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Grow up, Peter Pan! (Part 3 of 3)
If you’re a young man here in America, you’ve probably got a Peter Pan problem. In the first post in this series on Thursday, we looked at a list of symptoms that might indicate how even a Christian young man can struggle with a failure to grow up and take responsibility for the things that God wants him to take responsibility for. Then, in the second post, we looked at the heart issue behind this failure: we insist on maintaining the illusion of adequacy, and thus we only do the things that we are good at (e.g. watching TV, surfing the Internet, or even homework or sports). We aren’t willing to take on things that we’re bad at because it would wound our pride and force us to cry out to God for help.
We were not saved to be mediocre. God did not choose us in Jesus Christ “before the foundation of the world” to merely do the things for which we are adequate but “that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Ephesians 1:4). So often, we settle for legalism. We say and do enough to look like we’re obeying God’s law—enough to assuage our consciences and look good in front of other people. But we’re living a life devoid of faith. We aren’t willing to take risks for God; we’d rather trust in our own flesh than trust in God.
I don’t suppose you want to keep living like that. Here’s God’s way to live:
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.
—Jeremiah 17:7-8
“The man who trusts in man” (v. 5) lives in a wasteland. But the one who trusts in the Lord—he grows and flourishes, bears fruit and stays green even in times of drought.
When we humble ourselves and begin to trust in the Lord rather than in our own adequacy, God’s Word comes alive. When you start doing what God calls you to do, you will quickly find your own wisdom and your own strength to be inadequate. You will find your own sin to be overwhelming. You will find yourself in prayer, often and at length, crying out for help. You will find yourself turning to the Bible for wisdom, guidance, and encouragement—and its words will no longer be boring but will crackle with energy. You will find yourself turning to mature believers for advice, instead of keeping your problems bottled up inside of you.
If you’re waiting for God to flip some switch inside of you to give you the faith to do all of those things…sorry, it doesn’t usually work that way. Here’s the advice that the apostle Paul gives: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). First, remember that God is at work in you. He isn’t watching lazily from heaven, waiting for you to make the first move, turning a deaf ear to your prayers. He is on your side. He is with you in this! He wants to see you grow and serve him faithfully, and he will exercise all of his might to make sure you do. Second, you have to get to work. You’re simply going to have to say a prayer, suck it up, and go out and take care of your responsibilities. It will be hard. You will be hurt. But you will finally know what it means to be “happy in Jesus.”
It’s a simple truth, and we tend to dismiss simple truths because we think we’re beyond them. But the fact is that we need to learn to trust and obey, like the hymn says:
When we walk with the Lord
In the light of his Word,
What a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do his good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.
Grow up, Peter Pan! (Part 2 of 3)
Yesterday, I admitted to being Peter Pan, and I incriminated a whole bunch of other young men in the process. Peter Pan won’t grow up; he’d rather not take responsibility for things that grown-ups are supposed to do. Peter Pan lives in a fantasy world which substitutes for the real world and its real problems, its real imperfections, and its real responsibilities.
Now that I’ve laid out a ridiculously long laundry list of unmanly habits and ways of thinking, I’d like to examine what the root is behind this problem. Why is it so hard for us to grow up? Why do we stay so childish for so long?
Well, if you read the first post carefully, you may already have an idea where this is going to go. I made a number of comments to the effect that if we just do things that we’re comfortable with or good at, we don’t need to depend on God. I want to explore that a little more, because this is a dangerous tendency that is most pronounced in guys—because they are called as men to lead and to initiate—but affects everyone to some degree.
There’s a sentence in the Bible that I just haven’t been able to get out of my mind these last couple of weeks. It’s the second half of 2 Corinthians 2:16: “Who is sufficient for these things?” In context, of course, Paul is writing about the preaching of God’s word and its effect “among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (v. 15). However, this question certainly applies to all forms of obedience. We cannot obey the Lord without his Spirit at work within us “to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). We are not sufficient—or adequate, as some translations put it—to do what is right with motives that are pleasing to God. We are not adequate to display Christ in our actions, our attitudes, and our words.
Here’s what we are adequate for. You and I are totally adequate to sit on the couch for hours and watch TV. We are totally adequate to stay up until one in the morning surfing the Internet. We are totally adequate to lock ourselves away in our rooms and do homework. We are totally adequate not to tell our friends and family the good news of Jesus Christ. We are totally adequate to wimp out on asking out young women we like. We are totally adequate to confine ourselves to our circle of friends, people just like us, from our age group, around whom we’re comfortable. We are totally adequate to do all these things that are easy and natural.
What a tragedy of adequacy! We want to do only those things for which we are able to trust in our own strength. Take a look at what God says about this lifestyle:
Thus says the LORD:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.”
