preparing us without our realizing it.

The person who once comforted you during your darkest season unknowingly prepared you to comfort someone else years later.

The hardship you survived became someone else's hope.

Your scars became another person's reassurance that healing is possible.

Nothing learned in love is ever wasted.

Perhaps eternity itself is not a destination where learning ends.

Perhaps it is where learning continues without fear.

Without pride.

Without selfishness.

An endless journey into greater wisdom.

Greater beauty.

Greater compassion.

Greater love.

If God is truly Infinite...

Then there will always be more to discover.

More goodness to express.

More truth to understand.

More love to share.

Growth itself may be one of God's greatest gifts.

Not because we are incomplete in worth...

But because love is infinitely creative.

It never reaches the end of its possibilities.

This changes how we see our own lives.

We no longer ask,

"Why am I not finished?"

Instead we begin asking,

"What is God teaching me today?"

Every conversation becomes a lesson.

Every friendship becomes a lesson.

Every disappointment becomes a lesson.

Every joy becomes a lesson.

Every ordinary day becomes holy ground because it offers another opportunity to become more loving than we were yesterday.

Perhaps that has always been God's purpose.

Not simply to make us comfortable...

But to make us compassionate.

Not simply to increase our knowledge...

But to enlarge our hearts.

Not simply to prepare us for heaven...

But to teach us how to bring a little more heaven into the world today.

So be patient with yourself.

Be patient with your journey.

The soul does not bloom all at once.

It unfolds one season at a time.

Trust the process.

Trust the lessons.

Trust that every sincere step toward truth, compassion, and love is leading you closer to the person you were created to become.

For the greatest masterpieces are never painted in a single brushstroke.

Neither is the human soul.

In our next chapter, we will explore one of the most beautiful truths in all of spiritual life:

Why humility, rather than power, is the true beginning of wisdom.

Until then...

Keep growing.

Keep learning.

Keep loving.

For eternity may simply be the endless adventure of becoming more fully alive in the Light.

Peace, Light, and Understanding to All.

— Reverend Michael Cook, D.Div.
Red Bull Illuminati Ministry