50 going on 16: Come like a Child to the King of Kings

Adults feel things just like teens do; we like to laugh and be silly and have fun. One reason adults act so silly around babies is not entirely for the child’s amusement but it gives an outlet for silliness–keeping us from derision for acting goofy. It’s under cover goofy!

Adults have, hopefully, a grip on the responsibilities, duties, and obligations that they have. It is the weightiness of these things that pull us from the playground too soon.

Perhaps the issue is we as adults are sometimes too serious and perhaps teens need to lean that way as adults lean into them, bridging the gap between the ages. Willingness to learn from people in different age groups is a vital part of life. Adults often think youth are too young to teach them anything; and they often feel we do not fully listen to what they are trying to tell us and that we are too old to relate.

God’s Holy Spirit is, what my pastor calls, full-grown in everyone. He says there is only one Holy Spirit for all believers; so there is no baby Spirit. God works the same for all believers, young or old. One may have more knowledge or experience, but God uses all believers to do His will, and He probably finds the younger more willing to step out in faith. We can all learn to be one body.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free,[young or old] —and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.  And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 1Corninthians 12:12-20 (NIV)

All humans, whether young or old, want the same things. We want to be liked, we want someone to “play with” (talk with, watch movies, play games), and we want to shirk responsibilities now and again. I don’t want to take the trash out, but someone has to do it. I don’t want to wash dishes, dust and vacuum, but someone’s got to do it–so I do. I’d like to be playing video games, too.

Maybe this is what Jesus means when He says all must come as a child to the Kingdom. To remember how it was as a kid, remember how excited we were when we got saved and ran around telling everyone God answered our prayers. We need the enthusiasm of a child and to remember we are all just humans, perhaps divided by age gaps that might not be as wide as we think.

How do you related to the older (or younger) generation?