Growing Up

My son's friend posted this on Facebook!  Several of them recently signed a lease and apparently this struck a chord with them.  Does it strike a chord with you?  I am definitely over the hill; my kids are all grown, our youngest child went off to college last fall, our second child graduated from college last May and our oldest is in a foreign country interning for an NGO!  You would think that  I would feel grown up, yet inside I still think of myself as 20 (Okay, maybe 30!).  Do we ever feel grown up inside?  Or do we just do our best to appear grown up.  Of course, wrinkles and gray hairs make us look grown up on the outside but in our own minds we frequently just think that our bodies are getting old...We aren't!

And what about spiritually?  Are we growing up spiritually?  Or are we still babies? In Ephesians 4:14 it says, "No prolonged infancies among us, please. We'll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love."  (The Message)

"In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."  Matthew 5:48 (The Message)

"Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ."  Ephesians 4:15 (NIV)

"So come on, let's leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on "salvation by self-help" and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we'll stay true to all that. But there's so much more. Let's get on with it!"  Hebrews 6:1 (The Message)

Even if you think you were thinking about Batman so you didn't hear what God was saying, go back and find out what He was saying!  Don't let it pass you by because you were preoccupied with yourself.  Track Him down, ask Him to repeat Himself, and then listen to what He has to say to you.  "..long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord."  1 Peter 2:1-3 (NASB)

"And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."  James 1:4  (ESV)
 
Dear Lord,  Help us to grow up in You.  Teach us to put our preoccupation with ourselves aside so that we might be nourished by the pure milk of the word and thereby grow up healthy in You.

Comic strip courtesy of:  xkcd.com