Spring is in the air: the sun is shining, birds are singing, tulips are blooming, buds are appearing on trees and bushes. After a long, cold, hard winter, we are more than ready for spring. And, as new life springs and grows around us, it is appropriate to ask,

"What is your growing edge?"

I have a friend who sometimes asks me that provocative question. It makes me pause - what is my growing edge, other than my expanding waistline and bald spot? It is so easy to fall into a rut of just getting by, day-by-day, doing the stuff that needs to be done (that I can't put off any longer), much of it routine. And it's so tempting to just fritter away any spare time. Do I even have a growing edge?

How about you? What is your growing edge? Where do you sense growth in your mind, your spirit, your faith, your relationships, your joy?

The wonderful Howard Thurman once wrote:

"Look well to the growing edge. All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new lives, fresh blossoms, green fruit. Such is the growing edge! It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. The birth of the child - life's most dramatic answer to death - this is the growing edge incarnate. Look well to the growing edge!"

In this Eastertide, we celebrate that ours is a God of new life and new birth. The Glory to God hymnal includes Natalie Sleeth's beloved hymn:

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;

In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!

In the cold and snow of winter there's a spring that waits to be,

Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

There's a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;

There's a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.

From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,

Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;

In our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity,

In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,

Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

If our faith is alive, then it has growing edges as well. As 2 Peter says, But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What are the growing edges in your faith? If you can't readily name them, then perhaps you haven't been tending your faith, watering it with prayer, scripture, and spiritual conversation.

Growth is a sign of life in churches as well. What are your congregation's growing edges? Numerical growth is great, but growth is not only in numbers; it can also be in spiritual depth, in mutual love and care, in service to the community, in joyful worship, in closeness to Christ.

In this Eastertide, this spring, may you continue to grow in grace, in faith, in caring for one another, in serving your community, in walking humbly with your Lord.

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