Thursday Rants

A response to Emma Gerig's Reflector article "Under Pressure"

2 Peter 1:5-8

"Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Emma's article the other day really made me think. First of all, I believe that she is right. Most teenagers hate conforming to what adults want them to do. And my first response to the article was anger. As an adult who cares about the teenagers I interact with, I don't ask them to do things for no reason. I ask them to do things, to be things, to believe certain things because I know those things will be for their good. And it drives me nuts when no one listens.

Recently, I have noticed that maturity has a lot to do with rebellion. That is the same solution that Emma came to in her article (nice job, Emma!) Except, I think that very few people actually talk about the maturity process. And so, with the lead from Emma, here's a view of that process.

The verses that start this post is where I ground my view of the maturation process. This first begins when we decide that we are truly committed to goodness, rather than, say, selfishness. A huge first step in the maturation process is deciding to seek the good in a situation rather than whatever you want. That means that even if the best solution came from someone else, you take that solution.

This is a step that many of the students I see here at Bethany never take. Often in Bible classes, I will assign a group project. I like students to start to understand what it takes to work together. I hate group projects in middle school however. Because students have just barely begun the maturation process, most of them only want to do their ideas. So, the group process becomes a fight. Everyone likes their idea the best. And the winner is usually the one who complains longest and loudest that they want to do their idea. So it has nothing to do with who has the best idea, it is all about who is the most selfish!

In a team situation like tennis, I also see this difficulty in the maturation process. Many people can only think of their own success, and have difficulty realizing what might be good for the team. Players in tennis become obsessed with their position, whether they like playing singles or doubles, whether they should have another chance to play a higher ranked teammate, etc. They forget to think about what might be best, what might be good, for the team. This shows a lack of maturity.

After I process these selfish actions, they cease to make me angry. I realize they are part of the maturation that we all go through. Like Emma pointed out, I had to go through them as well. I simply think that it is important to start thinking about our actions, and attempting to move through the maturity process.

Maturing takes action. It doesn't just happen. Ever met a 35 year old who is still as selfish as a teenager. Chances are they've never given their maturity any thought. Any teenager's natural instinct may be to rebel, to not listen, to do what they want regardless of the consequences. And this won't just naturally change as you get older. So I encourage those who read this to begin to contemplate your actions, begin to mature. Begin to add the qualities mentioned in 2 Peter to your life in increasing measure.

Seek the good.
Seek knowledge.
Seek self-control.
Persevere.
Seek godliness.
Show kindness to all.
Show love to all.

As you do, you will grow, both in faith and in life.