Spiritual maturity isn’t pretending
that everything is really the same
that is easy, but if that were true
why is everyone so different
It isn’t there in the flow of arrogant, easy words
in the hard rules enforcing hatred
it isn’t there in the bellowing condemnation
think, if we really could become guilty by association
Jesus would have never come down from heaven
Spiritual maturity is welcoming the lost and alien
even if you think she is strange
and she thinks you are even stranger
it is loving your enemy
even when he acts like you
Spiritual maturity is most often learned during the trials
that force us to our knees
not through the words of knowledge that only inflate our pride
it is said that a truly righteous man lives out what little he knows
that the valley of suffering is the seminary where a prophet learns
even as he stumbles, through humility he grows ever stronger
electrified by the same power that set the sun on fire
tossed by the violent sorrow, shaped by a struggle so ugly
the blindfold is torn away and the wise man starts to see all the opportunity we have to create beauty