Terrorism

It’s a remarkable fact that a nation founded, fought for, built by, and transformed through the extraordinary courage of figures such as George Washington, Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr. now often seems reduced to a pitiful whimpering giant by a handful of mostly incompetent criminals, whose main weapons consist of scary-sounding Web sites and shoe- and underwear-concealed bombs that fail to detonate. -WSJ

I agree that this is remarkable, but the real question is: why? Could it be that we are in this state because we have become a nation of children, forever reliant on the “adults” in our lives to take care of us? That each of us likes to play the adult in a specific part of our lives, but not in our whole lives?

We rely on experts to teach us about God (theologians and pastors), experts to teach our children (it’s convenient, and they have a degree, I could never teach my own children!), experts to fix our bodies, experts to fix our cars, experts to find us a job—in fact, experts to run our lives. Truly we have become a people with itching ears, and not just in our churches, but in every area of our lives.

For the time is coming when people will not endure nsound1 teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 2 Timothy 3-4

It is a myth that others can teach us more about God than God’s own Scriptures. It is a myth that we cannot teach our own children. It is a myth that God wants us to remain as little babies, relying on Him for everything and all things, refusing to think for ourselves.

What we need, though, isn’t just a little more self reliance. What we need is to turn to God, and not just any God. We need to turn to a God who expects us to grow up, spiritually, and to be humans. To fulfill His image in ourselves in all things.