As I sat to write this evening this hymn, by John Greenleaf Whittier, came to mind – this my prayer,
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
forgive our foolish ways;
reclothe us in our rightful mind,
in purer lives thy service find,
in deeper reverence, praise.
Luke 3:23 (<<click to read the passage)
Do we rush things too much? Are we putting excessive pressure on kids and young adults? We take great pride in our children being ahead in their age bracket. They walked at this age, talked at that age, could count and read, excelled at athletics or academics and on and on. But is it too much?
I’m not pointing fingers because we felt that way about Massey – my son. I’m not sure we pushed him but we sure encouraged! In fact, as time passed, we really didn’t need to push him – he pushed himself! He is an academic and we are praying this his pursuit of a doctorate in aerospace engineering will soon come to fruition. That is a lot to accomplish in 27 years! We are so proud of him! But did we “encourage” him too much?
We as parents and educators and coaches put so much pressure on our youth to excel. We want them to be the best they can be but let me just lay this right here…
When did the Jesus – Son God – begin His public ministry? Luke tells us that he “was about thirty years old…” Up until that point, to our knowledge, He – the Savior of the world – the Messiah – worked in a family-owned carpenter shop in the small town of Nazareth [“Nazareth! Can anything good come from Nazareth?” John 1:46 (NLT)]
We have kids in their early 20’s teaching in schools! Managing large groups of quite often older associates in corporate settings! Laying their lives on the line as they serve in the military and law enforcement!
Is it too much?
God himself did not set out to accomplish the very reason He was born on this old world until He was “about thirty years old…”!
Now maybe it is too much…and maybe it is not.
My Life Application Study Bible puts it this way, “…we need to resist the temptation to jump ahead before receiving the Spirit’s direction. Are you waiting and wondering what your next step should be? Don’t jump ahead – trust God’s timing.”
Jesus could have been chomping at the bit but “he patiently trusted his Father’s timing for his life and ministry.”
In reality, this applies to all of us…not just our youth. Quite often we get so antsy about where we are and fret over where we think we should be – ever hear of a mid-life crisis?
Our challenge for today is to patiently trust your Father’s timing. He sees the big picture. He knows where you are and He knows where He wants you to be. Trust. Him.
Dec 1st, 2019, Sun, 7:52 pm
