Recently I had a couple of conversations with people (now that is a profound statement - I mean who else do I converse with? The frogs and gold fish in my garden pond? The birds who roost in my back yard birch trees?). Let me start over ... Recently I had a couple of interesting conversations concerning teens growing into adults. These talks basically concluded (based on my observation and the observations of the other PEOPLE in the conversations) that young people are not maturing as fast as once was the case (and by maturing we were not talking about physical maturity - but rather a maturity that results in a degree of responsibility that is able to care for the various demands of life).Today, as I was doing some Internet research, I stumbled across a book that sets forth this very same premise. The book, titled The Death of the Grown-Up: How America's Arrested Development is Bringing Down Western Civilization (published in August 2007) contains some very interesting and sobering insights. Here are a few:
"More adults, ages eighteen to forty-nine, watch the Cartoon Network than watch CNN. Readers as old as twenty-five are buying "young adult" fiction written expressly for teens. The average video gamester was eighteen in 1990; now he's going on thirty."
"The National Academy of Sciences has, in 2002, redefined adolescence as the period extending from the onset of puberty, around twelve, to age thirty. The MacArthur Foundation has gone farther still, funding a major research project that argues that the "transition to adulthood" doesn't end until age thirty-four." (Now think about this - a 34 year old adolescent? That concept does explain quite a bit!)
Now I am not a sociologist. But this trend of people taking longer to grow up (if they ever do) has some very scary implications for our society. Whereas children need parents who are responsible and mature to help them transition from childhood to adulthood - we now have parents who are still in need of parents themselves! Gulp. Help!
What is true in society is true also in the spiritual arena. Far too many Christ-followers are still in diapers (at worst) or wading through their adolescence (at best). We need to stop messing around and GROW UP! I hope you take some time to reflect on the keys to spiritual growth that I have offered. This is not meant as an exhaustive list by any means ... just some thoughts to help you grow.
Thanks for listening,
pj
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