Do you remember the story of Peter Pan? Does that name automatically make the song “I won’t grow up” magically appear with the thought, oh I wish after it? A friend and I have been trying to decipher what was meant when Jesus said in Matthew 18:3….”Unless you change and become like little children, you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Fifteen years ago a friend gave me a book for birthday #40 and I wasn’t “ready” to read it back then, and now I’m embarassed to admit that, oh well! I just put it on my bookshelf and thought maybe one day I’d be grown up enough to want to read it! One day started last night. Sigh…..what have I been missing for 15 years?! The title of the book is “Taking the Child’s Way Home” and it is by Rob Wilkins.
I’m only in the introduction and I’ve gained insight beyond measure! When I read something that resonates with me, it would be very easy to just stop and recommend the book to others. However, I know enough about our society today that many people don’t necessarily listen, even when they are unhuhing and therefore, what is being said goes in one ear and out the other, like on a slip and slide (ok, my attempt at being childlike)! Listen to this passage. “In the slow and often unnoticeable movement from child to adult, it is possible to lose as much as we gain. As we learn to control and manipulate our worlds instead of being spun by the magnitude of each moment, we move toward independence, skill and purpose. But the danger in our effots to work, create and secure a living – to become fully mature adults – is that, without knowing it, we begin to believe that what we do is more important than who we are or what we have been given. Control, because it is ultimately an illusion, requires more and more of us. If I could secure this promotion, my child’s future would be solidified…..The illusion of control always demands at least one more thing to do.”
Anyone besides me saying ouch?
“Technology, the ultimate tool in building illusions, give us the ability to shorten the time required to do everything…..Efficiency is the answer. The problem is, we have become so occupied with doing more – processing information, enrolling in enrichment classes, making meals for the sick – that we have worked ourselves into a frenzy, and no longer have the time or energy to remember what we started out to accomplish in the first place. We become numb, which is often mistaken for a blessing. …By giving ourselves over to the cultural god of efficiency we run the risk of losing those child-like qualities that should frame the core of who we are – our capacities for surprise, dependence, simple trust.”
Ok, just one more and then we might find out how to stop the bleeding!
Rob continues and I just don’t know how to say this any better than he does, so again I quote: “In between childhood and adulthood, in the splintering movement from dependence to control, the world often gets warped. Work gets confused with value, results with strategies, numbers with purpose, busyness, with importance. Soon we become anxious adults, not laughing children: doing, not being; talking, not singing; acting, not responding; existing, not experiencing.”
Do we recognize ourselves or am I the only one seeing something I really don’t want to admit to?
Even back in Jesus’ time this mantra of success abounded. “Do as I (we) say the Pharisees (the know-it-alls of the day) said. They imposed their learned religious rules on others to such an extent that there is no wonder that the mere mention of religion today has some people shuddering and offering polite “no thank yous” and maybe even not some not so polite ones! The Pharisees certainly didn’t get the message of Jesus. But then, neither did the apostles, because even having had the relationship they did with Jesus, they looked at children in much the same way many still do today. Which camp are you in – children should be seen and not heard (the apostles were of this mindset) or give them what they want and get them to shut up (seems to be what we have segued into as a society today)?
Becoming child-like does not (to me) mean having to become less mature. It does mean (at least to me) that we stop taking ourselves so seriously and allow ourselves the opportunities to enjoy God’s blessings. But how do we do this? The answer is simple, the application is not! We have to determine what it is we want! The stress of a high paying job gives us financial freedom, but at a cost and that cost is our time, our families and our health. This is demonstrated when we wind up having no time (even to breathe – hey we are on the clock to someone!), but hey, our families do get the benefits of our work – new cars, big houses, name brand clothes; they just don’t get the one thing they want – US! And finally our health – ok, you are aware that the incidences of stress are totally wreaking havoc on our health, right?! Heart disease, cancer, ulcers and the list goes on. So, we wind up dead or in the hospital and then all of the cards in deck come crashing down on us anyway. Wow, that was a bleak moment in time. Yikes!
Contrast that with the person whose job allows them opportunity to take time to go see their child or grandchild in the first grade Thanksgiving play or even the ability to come home and have dinner on a regular basis with the family and NOT having to eat it quickly to either go back to work or feel like they now have to bring the work home with them! What about the ability to toss a ball with someone (and at the age of 55, I will mention that I did do this with a friend about a year ago and we had a great time! We might have looked strange, but we certainly did laugh! Ok, the next day I will admit to being sore!)
I have had to come to grips with that I will never be financially secure, but I will venture a guess that relatively few people will be (ok, not Bill Gates or Warren Buffett!). But given the choice do I want to be enslaved to a position that might take the very essence of who and whose I am (as a child of God) and have that be warped into someone no one I know will recognize or like? And that means my liking me as well! The alternative is that I will have worked myself right into the grave and then who benefits?
As stated earlier – I’ve only read the introduction to this book, so I don’t have the answers, but neither do I think anyone can give us the answers. We have to look for them ourselves. My reasoning behind sharing this was to help anyone who might be interested in getting started, off their derrieres. Find a day and a friend and don’t worry that your house needs to be vacuumed – go for a walk, ride a bike, throw a ball. Enjoy yourself and you may even find that the world doesn’t come to an end because you strayed from business as usual! At the end of the day, take note of how you feel! If you feel re-charged and there is some semblance of a smile on your face and a grateful heart, then you have just experienced that moment of joy. That my friends is how one re-learns that child-like faith. Life is about balance!
“Live, this ain’t no dress rehearsal!”
Looking up!~
Barb
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