Let's Be God's "Children," Not God's "Adults"

Re-read the words of Jesus, and all the words of the revolutionary book we call the New Testament. Nowhere are we told to be God's "adults." Instead, we're constantly invited into a new life (freedom) of being God's "children."Adults tend to be independent, hyper-responsible, prideful, tame, kind of boring, full of "shoulds," closed-hearted.Kids tend to be dependent, trusting of Another's responsibility, humble, wild, free, full of desire, open-hearted.Have you become too much of an adult? I have, and I don't like it.Move down—make yourself smaller, so that you can see how much bigger God is and discover what it means to be free and walk confident of his care. This downsizing is the only way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." -Jesus

Man, look around you. See all those burdened, tame, exhausted adults? That's not Jesus' vision. Jesus came to set us free, to call us to the rewarding risk of "turning" (moving away from up, to the direction of down) to become like children.Turn!Need more help than this? I can offer multiple sources of guidance here, but perhaps none better than this: spend extended time with a seven-year-old, and let him or her teach you how to become like a child. Maybe you'll learn to trust, depend, dream, play, explore, create, forgive quickly, love, and build something again. Perhaps a seven-year-old needs to teach this weekend's Sunday school class, not you. Maybe this is why Jesus created the church, so that adults could be surrounded and influenced by kids. Maybe this is why God created families, so that kids could raise parents and teach them to become young again.