To Grow Up, Or Not To Grow Up

 

 If it wasn't obvious from the fact I have a whole blog page dedicated to the former USMC backpack system, I love military surplus stuff. And when it gets cold enough that a hoodie is no longer sufficient, I can be found sporting some combination of the US Army's seven layer extreme cold weather system. How is this relevant to the topic today? Well, the jackets in this system have places to put Velcro patches.

I love Velcro patches. I especially love patches that have funny, sarcastic, or witty remarks on them. So I always wear a couple on each jacket.

So one Sunday this past winter, I showed up at church with a patch that said "Don't grow up, it's a trap". Which immediately caught the attention of one of my friends from my young adult group. (Yes, I'm calling you out on this. Yes, I know you are going to read this. Yes, you know who you are. :p )

I had it pointed out to me that Paul says, "when I was a child, I thought like a child...but when I was a man, I put away childish things." I countered with Jesus saying, "unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

And since that point, I've been meaning to do a proper blog post on the topic. So now I'm doing it.

What I'm going to do is list a bunch of verses, and then do my best, as one who desires to know and speak truth, to interpret these verses and what they collectively mean in the big picture.

Job 35:5-8
Look to the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you. If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? If you multiply your transgressions, what do you do to Him? If you are righteous, what do you give Him, or what does He receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only a son of man. 

Psalm 8:2
From the mouths of children and infants you have ordained praise on account of Your adversaries, to silence the enemy and avenger. 

 Psalm 131:2
Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. 

Proverbs 22:15
Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. 

Ecclesiastes 12:13
When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.

Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Matthew 11:25-26
At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight.

Matthew 18:2-4
Jesus invited a little child to stand among them. “Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 21:16
“Do You hear what these children are saying?” they asked. “Yes,” Jesus answered. “Have you never read: ‘From the mouths of children and infants you have ordained praise’?” 

Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?” Jesus declared, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Mark 10:15
"Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Romans 8:15-16
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 

1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. 

1 Corinthians 14:20
Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

Ephesians 5:1-5
Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God. But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

So what does all this add up to? Perhaps you've already started to catch on. But if you haven't, I'll explain.

 I think we are commanded to put away childISHness, but to keep childLIKEness. Because in the kingdom of heaven, childLIKEness is maturity.

The kingdom of heaven is not given to intellectuals who labor and toil to find legalistic dogmas and standard operation procedures. It is not revealed through the burden of the law.

The kingdom of heaven is revealed in simple, blunt, face-value truths that are so easy that a child can grasp them. In plain sight, yet hidden from those that would call themselves wise.

We are Yahweh's children. He is our Abba. He wants us to trust Him with a child's faith. To love Him with a child's love. To see Him through a child's eyes. To be humble and take his hand like a small child navigating a parking lot.

Loving your neighbor as yourself is seeing a stranger in need and assuming they could be a friend. To do them justice. To do mercy. To forgive infinitely.

Loving the Lord with your heart, soul, and mind is to give as much of yourself as you can to as much of the Father as you know. To throw yourself into your Father's embrace and experience the fullness of His goodness.

Do not be hindered by the wise of this world. Do not be afraid by their blind and ignorant judgement. This life is a gift to you. If you ask for bread, will your father give you a stone? If you ask for a fish, will your father give you a snake? Nay.

So dance as David danced, sing like the children in the Temple. Play in the rain. Climb a tree. Take a nap in the sunshine. Laugh and cry. Love deeply. Hug your family and friends. Feel. Experience. Explore. Be alive in the wonders of grace.

And yet, put aside childISHness. Cast aside foolish lusts and vain pride. Put away selfishness. Put away crude speech. Throw away anger. When faced with temptation, be like Joseph who asked how he could even fathom doing a sin against the Lord. Adultery was so far out of his mind that he chanced execution and endured prison to keep his conscience clean.

Furthermore, put away the childISH notion that the Lord owes you anything. As Elihu spoke to Job, our wickedness does not injure Yahweh. Our righteousness does not reward Him. He is so great and mighty beyond our comprehension, nothing we could possibly do could ever touch Him unless He wills it. Should He answer our arrogance? Do our sacrifices bend His ear? Do our holy days earn His favor? Nay. 

We are but dust. If He gives the wicked a good life, does this make Him evil? If the righteous were crushed and thrown to damnation, would He be any less righteous?

Yahweh is Creator. Yahweh is the standard of right and wrong. Anything He chooses to do is automatically right because He created the universe. He wrote the rules. And when you accept that reality, this is putting away childish thoughts.

And YET. While He is free to do as He pleases with His creation, it was his pleasure to reveal the riches of His glory to us.

Romans 8:28-30
And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. 

Romans 9:14-24
What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?” Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use? What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory— including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?

 Ephesians 1:3-11
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ. In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory.

Yahweh is not good because He is safe. A safe god, who can not do harm is a weak god. The Father is good because He chooses by His own desire to NOT do what He has the right to do. 

Some people will see this and say "I can not love such a god." Their hearts are hard and self-serving. They expect Adonai's definiteions of good and evil to align with their own understanding. These words will turn them to darkness, because they can not comprehend the mystery of a god who would permit things that WE deem evil, in order to accomplish the things HE deems good. But to those who's hearts are prepared, the Father's goodness will awaken all the brighter a light, and they will desire to give him all the greater glory and seek His righteous ways.

So let us grow old. But may we never grow up. Let us run to our Father with open arms, knowing that He is infinitely good, knowing that we are His children, knowing that we can trust Him in riches and poverty, in health and disease, in life and in death. For we have the hope of the resurrection, where we shall see Him as He is.

And we shall cry, "Abba! Father!"