Growth and girth are somewhat similar but yet are very very different. While they both start with a g and while they both point to adding to or some type of increase they are very different in their connotation.
You don't have to do too much to add girth just go to any cubicle farm on any given day and take in what the working world loving reffers to as cubicle booty. You know what I am talking about, men and women who are tied to a desk all day whose backside grows in an effort to add additional padding spanning across several zip codes and time zones. I am amazed how someone can have a 32 inch waist or be a size 2, look slender from the head to the belt and then ka-chow! Cubicle booty! Not only does girth add to our bodies physically but it takes away our edge mentally making us lazy and lethargic. Our spirits become heavy and sluggish.
The problem is that girth happens easily, without much effort, doesn't add much to appearance, doesn't make one more attractive, fun, energetic, happy, it really is just a byproduct of sitting and watching.
Growth on the other hand is a result of some change taking place within the body/mind. Growth early on comes quickly and without much effort and sometimes causes pain and discomfort. Growing as a child is involuntary and natural yet as you get older our bodies at some point stop growing unless you are in the gym with me building some crazy serious hurt bombs.
Now take these same to words, growth and girth and look at your soul's life through the eyes of a physician. How are you doing today? Does your soul have cubicle booty? Is it sluggish, fat, tired, full of knowledge of God, full of commands, words, concepts, theology, the Bible but slow to react and slow to move? Have you become a spectator, a pew potato?
Sure you know the creeds, the deeds, the church history, the church fathers, but you can't move beyond the pew, outside the four walls. Your soul is fat in a "triple bypass balloon surgery kind of a way."
Or is your soul growing? Are you seeking Jesus out over other things. How is your prayer life? Are you serving? Are you sharing both your physical and spiritual possessions, including the gospel?
What sits on the altar of your heart? Money, sex, food? Do you feel the growing pains of your soul or are you fat dumb and happy?
Girth mostly points to a sedentary lifestyle, unless we are talking about my 21 inch guns, growth speaks to reaching up to Him and reaching out to others.
My prayer is that you are growing in Jesus and not just gaining more padding in your spiritual backside.
Psalm 1:1-3
1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.