I was talking online to an old friend from HS the other day and she was telling me about people giving her a hard time about not going to her church service. She's involved in the church, goes to the sunday school classes, teaches a Bible study, and stays in regular fellowship with all of them there, but that seemingly still isn't enough for some of them. Her reasons for skipping out on the regular service seem valid enough... She has a hard time following the preacher, she thinks he's kinda convoluted and rarely uses scripture. So she spends that time reading and studying on her own time. So of course I told her i didn't think she was doing anything wrong, and as long as she was growing in her relationship with Christ, that she was on the right track... (sadly, her friends never even ask how her relationship with Christ is going, they are too caught up in legalistic details, but i don't want to get off on that.)

After a few minutes of making her feel confident about her actions i tell her that there is, of course, a "but" to this whole issue. She may not be wrong, but... is she ready to go deeper? Is she ready for the meat instead of the milk? Is she ready to move past being a spiritual baby and onto being of full age in Christ? Obviously, she is seeking a deeper relationship with Him, so i knew the answer was already yes. So i threw her the verse:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Heb 5:12-14

Sounds wonderful doesn't it? Solid food belongs to those who are of full age and have their senses exercised to discern... and through deductive reasoning, you can also say that those who partake in solid food are skilled in the word of righteousness... and this should be exciting to someone who has found themselves moving past the milk, and to the meat.

But... (and finally here's the real 'but') if you have the meat, you ought to be teachers. This really makes you reflect. I dont think there is anyone that would say they only want milk, but are you willing to step up and teach someone?

Accepting the truth is the only way to be able to change the truth. Accepting the truth is difficult sometimes. We often want things to be other than what they are, and that desire makes us search for evidence that something hidden will come to light and prove things were the way we expected them to be all along.

Meanwhile, had we just accepted events as they happened, unpleasant as they may be, we would have been freed immediately to work on changing things.

Choosing which truth to accept and which to reject is just as bad as rejecting all the truth. We accept pleasant truths and deny unpleasant ones. Or we accept unpleasant truths and deny pleasant ones - you know people that do that, don't you? Go on, tell the truth.

How do you know what the truth is, though?

It's easy, really. Much easier than most would have you believe. The only reason anyone would have you think otherwise is so that they can think otherwise and not be exposed.

Be awake. Pay attention. Ignore nothing that happens to you. Instead of acting as though things will turn out as you expect, give your best effort to make it turn out as you choose. And watch to see how it actually turns out, each action. You'll be wrong at first, because by rejecting the truth in the past, you learned the wrong ideas about how the world works. And it will be painful sometimes. But pain is as much a part of life as joy is…that's the truth.

But as you remain alert, as you stay aware, as you stop explaining away the difference between your expectations and events, you learn. And as you learn, the truth becomes clearer. And you feel strong enough to handle whatever pain comes to you.

But you're actually no stronger than you ever were. You just stop wasting your strength on the imaginary, unnecessary battles that result from denying the truth.