growing slowly
- Alysia Miller
- Mar 8
- 4 min read
March 2026 Issue No. 15
HONEST LIFE | SLOW GROWTH | DEEPLY ROOTED
WELCOME
Welcome to Invitations. My deep hope is that this monthly newsletter will serve as an invitation to consider ideas, practices, and images that will enrich your life. I hope you’ll find fresh perspectives on living a honest, spiritual life, deepening connections between God and others, and permission to grow slowly.
"A poor use of willpower is grinding on in self-reliance; a good use is responding to the inner voice of love." Brian Morykon
Lent is not a time to try harder.
A few years ago actor and Catholic Mark Wahlberg went on the Today Show to talk about the season of lent and how he practices it as part of his faith. Producers dubbed his practice as his "40 day challenge" and the internet memes ensued.
Our culture is constantly offering us ways we can improve ourselves, so it is no surprise producers thought this tagline might catch some attention; and perhaps it accurately reflected how they understood the season and practices. There is definitely a temptation to see spiritual practices as life hacks for a better you--meditation daily for reduced stress, repentance to feel better (or in some circles, to look spiritual), or fasting for increased self-control.
But what if the season of lent was not about refocusing ourselves so we can be better, but about remembering our belovedness? It's less about finding our own greatness, but finding practices that help us lean into the greatness of God.
The season of Lent provides a set apart time for the church to remember her belovedness and to honestly reflect on what is broken about us and the world, not as a way to earn anything, but as a way to enter more deeply and honestly into life with Christ.
Here are some personal questions from the Fuller Youth Institute that could help us reflect, but also resist performance with a "try harder" spirituality:
Where do you feel disconnected?
What emotion have you been avoiding lately?
What have you been carrying that no one sees?
What mistakes are you still replaying in your head?
What do you think disqualifies you from being close to God?
And then hear these words from Philippians 1:6 There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.
WORDS TO CONSIDER
From Ronald Rolheiser, Sacred Fire: A Vision for a Deeper Human and Christian Maturity
“The human soul is like a fine wine that needs to ferment in various barrels as it ages
and mellows…Growing up and maturing is precisely a process of fermentation. It does
not happen easily, without effort and without breakdown. But it happens almost
despite us, because such is the effect of a conspiracy between God and nature to
mellow the soul."
SLOW GROWTH
I was watching a Longmont realtor give a video tour of a home she was selling. The home was a gorgeous 1918 bungalow and she highlighted the old-growth wood trim. The trim was painted white, so you couldn't see the wood grain underneath, so I thought it was an interesting bit of information to highlight, but she was drawing attention to the fact that homes were just built differently in 1918 than they are today.
Old growth wood comes from trees that were growing in forests hundreds for hundreds of years. Today, we cultivate trees to grow quickly, which makes the wood less stable and more susceptible to decay and damage. Old growth wood is sturdier, stronger, more easily repaired, and more resistant to rot.
A wise person I know (ahem, Rick Ebbers) has often said "You can't microwave relationships. They've got to be crock-potted." The same is true for the Christian life. There are certain qualities of a mature Christian that can only come with time and experience, and certain qualities of a relationship that come with time and practice. A weathered person knows things that a fresh sapling can not know--and by "know," I mean the head-heart-connection kind of know. The spiritual life isn't a race to maturity; is a long obedience in the same direction.
Because slow growth is good growth. It isn't paced by our hurry and get there culture, but by the Holy Spirit who guides and cares deeply for the people we are becoming. We are on a timeline longer and deeper than what we can see.
So often we lament that we're not where we want to be. We had higher expectations for ourselves. We have regrets over set backs and choices we've made. We are frustrated when we can't see results. But God does not expect immediate results, but puts fertilizer around the fig tree to give it more time to produce good fruit (Luke 13:8). It is OK to grow slowly.
God is No Hurry
by Skye Peterson and Andy Gullahorn
Your Labor is not in Vain
by By Wendell Kimbrough, Paul Zach, and Isaac Wardell
TWO SONGS FOR YOUR PLAYLIST
These two songs speak to the weariness we feel when we feel like we're not measuring up. But they remind me of two important truths: God is with us and loves us, right where we are, not where we should be.
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