Good Monday Morning, Dear Friends,
I suffered a birthday last week. At my age they come around all too frequently, it seems. I tell people I can still do everything I did when I was younger; it just takes me a lot longer. Joshua does wear me out when playing basketball in the driveway, I must confess. However, young people lack something that older people have: they lack experience.
In one of her songs, Taylor Swift got this dynamic exactly right. She summed up the whole “lack of experience” reality when she said this: “Cause when you’re fifteen, somebody tells you they love you, you’re gonna believe them, when you’re fifteen.”
It’s not a criticism, but it is a warning, because young people lack experience. They say things like, “Nothing’s going to happen, and besides, I can handle it!” All the while, the older, wiser parents are thinking of all the things that could happen, knowing that when they were young, they didn’t handle things all that well themselves. So, when people who love you and who are older than you say, “You just lack experience, and I need you to trust me,” I only ask that you believe them!
However, you can have the benefit of youth and the benefit of wisdom all at the same time. You do not have to allow your lack of experience to wreck and ruin and drive your life. You do not have to learn everything the hard way. You can have youth, and also have wisdom. But you have to seek wisdom. It will not come naturally. You will have to ask for it, because when you’re young you haven’t lived long enough to recognize it. “For the Lord gives wisdom,” Solomon says in the Old Testament, “from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6) because the wise seek wisdom.
I know this is hard, because it goes right to the heart of our pride, our background, our insecurities. For people of any age, teenagers, college students, young adults, middle-aged adults, seniors, we need to face the fact that we need wisdom. We never know everything we need to know. I pray that we will have the courage necessary to ask God for wisdom. It’s okay to admit that we may not be the smartest person in the room. You have the opportunity of a lifetime. You can have it all, but you’re not going to get there by yourself. You’ve got to make this request: God, give me wisdom.
So, what’s the wise thing to do?
I pray you’ll have the courage to seek wisdom,
Bruce Jones, Pastor Imagine Church
