Moving to the Big Boy Bed

We had a transition happen this week at home. On Monday afternoon Canyon climbed out of his baby bed and moved immediately to his "big boy" bed. We now have no more "babies" at the house and at my old age, maybe that is good.

What makes the transition so good is that we have subsequently put him in bed for nap and a full night of sleep and we just put him in the bed and he stays just as he did in the baby bed until we come to get him out. We are hoping it stays this way. So far so good in his next step toward maturity.

It has caused me to think about the transition that is to take place in the believers life. The writer of Hebrews wrote about spiritual maturity and the steps that we all should make, but sadly many believers do not make. Far to many stay in the realm of immaturity. Look at these words from Hebrews 5:11-14
"About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you our to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who are mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."
Let's look at a couple of these things in regard to our lives and keeping us from maturity.

• Becoming dull of hearing prevents maturity. Not hearing and obeying the word cannot ever mature us. Ignoring the Word means we ignore the truth and we only become dull, boring and ineffective.
• Whenever we become dull, we need to start at the basics again. It means that are no longer fit to take on the solid food of good doctrine and challenging messages. Look what the scripture says - you live only on milk, we will be unskilled in the ways of righteousness. We will not be able to discern who is right and one stays a child. This is where far to many seem to stay. If you do not like messages that challenge you, then you are immature, because a person who is mature wants deeper and deeper truth. When you are a child, you act like a child - gossip, throw fits, manipulate, lie, etc. If this is you, then it is time to grow up.
• Solid Food is for the Mature. Maturity brings discernment, that when practiced, allows us to really discern what is good and evil. There is a perspective that comes from eating solid food of doctrine and deep truth that equips us better for life.

Have you moved to the "Big Boy Bed" spiritually? If not, it is time.

The New Normal

Pam and I were talking yesterday and we finally think we have something figured out. Living in a day and time where there is not such a clear cut and dry standard for what shapes how we live our lives or what shapes a society, the natural result is that everyone is free to do whatever they want. After all, my life is my life and I should not be told what to do as I live it and I should be free to make decisions regardless of what others really think about me. "I am you know, the center of the universe" - so we often think and live. Call it postmodernism or me-centered living, but it has definitely become the mainstream and the NORM.

There was a time in our society in the not too distant past where this life view was considered foreign. Yes, one could argue that life in the 1940's and 50's was a bit stuffy, etc., but one can also not deny that children and communities had a much better understanding on how to love and care for one another than we do now. There were also life and behavior standards that communities and society at large considered NORMAL. Those certain ideals shaped family, church, government and community life and honestly, gone are those days. The days of respect and mutual accountability to certain standards that were acceptable before no longer really exist. There was, even with the flaws of that generation, something NORMAL to their existence. And if you did not live by those standards, then one was seen outside the NORM and excluded from the group. Certain important ideals were embraced and we have lost those today.

The new normal is now this: Everyone is Normal. Everyone who lives gets to be considered the NORMAL and the new NORM is whatever you may want to do. No matter the choices one makes, no matter the value system one holds, no matter who you may affect - we all have the right to do as we please because what we do is normal. Everyone gets included in the NORM because everything is normal. Obviously I am not talking about breaking the law, as that still carries a penalty, but I am referring to how we talk and treat police officers, teachers, parents, neighbors, coaches, family, and etc. The new NORMAL gives us the right to say and do whatever we feel is right to them and anyone else who may get in our way. These questions must be asked: How is this working for our society? Are we friendlier and more joyful than the previous generations? Have we moved into a higher plane of respect and honor for others? Of course not!! Everyone being NORMAL is not a good thing and our current culture is proof. Accepting and placing anyone and everyone under the NORMAL banner is scary!

I don't like the new NORMAL, in how I live it out at times and how people treat me because they are infected by it. Somehow I don't see that the new NORM has made us more content or loving. We are worse off than ever. Some abnormalcy to the NORM is in order. Anyone want to join me? Maybe we could form a support group called the ABNORMALS.

Let's keep in mind these words of Jesus in John 15:19 - "If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you". Let us live in such a way that the world's NORMAL does not get our NORMAL and in so doing we find we are living for the glory of Christ.

Are you normal or abnormal?