ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

Many approaches to spiritual growth assume that the same methods will produce the same growth in different people -- but they don’t.  Because you have been created by God as a unique person, His plan to grow you will not look the same as His plan to grow anyone else.  What would grow an orchid would drown a cactus.  What would feed a mouse would starve an elephant.  All of those entities need light, food, air, and water -- but in different amounts and conditions.  The key is not treating every creature alike; it is finding the unique conditions that help each creature grow.

Imagine a doctor’s office where every patient is told, “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.”  If I have a headache, that is great advice, but if my appendix has just burst, I will be dead before morning.  Imagine a store that sells only one kind of shirt -- one color, style, fabric, and size -- and makes the same deal on pants.  There are no “one-size-fits-all” stores, because God made people in different sizes.  Imagine a parent who thinks, ‘No matter how many kids I have, I will treat them each exactly the same way.  Each kid will be a blank slate for me to write on, pliable clay for me to mold.  They will all be motivated by the same rewards, impacted by punishment the same way, and attracted by the same activities.’

What obliterates these ideas? Reality, such as actually having children and becoming quickly aware that every human being is different.  If we really want to help someone grow, we will have to help them in a way that fits their wiring.

-- John Ortberg in “The Me I Want To Be”

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