There are a lot of things I believed as a kid that didn’t exactly hold up once I became an adult. For example, I used to believe you could eat pretty much whatever you wanted and feel great afterward. You could have Pop-Tarts for breakfast, fruit snacks for lunch, and then go run around outside for three hours without thinking twice about it. Now I eat a Pop-Tart and feel like I need to schedule a doctor’s appointment.
I also grew up thinking quicksand was going to be a significantly bigger problem in my adult life than it has turned out to be. Based on the movies and television shows I watched, I assumed avoiding quicksand would be a regular part of my existence. Turns out, taxes are a much bigger issue.
And that’s part of growing up. We learn things, experience life, and eventually realize that some of the assumptions we carried as children weren’t quite as accurate as we thought. But here’s something I’ve been thinking about. What happens when we go through that same process with our faith?
Because I think a lot of people grow up with a version of Christianity that makes sense when they’re eight or twelve years old. Then they become adults, experience complicated circumstances, encounter difficult questions, and discover that the faith they inherited doesn’t seem equipped to handle the life they’re living. And that’s a really important moment.
An Inherited Faith Is a Starting Point
If you grew up around church, there’s a good chance that much of what you initially believed about God came from somebody else. Maybe your parents took you to church. Maybe you attended a Christian school. Maybe you had a youth pastor who made an enormous difference in your life. And those experiences can be wonderful. But eventually, something changes.
You get older. You begin developing your own opinions. You encounter people who believe differently than you do. You experience suffering, disappointment, and circumstances that don’t fit neatly into the explanations you were given as a child. Suddenly, you’re asking questions you never thought to ask before.
Why does God allow suffering? Can I actually trust the Bible? What do I do when I pray and nothing seems to happen? Why do Christians disagree about so many things? And sometimes, instead of exploring those questions, we begin wondering whether the whole thing was ever true. I understand that. But I think we need to recognize something important.
Inherited faith can be a wonderful starting point, but it cannot remain the foundation of your faith throughout adulthood. At some point, you have to decide what you actually believe and why.
The Danger of Never Moving Forward
One of the passages that challenges me most when it comes to spiritual maturity is Hebrews 5. The writer is addressing a group of Christians who have been following Jesus for some time. They’ve heard the teachings, learned the basics, and had opportunities to grow. But something has happened. They’ve stopped developing.
In Hebrews 5:12, the writer tells them that by this point, they should be capable of teaching others, but instead, they need someone to teach them the basics all over again. That’s a pretty direct statement. Imagine someone telling you that after years of experience, you’re still operating at the same level you were when you started. Nobody wants to hear that. But I think there’s something incredibly important in this passage. The issue wasn’t that these people hadn’t been exposed to enough information. The issue was that they hadn’t continued growing. And I wonder how many of us find ourselves in a similar place.
We’ve been around Christianity for years. We know the stories, recognize the songs, and understand the basic language of faith. But when it comes to our actual relationship with Jesus, we’re not particularly different from who we were five or ten years ago. We may have gotten older without becoming more spiritually mature.
Maturity Requires Returning to the Basics
I love baseball. And one of the things I’ve noticed watching professional players is that they spend an extraordinary amount of time practicing the same fundamentals that kids learn when they’re first introduced to the game. I was watching a documentary about the Boston Red Sox, and there were professional baseball players doing drills that looked remarkably similar to what we do with elementary-aged kids. The professionals were obviously much better at them. But the fundamentals were the same.
I remember touring the Atlanta Braves’ stadium and seeing the batting cages and training areas. And what struck me was that, despite the level of talent and resources involved, so much of their training was built around basic skills. Because becoming excellent at something doesn’t mean you graduate beyond the fundamentals. It means you become increasingly consistent and intentional about practicing them. And I think the same principle applies to following Jesus. We sometimes assume spiritual maturity means discovering increasingly complicated theological ideas. And learning matters. Understanding Scripture matters. Wrestling with difficult questions matters. But maturity also involves becoming increasingly faithful with the things we already know.
Prayer. Scripture. Worship. Community. Generosity. Serving others. Learning to trust God when life becomes difficult. These aren’t activities we eventually outgrow. They’re foundational practices that help shape who we’re becoming.
Your Questions Don’t Have to End Your Faith
I think one of the mistakes Christians sometimes make is treating questions and doubts as though they’re evidence of spiritual failure. But I don’t believe that’s true. Sometimes questions are exactly what push us toward a deeper understanding of what we believe.
Maybe you’ve encountered something in Scripture that doesn’t make sense. Maybe you’ve experienced something that challenges what you thought God would do. Maybe you’ve discovered that an explanation you were given as a child was incomplete. You don’t have to pretend those tensions don’t exist. And you don’t have to assume that every difficult question automatically invalidates everything else you believe.
You can investigate. You can study. You can talk with people who understand the issues. You can acknowledge uncertainty while continuing to pursue Jesus. Because the goal isn’t to preserve every childhood assumption you’ve ever held. The goal is to develop a faith that’s actually rooted in the person of Jesus and capable of continuing to grow.
Putting This Into Practice
I want to encourage you to take an honest look at your faith this week. Not the version you wish you had, but the one you’re actually living.
1Identify one question you’ve been avoiding.
Write down something about Christianity, Scripture, or God that you’ve struggled to understand. Maybe it’s a theological question, a personal disappointment, or something you’ve never felt comfortable asking. Spend time exploring it through Scripture and thoughtful conversation with someone you trust. Give yourself permission to investigate without demanding an immediate answer.
2Reestablish one foundational spiritual practice.
Choose one practice you’ve allowed to drift, whether that’s prayer, reading Scripture, worship, or meaningful Christian community. Make a realistic commitment for the next seven days. It might be ten minutes of Scripture reading each morning or setting aside time to pray before beginning your workday. The goal is consistency, not perfection.
3Ask whether your faith is worth passing on.
Imagine someone you love developing the same relationship with Jesus that you currently have. Would you be excited about that? What would you hope they experienced differently? Identify one area where you want to grow and take a specific step toward becoming the kind of follower of Jesus you’d want others to learn from. I think one of the greatest opportunities we have is to recognize that spiritual maturity doesn’t happen automatically. It requires intentionality.
And whether you’ve been following Jesus for thirty years or you’re just beginning to explore what you believe, there’s always an opportunity to grow. Your faith doesn’t have to remain where it started. And I think that’s incredibly good news.
