Natalie freezes bananas. If the boys don't eat them, she either uses them for banana bread or freezes them for the boys to have as a frozen treat. In their frozen state, they look ripe and ready to eat. Leave these old, frozen bananas at room temperature for a little while, however, and they start oozing their juices and turning brown quickly. After Owen walked away from his marshmallows and bananas to play trains today, I walked by his bowl and saw a mess. The bananas' frozen condition caused them to look ripe and ready to eat, but just a bit of time of thawing out proved these bananas were far from ripe.
Many followers of Jesus have a similar story. If we're honest, for many of us in many seasons of our journey, our spiritual life acts a lot like these bananas. We had a spiritual experience in the past: our moment of conversion, a youth camp, a mission trip, a significant life event where God "showed up" (as if he isn't present in every moment and every detail of our lives). Sadly, rather than go forward in faith and growing, we get frozen. We don't mean to "freeze" but instead settle for the high of the past over the highs and lows of the daily journey of faith with God.
If we are honest and step away from that experience, refusing to stop letting our best days being a day or season in the past, we see that our faith has become a bit rotten and unappealing. When we "unfreeze" the past, we see that what looked ripe really isn't fresh at all. I've found myself there and been humbled and embarrassed. No new news of what God has been doing. No new experiences with God, no leaps of faith. No new words from God's Spirit about how I ought to love him or other people -- just a reminder of that time in the past when God revealed himself as loving and powerful and involved.
God doesn't want our faith to be frozen, locked into a moment in the past, appearing ripe and healthy but in reality just a few moments from melting down and turning brown. Nor does he want our faith to be rotten and worthless and unappealing. God wants to give us a fresh word, a fresh experience, a fresh encounter, a fresh leap of faith, a fresh filling of his Spirit.
When was the last time you felt filled and fresh (or refreshed)? If its been too long, tell God you're sorry you got frozen and ask him to reveal himself in a new way and to give you a new adventure. Then take a step. Take a leap. Like Jesus' disciple Peter, jump out on the water from the safety and comfort of the boat.
Disclaimer: It may not be as life giving as salvation, as emotional as camp, or as transformational as a mission trip. Then again, it might be. Either way, it will be fresh, authentic, and personal -- and it will be new. God wants to do something today in our lives that he has never done before.
"Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43:18-19.
...and yes, we give our kid marshmallows and frozen bananas for breakfast.
