Except You Become as a Child

 

It began about 5 years ago with emails and letters about hearing aids.  Then the advertisements for retirement and estate planning starting coming. Fortunately, there has been no mail yet from funeral homes or caskets companies.  I periodically get promotions for hydrostatic tubs; I must say they have piqued my interest.

In November, I turn Sixty-five years of age. (Don’t tell me age is just a number; it is not.  “Age” is a word.)  Now on a daily basis I get literature about Medicare Supplements and Advantage plans.  I now know the difference between Parts A & B & D, a supplement, and an Advantage plan.

OK, I am aging. I tell myself I feel as if I am still 35.  Of course, I have no memory of what it felt like to be 35; I suspect it felt different than nearly 65. 

Although I cannot turn back the aging of my body, I am working to retain youthfulness of spirit. Recently I learned anew some things about youthfulness.

I spent last week as Camp Pastor at Pathfinder Lodge with a group of people who are truly young—in body and spirit.  I learned some things about aging as well.

First, these campers are not just kids.  They are young adults in some ways.  When asked about their fears and when they had felt betrayed, they shared some very sobering adult-like experiences: abandonment; the untimely death of loved ones; and social cruelty.  They have not led “Leave it to Beaver” lives.  Their religious beliefs have been both formed and tested by some difficult things.  Their faith should be taken seriously.

Second, their hearts and minds and faith are open to the new experiences life brings to them.  As we grow older, our faith, our view of people and the world, our loyalties and dislikes become increasingly  fixed.  It takes more effort to change and to grow.  So, we tend to settle in where we are like a smooth rock in a stream and let the current of life flow around us, leaving us barely changed.

Young people, on the other hand, are still malleable.  They are ready to learn and to grow.  They are listening and looking, learning and testing.  They are still being formed and are open to revision, rethinking, reviewing, and renewing.  The theme for the week at camp was “Renew.”  They were game for that.  They reach out for life with both hands, letting it take them where it will.

There openness and freshness were wonderful.  It makes them vulnerable to the Spirit that transforms and renews us. Paul encourages this vulnerability: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what the will of God— what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2). 

Jesus recognized the advantages to youthfulness of spirit when he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven [Matt. 18:3].”  He was talking about the openness and flexibility that comes through the humility that characterizes youth.

 It is enormously fun and exciting to work with a group of young people in whom you can see the Spirit of God working with great freedom.

There is, on the other hand, a danger to this youthful enthusiastic embrace of life.  Young people stand in the stream of life and their experiences shape their soft contours.  Unfortunately, not all those experiences are healthy and will bear good fruit in their lives.  Because they are impressionable, they are vulnerable to being misshapen by the pathologies and violence and cruelty of this world.  In other words, they can become “conformed to this world," as Paul writes.

We must care for the young people around us, in our families and our neighborhoods, in our churches and our schools, on our streets and in our nation.  We are responsible for them, all of them.

 Last week, a group of young people at Pathfinder Lodge had plenty of good food to eat, a nurse to provide medical care, safe places to sleep, and counselors who listened to them, treasured them and taught them about God’s love for them in Jesus Christ.  We talked about what God wanted for them in their lives and what God expected of them as they move through this world.  They were shaped in good ways.

 Given the river of influences under which these young people live their lives, a week at camp may seem like an inconsequential thing; but do not doubt the power of God when it is set free for a week on a hillside in the lives of young campers.

 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches” (Matthew 13:31—32).

Camp is about believing that a mustard seed can become a mighty tree and, likewise, these young people will grow into mighty fine and faithful adults. 

Jim Kelsey

Executive Minister-American Baptist Churches of New York State