I think we would all agree that the emu, Australia’s unofficial national bird, is a national treasure. Yes, they cannot fly, but they are the second-largest bird in the world and are either adorably ugly or weirdly cute. However, Australians have not always been fond of the emu and with good reason. Emus can be quite the pest. Free-roaming herds of emus have been known to invade farms, eat any and everything they can find and trample the rest into the dirt. And in the 1930’s, this was a real problem. To meet a country-wide food shortage, the government subsidized hundreds of new farms along the western coast. The smell of fresh crops must have lofted to the interior of the country because the next thing anyone knew, 20,000 emus had decided to pack up all their belongings, leave the inland regions and journey west. For them, the smell of fresh crops was an open invitation to come to dinner. Oh, and by the way, generally-speaking, emus eat a pound and a half of feed each day. Put that in context: that’s 30,000 pounds of crop devastation per day. To add insult to these injured farmers, the emu migration destroyed hundreds of fences that were designed to keep another pest out, the rabbit. Now, farmers not only had to deal with an evil emu problem, but they also had to deal with those rascally rabbits. It was too much. Australia had to do something. And so, they declared an emu war. A small force, armed with machine guns, were deployed to put an end to the emu menace. No one figured this would take long, after all, the emu isn’t the smartest bird on the fence (their brain weighs the same as four nickels). But while the odds were strongly against them (impossibly so), the emus proved to be a more difficult opponent than anyone thought. When a herd of emus felt like they were in danger, they scattered. When shot (if they even knew they were shot), they ran off.  And when cornered, they bolted out of harm’s way (emus can run 31 mph). As a result, after six days of fierce fighting, the Australian army declared a ceasefire. 2500 rounds of machine-gun ammunition had been fired at the birds, but it is doubtful that a single bird was killed (The Australian government says that 986 emus were killed, but who are you going to believe, some embarrassed Australian officials or an emu?). For the next six decades, an uncertain flag of truce flew over the Emu population, but in 1999, the Australian government confessed they had been soundly defeated and that the only thing to do is to make peace. They declared that emus were a protected species and a welcomed member of Australian society. Way to go, emus!

Here’s the point: Impossible odds aren’t. Your goal may seem unreachable, but do not be deceived.  You can do it, but it will take hard work. And that is true about spiritual growth, as well. What we are trying to do—to grow in our faith—is hard, hard work. What we are trying to do—to be driven by grace, to become a truly loving person, and to be willing to share Christ in word and deed in every situation—often seems impossible, but Jesus never calls us to something that he does not also empower is to do. We are well familiar with Bonhoeffer’s famous dictum: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” That sounds impossible, but we also know what Jesus says (Jn. 11:25): “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.”  Before we tackle today’s core strength, we need to realize both how difficult this topic is and, yet, how possible this topic is. Today’s core strength is: We are all called to grow in our faith (against all odds, we are called to grow into spiritual maturity).

Here’s how we define this core strength:

  1. I am spending sufficient time (and quality time) in prayer, Bible reading and the spiritual disciplines 
  2. I am striving to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) in my life.
  3. I have a growing awareness of God’s deep love for me.
  4. I invest myself daily in confessing my sins, turning from them and delighting in God’s grace and pardon.
  5. I am more willing to take up my cross, die to my own ambition and follow in the way of love like Jesus.
  6. I believe that I can grow more and more into the image of Jesus and am committed to doing so.

For the past month, we have been talking about our plan to grow. Let us see how it works itself out in this category. I’ve added a summary statement after each step in case you don’t want to read the same paragraphs again.  

Step one: Survey and Pray (Evaluate how you are doing in the six items in this category)

Prayerfully, read all six aspects of our definition and assess how you are doing in each item compared to last year.  Have you (1) lost ground, (2) stagnated, (3) growing slowly (4), growing or (5) discovering new breakthroughs? Be as honest as possible, but try to give yourself something more than a “1” for one of these items. And do this prayerfully so that God can lead you through this process, reinforcing your strengths and illuminating your growth areas. Also, remember that no one is going to criticize your answers (or even see your answers—this is just between you and God). Your job here is to be honest—to rejoice in your strengths and to recognize your shortcomings. 

Step two: Select and Detect (Choose two that you want to work on and be on the look-out for the opportunities God will give you to put them into practice)

Look over the six items again. Choose two that you feel are most critical for your spiritual life in this present moment and the two you want to work on. You can choose the two you scored your lowest on or you can choose any two items. It is up to you. Once you have chosen your two, write them down in a prominent place that is easily accessible. You will need to refer to these two often throughout the week, so please write them somewhere memorable.

After writing down your choices, ask God to give you opportunities to put these two items into practice. And once you have prayed for God to direct you, your job is to move through life looking for those good works that God has prepared in advance for you to do. God wants to help you grow in your ability to share your faith. He is even now, placing opportunities in your future for you to put these things into practice. Keep your eyes open for these opportunities and be ready. They come at us fast.

Step three: Embody and Embrace (seek to put your two chosen items into practice this week, plus the THREE items from the past weeks—that means you will need to delete one of the two items you chose last week—so that you are working on five topic sentences this week).

Once you detect one of those opportunities, everything depends on you taking a step of faith and putting your two items into practice. Now, that does not mean we have to enact this item perfectly. You get full points if you just try. Even if you try and then make a royal mess of it, that’s okay. Your job is not to make converts. It never has been. Your job is to be faithful to God’s call; and when God gives you an opportunity, he is calling you to respond in faith. For the next week, whenever you see an opportunity to share your faith, take it.  

But again, our goal is not just to do this for a week; we want to embrace a godly lifestyle. Our first week, we discussed living by grace by embodying two principles from our definition. We then moved on to discuss loving others by embodying two principles from that definition plus one of the two principles from the previous week. Now, we want take one principle from “grace,” and one principle from “love,” and one principle from sharing Christ with others and the two principles from today (that’s five items for this week). In this way, we will be moving toward spiritual growth (again, this is not a formula, but puts us in a place where perhaps we will encounter God).

On the face of it, the emus didn’t stand a chance, but they (somehow) ran to victory. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wondered if spiritual growth was even possible. Maybe it is for some people, but I doubted it was for me. But that is not true. We can all grow in our faith and in our walk with Jesus. It is just that we often mistake how hard spiritual growth is with thinking that it is impossible. There is no doubt that spiritual growth is hard, hard work, but remember the process is important here. If Jesus wanted us to be instantly transformed, he wouldn’t have worked with his disciples over the course of two years. He would have miraculously changed them when he first met them. God values the process. He finds virtue in us striving. He wants us to learn the grace of growing.  

And if the emu, not one of the brightest of all God’s creatures, can beat the odds, so can we.