New Life Mish Mash

What is happening in young men and women today?
More and more, men and women are taking life by the horns, tackling work and life with ferocity and gusto. Which is a good thing. But we are in the midst of an epidemic in which many young people are doing well in their jobs, and they are doing too well for their own good.
Basically, they are given a small job, and they tackle it head on, learning the skills and nuances required to succeed at that job, so they get promoted or scalped away to another company for more pay and more responsibilities. They tackle their new set of responsibilities with the same fervor and pour themselves into their jobs, so they can excel at their new level. And excel they do, and as their lists of skills and management grows, they are promoted again and the cycle repeats.
But twenty years down the road, as they juggle a dozen different plates and a mountain of responsibilities, their whole world comes crashing down.

Why?

Because they never took the time to develop their inner character. So you find groups of forty year old men, (and increasingly women), who despite their amazing external credentials and talents, never reached (wo)manhood. Though they were intentional and persistent in developing their external character, they neglected their inner character.
They are a twenty year old mind trapped in a forty year old body – stuck in a state of mental, emotional, and spiritual immaturity.

Voilà, mid-life crisis. This is happening over and over, cycling through the generations.

And all along the way, they never stopped to question whether they should take the promotion, bigger job offer, and only dwelt on whether they could, and how they could remedy that.
Despite the popular saying, “you can’t judge a book by it’s cover,” it has no basis in biblical doctrine. Jesus said that we can recognize people by their fruit (Matthew 7, John 15). Jesus said that the things from within in our hearts will overflow into our actions, thoughts, desires, and words (Luke 6, Matthew 12). And in light of this we must consider, what is within us? Because we will reap what we sow (Galations 6:7). So what seeds are you sowing in your life today? We are sowing the the crops of tomorrow today, so make sure it is good fruit that you are planting.

Ultimately, we should draw our definition of maturity from the life of Christ, He who lived the perfect and exemplary life. How did Jesus live? We’ve forgotten to put Jesus in front of us, instead we overlook Him and immerse ourselves in the culture.
But three things we see of Christ: He was selfless, responsible, and humble.
How does your life stack up to His? The author and perfecter of our faith.