When We Were Kings

 

When I was a minor, I spoke as a minor, I was disposed as a minor, I took account of things as a minor.  Yet when I have become a man, I have dispatched that which is a minor's.

1 Corinthians 13: 11, Concordant New Testament

I heard Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson proclaim in one of his recent podcasts recently that...we all die eventually.  Now, this wasn't breaking news for me, but it made me stop and think of what brought me to the point in my life where I am at.  The situations, events and decisions which helped to make me into the man I have become.  Yet before I became a man I was formed in the seemingly carefree days of my youth.  It never fails, each summer I think back to days spent at the lake swimming with my friends.  Of nights where we would be awake until all hours playing and doing what we did.  Indeed, many an elder would shake their fist and proclaim to us, "What would your parents think?"  Well, I can say from first hand experience that my mother was glad for the choices of friends that I made.  It is these friendships which have withstood the test of time despite being separated by state borders,  In my heart, those days we spent in the pursuit of happiness were some of the most memorable of my life.  When I see kids these days and the antics they continue to engage in I can smile and think back to those days where my friends and I were doing exactly the same thing.  Although technology and the years have made being young different than I remember, the days of youth have remained unchanged throughout time.  When I hear someone proclaim that all flesh eventually dies, I recall those days.  

That we may by no means still be minors, surging hither and thither and being carried about by every wind of teaching, by human caprice, by craftiness with a view to the systematizing of the deception. 

Ephesians 4: 14, Concordant New Testament

It isn't coincidence that I quoted Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame.  For anyone who is familiar with the Robertsons knows that Phils boys, despite being well into manhood, continue in their search for anything fun and/or amusing.  Maybe it's the desire not to want the days of our youth to end, perhaps it's the redneck way of life.  Whatever it is, we've all known grown men and women who seemingly have not gotten the message that they had grown up.  What's with that?  What would the apostle Paul say of such things?  Well, in his youth Paul was quite the Jewish firebrand.  Raised in the faith and taught to tow the church line no matter what.  It was this zealous belief by which Paul would later proclaim himself "chief" of all sinners {1 Timothy 1:15}.  But we know that this isn't at all how Paul turned out in later years.  For on that road to Damascus, he was introduced to the Man he had been persecuting.  Paul realized that being a man was less about tradition and more about the realization of who we are.  It was this realization that led me to my own discovery of the man that I am.  In reality I haven't changed all that much.  Sure, I look different, but I remain the same as I have always been.  The discovery I made was the truth which Paul spoke of in Galatians.  That my one true identity lies with Christ Jesus who lives in me {Galatians 2:20}.  I am not defined by those days of my youth.  The days we thought would never end.  When we were young.  When life was new.  When we were kings in our own right.  

~Scott~