—Jeremiah 17:5-6
I have lived in that uninhabited salt land for years. Perhaps you have, too. You’re miserable, aren’t you? You haven’t seen any good come. Your life is parched; you are depressed and discouraged. Friends and movies and video games and sports can make you happy for a little while, but before long you are back in the desert. The Bible seems dead, boring, and dry; your prayers are limp and ineffective.
You have trusted in man. You have made flesh your strength. Often, we put our trust in other people—in the President or sports icons or parents or friends; they will always disappoint us. Yet a much more sinister form of trusting in man is when we trust in ourselves. That’s why we only do the things we’re adequate to do. You and I—we don’t want to do anything that would require us to trust in God. We’d rather do what we’re capable of doing on our own. It doesn’t take any faith whatsoever to watch TV or play video games or sports (if you’re athletic) or do homework (if you’re intelligent). It takes faith to actually step out and obey God.
Of course, if we were to obey God, we’d quickly realize that we can’t do it on our own strength, and then we’d have to cry out for help. That’s a blow to the ego. And you and I have invested far too much effort into polishing our pride and propping up our reputations; we certainly can’t get down on our knees, weeping, crying out for help from the God who is the only one who can help. “The arm of flesh will fail you; ye dare not trust your own.”
That’s why we’re Peter Pans. We are self-reliant. We are proud. We are arrogant. And we don’t want to have to act out of faith in God. We don’t want to depend on him.
Of course, this lifestyle doesn’t work. I know it doesn’t. But often, I’d rather be miserable and govern my own life—with God as a Tinkerbell perched on my shoulder—than recognize and submit to his Lordship and experience the joy he has to offer. More on that joy in the third and final post.
Chariots, horses, and the New Orleans Saints
Good for the New Orleans Saints. They finally won their first game of the season, leaving the Rams and the Dolphins as the only winless teams in the NFL. Unfortunately, with a dismal 1-4 record, and with the Bucs and Panthers dominating the NFC South, the Saints need nothing short of a miracle simply to make the playoffs.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. After a Cinderella season last year which saw a revitalized Saints team go 10-6 and reach the NFC championship game, the Saints were a trendy pick to reach the Super Bowl. Advertisers jumped onto the bandwagon, featuring Reggie Bush, Drew Brees, and the Saints on their commercials. Yet all the hype failed to translate onto the field. After a 41-10 thrashing by my beloved Indianapolis Colts, the Saints continued to slump, losing to Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Tennessee before finally recording a win against Seattle. The Saints lost their power running back in Deuce McAlister, while Bush has been disappointing and Brees, a minor deity here in Purdue country, has been poorly protected by his offensive line and has thrown more interceptions than any other quarterback in the league.
I remember reading several sports articles and seeing a TV segment last year which focused on the hope the Saints were bringing to the city of New Orleans. The team was supposed to inspire and encourage the city, helping it recover from the damage due to Hurricane Katrina. It was a heartwarming story, but in the back of my mind, I was always a little troubled. Wasn’t it dangerous for the people of the city to set their hopes on a football team? Shouldn’t they be turning to the Lord God instead for hope in the midst of trouble?
Sure enough, the New Orleans Saints appear to have failed their city. Perhaps they will be able to dig themselves out of their slump. But it’s clear that this inspiring story of human achievement was never going to last. Our hope cannot be placed in football teams, nor in any people or merely human abilities. They will always fail and disappoint. Rather, our hope must be set on the living God, who alone can strengthen us and provide for us an eternal home and kingdom.
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
—Psalm 20:7
The shield of faith
One of my favorite passages of the Bible is one my mom had us memorize as kids. Ephesians 6:10-20 is famous for its description of the Christian as a soldier arming himself for battle. I was thinking in the car on the way to work about v. 16:
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.
One of the biggest struggles I see college students facing is trust in God. Most of them don’t know what they’ll be doing after they graduate (or even at the end of the semester!). They also question who they will marry (or if they will marry), how they will get by financially, etc. While my career is planned out for the next three years (though subject to the will of God), I have many other questions about my future. It’s hard to shake off doubts about who God is and whether or not He is faithful to take care of me.
What v. 16 points out is that much of these struggles and doubts are due not just to our own lack of faith but to the devil as well. He takes full advantage of our weakness, and he would love nothing more than to see us crippled by worry and fear. From the beginning, he has asked us to question, “Did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3:1).
God calls us to respond with faith — if we trust Him, we will not fear. Ephesians contains a lot of encouraging teachings that are helping me to trust God. It is very clear from this book that God longs for us to receive the treasures of His grace:
…So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (2:7)
It’s my birthday today. I’m 23 years old now, and I’m just beginning to realize how much I need to learn to follow God. Today, I’m praying that God will teach me to trust Him as I look forward to the rest of my life. Whether I die tomorrow or when I’m 80, God will always be guiding me, and I can count on Him to pour out His grace on me.
