Maturity

"You promote yourself every time you take on a new responsibility." William Gore

Well, I finally did it. I bought one of those electronic book devices so I could have the convenience of being able to hold a thousand volumes in the palm of my hand; to read at my leisure; and to go to whatever book happens to strike my fancy at any time of day or night. I love it!

I didn’t think I would ever say that, but I do. Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say I truly appreciate it, for “love” should be a term of endearment reserved for people and deities. Never-the-less, I do like my device.

It does have a problem common to electronic devices, however: power. I opened it up to read a daily devotional and … nothing. I thought I had powered it off last night, but apparently not, and so the battery was dead this morning. I must confess my Bible has never let me down that way, and neither have my magazines or other reading materials.

But, that’s life. We need to change or adapt as we make our way through this tangled thicket. Since I couldn’t read right away, I simply plugged the (rhymes with “book”) into the power supply and moved on to the next item on my agenda – writing.

You might suspect that I am not scratching this out with stylus and wax tablet, and your suspicion would be correct. Nor am I using quill and parchment, pen and paper, or even a typewriter. No, I am using a laptop computer and, when finished, will send this along neither by messenger, post, nor telegram, but via the internet where, with any luck, it will be in my friend and editor’s electronic Inbox within minutes (if not seconds).

Some people embrace change and others bristle at it, but what I have found is that while change is inevitable, misery is a choice. Some changes may be painful or awkward, but most seem to take place imperceptibly.

Have you ever gotten a breath of fresh air? Have you tried to hang onto it forever, because it is so good? No, of course not; life requires the constant exchange of new air for old. Even the freshest air will quickly grow stale as the body exchanges carbon dioxide for much needed oxygen.

So, we breathe normally and don’t think twice about it. The change isn’t painful – it is automatic, as it was designed to be.

One of the things I have found helpful in building a better relationship with change is learning to take the initiative – to be responsible.

Change seems to be more painful when it is imposed upon us from others. We can fight it with cries of “it isn’t fair” or “that’s not right,” but once a change has been implemented, it takes an act of Congress to take it back (or five gray-hairs on a bench – but we’ll save that discussion for another time).

Since we know change is inevitable, we can take the initiative in directing and controlling a lot of the changes we face.

I have a friend who absolutely hates his job. He wants to change jobs, but it is a tough market out there for job seekers. He cannot change the attitude or behavior of the people he works for, so he chooses, instead, to be a good, gracious, and effective employee so that when an opportunity presents itself to move on, he has an attitude others will want to bring on board.

In other words, he chooses what sort of person to be; he doesn’t let others mold him or twist his character; he goes the extra mile; he does his work with a smile; and he cleans up messes he finds in the aisle. He’s the kind of man I want to be when I grow up!

Spiritual maturity involves choosing to be the kind of people God wants us to be despite everything the world does to stamp or crumple us into something else.

Maturity is choosing not to play the victim, or to be the victim, but to be personally responsible for being and becoming the kind of people God intended us to be from the beginning of time.

That is a change worth embracing in this, our world. Peace!