By Stephen W. Smith

In the 4th century AD, Gregory of Nyssa wrote these words, “Sin is the refusal to grow.” Often we think of sin as things we do or acts we commit or omit that get us into trouble in our spiritual life. But I’m so thankful to discover Gregory of Nyssa’s remarkable words:  “Sin is the refusal to grow.”  It makes a lot of sense to me to believe that to not grow or to choose to not keep growing is a huge mistake.

 To stay the same; to remain fixed in our dogmas can be a detriment to our spiritual health and vitality. We were created to grow, not just physically but emotionally and in all things spiritual.  All education is the effort to grow our minds and hearts into a fuller understanding of the truth.  It may be as simple as this, the truth does not change but our understanding of the truth must change as we grow, mature and age.  What is true is this, the spiritual life is a journey—a journey where we awaken time and time again to deeper understanding.