Grow Up

I really love the movie "Sky High." If you've not seen it, you should really get on that! In it, the gym teacher calls one of the kids a "whiner-baby." He says it in such an over-the-top condescending voice... it's hysterical!

As funny as it is to see it on the movie, it's not funny at all to realize that you're actually a whiner-baby. No one likes to be immature. As kids, the thing you probably resented most was being called a baby or told you're too little to do something. Think about the number of times you've heard people say "you're SO immature" or "grow up!" It's insulting, even to aduts. But isn't it so easy to act childishly?

This summer has been amazing for me in so many ways, but SHOCKINGLY (note the blatant sarcasm) there are still things in my life that are less than perfect. I know life will never be perfect. I should be used to it. Somehow I'm not. I get my feelings hurt; I feel lonely; I wish that things in my life were different, and so I whine and cry and pound my little fisties, and dream of the imaginary day when everything will be just the way I want it.

God keeps reminding me that he has big plans for me and that I need to wait and be patient. He gave me a great picture of how I need to live based on a 40 hour famine I used to do to raise money with my high school youth group. We fundraised to provide for starving orphans around the world by fasting 40 hours and doing community service during that almost 2 days. Those of us who had done it before threw ourselves into the work and tried hard not to think about food until right at the end of the fast. We knew that the sooner you let yourself think about food, the worse it would be. I feel like the same goes for waiting for God to do something specific in your life. You don't know when he'll move, so you'd best not start thinking too much about what you want to see done.

It's helped me to think like that, but I'll confess that it's not made me completely patient. It's been kind of like a ride I used to ride at an amusement park. You drive this car down a track that has a tall ridge in the middle of it. As long as you're driving straight, you're fine, but when you start to veer off, you get jolted as the ridge keeps the car on the track. God's been keeping me in line, but I keep veering off a little and getting jolted. Better that than crashed on the side of the road!

We were singing a song this morning in church about giving our lives as an offering to the Lord. I was struck by how much I've failed at doing that. 1 Kings 16:34 says that Hiel sacrificed his oldest and youngest sons either on purpose or they died some other way, but both died for the sake of his work (see Josh.6:26). Both biblically and in today's society, the oldest son represents strength, pride, the continuance of the family line, the best of the father. The youngest son is the father's heart, his baby. So Hiel, in essence, gave his strength and his heart for the sake of what he was building. How can I give less to God? It's just so tough sometimes... but God spoke to me this morning about how it's not easy, dying to myself. God is there to comfort me, not to make me comfortable. I need to stop being a whiner-baby!