Growing Up…Hungry

Jerry Seinfeld has the most amazing stand up comedy routine about growing up. For kids everything is about “up”! Wherever their children you can be sure to hear these phases: “Wait up”, “hold up”, and when answering parents about going to school, “I’m up, I’m up!” But for parents and guardians everything is about “down”! In any place where parents and children are together you will certainly hear these phrases: “Slow down!”, “Sit down”, “calm down”, and for the manic kid in the bunch a very firm, “settle down!”

Growing up is hard! From the time that I was a child I sang an oft gleeful but at times mournful refrain, “I can’t wait till I grow up.” Oh, you know this song too! When a person is young it seems that all they can think of is the day when they will become a grown up and free from all rules and entanglements. Honestly, who wants a bowl of fruit when there’s a bowl filled with candy?

We have all longed for freedom and access and responsibility for our own lives. When we were young there were obstacles and barriers purposefully designed to help rein us in. And at each stage of our lives we just want the barriers lowered a little bit more until we can find our fullest expression. But what happens to us when we reach that magical stage of life where there are no more bars or barriers to our Freedom? Do we choose the bowl of fiber rich and antioxidant full fruit or do we dive in to the bowl of chewy gooey chocolate candy?

Without Love being our regulative principle…DISASTER…and cavities!

When I look at the fruit of the Spirit I see all the elements that lead to a principled, Holy Spirit way of living. In Paul’s epistle he states one of the most audacious things I have ever read. He says that it is for freedom’s sake that we are set free. Freedom is glorious! But freedom is not an end unto itself.

What I see in chapter 5 of this epistle are the elements that help us not only live a life that doesn’t hurt and infringe on others but a life that actually blesses others. In our society it is all-too-familiar that one person uses their freedom to oppress or trample on the freedoms of the other. Even in spite of some of the bad side effects freedom is good especially when it is comes from our faith expressing itself through love. What I believe Paul is expressing here is that God is not interested in sending out half-matured people, rather He desires fully-matured and free people to be engaged in his mission and his world for the glory of his name and the good of others.

God is the one who makes us free. God is the one who gives us this glorious gift. The fully mature believer takes on the same attitude that was found in Christ. When God bestowed glory on his son, Christ returned the glory to God! He lived his life as a conduit of blessing to others and when he was praised he returned all praise to his father. And so it must be with all of God’s sons and daughters.

We are his children and his agents in a world who desperately needs to know God. We are engaging with people who have yet to know his love and care. It is my hope that in all of our conversations and all the new relationships that we will form, that God’s glory will be reflecting in our lives. I pray that the “Fruit of The Spirit” will be more than a gleeful tune but the tangible expressions of lives that are bearing fruit born of the freedom that God has given to his children. And maybe, just maybe, the glorious freedom expressed through the faithful and loving expressions of fully-matured lives will lead people to know God. I hope that the world will meet the person of Jesus because they have met you and me. I hope that my life and all of our lives will impart to the world some measure of the freedom and tasty life we live with God. And maybe one day they will accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior and begin their work of cultivating a hunger for the fruit of the Spirit too!


Other Posts You Might Like:

Post-Truth - Ross Thomson

Face to Face - Bob Bentley

A Special Banquet - Bob Bentley

Productivity and REST - Beau Davis

Unity - Brandon Bell

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101 Cardinal Drive
Denton, TX 76209

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Sunday Worship Schedule
9:30 - Worship (English Service)
10:10 - Bible Class (Birth to 8th grade following the Kid's church time until the end of service)
11:00 - Worship (Spanish Service)

Wednesday Evening Schedule
6:30 - Celebrate Recovery

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