Growing up can be a nightmare. Not only are you thrown into the tank that is “adulthood” and expected to stay afloat but you’re also expected to be proficient in the breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly stroke and all other miscellaneous strokes. What’s the problem with that? Well, nothing, really. Coming of age is a passage designed by God - it’s up to us if we want him to accompany us through it.
I was thinking about that very thing several days ago, watching my baby sister get ready for her senior prom. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched her, beaming from ear to ear, in her stunning prom gown. Her confidence, her moxie, seemed to ooze from her. She was doing her very best freestyle stroke and I was proud of her for it.
I couldn’t help but snicker to myself when I thought about the mayhem that would befall her in college and her early adult years. Not because I want any ill-will towards my sister, she’s one of my best friends, but because it’s a rite of passage—being thrown into the world. I thought back to my own late teen/early adult years…that made me laugh harder.
Late adolescence claims to be easier than its “early” counterpart. Lies! Early adolescence mars life with pimples, bad hair-days, changing voices and social ineptness. Late adolescence, however, decides to pile on issues such as career fields, mate-choosing and socio-economic decisions. If someone wants to prove to me that pimples matter more than choosing a lifelong mate, meet me outside, I’m dying to hear it!
Many young adults are raised right, to be out-of-the-box thinkers, independent and ambitious. What’s missing, however, is the spiritual walk with an almighty God that has only our best interests in mind.
Oh, that’s right, we do have that. Every second of every day, we have that. What today’s youth is missing is the fact that we have to be the ones to choose God’s boundless love and untiring strength. Mommy and daddy can’t do it for us. It’s never been that way so why do so many young adults enter the adult world without developing the skills to cope with life, with God at their side?
I say cope because, until we reach our final destination, that’s all we can do here. We weren’t designed to live in a sinful world and we, as young adults, aren’t meant to face it alone. We are incapable. Every young man and woman between the ages 12-25, read that again. You are incapable of learning the strokes of life without God beside you. Whether or not you want to admit it, you are a sheep that requires a shepherd. Trust me, I’m still there.
Isaiah 40:11 tells us, “He tends his flock like a shepherd: he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”
I look back on my early college years and remember thinking to myself, “I can accomplish anything.” I spoke the truth, but only because I had the universe’s most powerful line-backer running interference for me. I had a goal and, so long as it aligned with the one God knew was best for me; I would skip (princess-like) into the end zone.
Well, sometimes. I’ve come to the reluctant conclusion that God does indeed have a sense of humor, especially with his newest children. He’ll watch us dart back and forth on the field of life, not knowing what in the world we’re doing, while waiting patiently at the line of scrimmage. He knows where we need to go and probably gets a good kick out of watching us try to figure it out for ourselves.
There’s more to God than we can ever imagine and it’s all at our disposal. I’ve come to think of him as my personal Google, anyone born after 1990 surely knows what I mean. He has the answers you’re seeking, the skills you want to learn and the heart you need in order to achieve those things. It’s all there for the taking, but you can only access it through a life-long subscription with God.
I pray that our youth can understand that they have the most powerful arsenal in the world in the form of light and love and sacrifice. The arsenal’s name is God.