Sometimes the pull of nostalgia draws me to the past.  I consider years gone by and how I would enjoy being younger with less responsibility.  But, the vision of nostalgia is flawed.  It expands joy and conceals pain at each stage of my life. There are advantages to growing older, milestones that offer rewards for achieving new levels of maturity.  Each year from youth more freedom is granted from parents and experiences once held in trust are taken into possession.  Sixteen is the year for driving licenses; the chance to work and earn your own money. At eighteen, we receive the right to vote and participate in the direction of your society.  The magic age of twenty one, all restrictions from adult life pass away. Passing into the middle years and beyond, the markers are more subtle and make up the tapestry of changing relationships, expanded influence and respect.  Children come and with it the evolution into parenting.  In time, grandchildren and a retirement from a life of work pass to us.

It is not all rosy and fine.  With each year we suffer more than the year before.  We gain responsibility and assume stress and struggle as never conceived of in our youth.  Our body ages, beauty fades leaving marks of time behind.  Friends and family pass away, each loss cutting our heart to shreds.  Fear and despair over our children and their inevitable rebellion brings floods of tears. To stay forever young is to reject all of these gifts, the remarkable experiences of life.  Choosing to remain one age emotionally while the rest of life continues betrays the natural order and leads to emptiness.  We are made by God to grow, mature and some day we will die.  Each experience shapes us and teaches us about the nature and glory of God. Our faith and relationship with God follows the same rules as our physical existence.  We begin our walk with Christ as helpless babies and experience God's love and care.  We worship, sing and play games with other babies in Christ.  It is a time of joyful directionless fellowship.  As we study, serve and search after God, our spirit grows.

Our flesh resists this growth and like a baby learning to walk we fall often and sometimes painfully.  The Holy Spirit picks us up and commands us to try again and again.  It knows we need to fall in order to grow and in time our legs of Faith and Grace will hold us up.  Our arms of Caring and Love gain in strength and in time we become warriors for Christ.  We become useful.  We become Christ Like. God expects us to grow up in him, to become like his son Jesus.  We are commanded to do this not for our glory, but for God's.  Like our physical growth, growing in spirit has rewards and milestones.  We depart as babies and become teachers, leaders filled with God's wisdom.  Those we led to Christ return and share their testimonies of ministry and introduce us to people they have brought to the Lord.  They are our children and grandchildren in spirit.  We see God's invisible hand at work shaping events and restoring the broken and devastated lives around us.

Growing up in Christ offers pain and loss too.  Watching teachers or pastors fail or fall in disgrace is like death.  Our roles in service expand, conflicting with schedules and people.  Our faith is shaken by events beyond our understanding, sometimes creating periods of darkness in our lives.  We are tested daily, frustrated often and this is all part of growing, maturing and becoming Christ Like. Yes, sometimes when life in the now is hard, I take a mental look back over the ages past.  I smile a little to myself at the memories but I am glad to be beyond those times of pain and confusion.  It is good to remember past lessons, but to mature we look forward and walk towards Christ.  Each new year expands around us wrapping us in the demands of now eventually slipping behind and merging into the past.

I wouldn't change a thing.

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I have been a writer for most of my adult life with a focus on life experience essays and political commentary.  Since turning my life back to Christ I have devoted my writing to faith and family subjects. It is my mission to describe the face of God as He has revealed it to me.  With words I help others think, laugh and grow.  To know why you believe what you believe and then to embrace a Christ centered life is the mark of a strong Christian and if I can help others achieve this I will mark this life as well spent.  I am a member of Faith Writers on http://www.faithwriters.com.

My guiding scripture is Col 4:6 "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."
~Michael

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