A Peter Pan Life or a Life Worth Living?

Ephesians 4:1-6; 11-16

Listen to your teacher. Repeat after me:

I won't grow up,

(I won't grow up)

I don't want to go to school.

(I don't want to go to school)

Just to learn to be a parrot,

(Just to learn to be a parrot)

And recite a silly rule.

(And recite a silly rule)

If growing up means

It would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree,

I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up

Not me!

Not I,

Not me!

Not me!

OK, so Peter Pan is a fictional character.  But haven't you ever felt like saying, I won't grow up?! I wish I could do what I want, when I want it?  (Any parent has certainly hear those phrases time and again.)

But take a look at Paul's letter to the Ephesians and you will see a deeper, more thoughtful picture of growing up.  What does a Christian grown up look like?  Paul has some ideas to share with us:

• you live a life worth of the calling you have received (v. 1)
• you are completely humble, gentle, and patient with one another (v. 2)
• you keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace (v. 3)

When we're not a grown up, how do we act? "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming (v. 15)." 

Peter Pan's life sounds fun on first blush - no responsibilities, just fun all day long.  But God has created us for much more than that:  a life that is lived to glorify Him is truly a life worth living.  

Lord, I want to grow up into a mature Christian.  Help me to speak the truth in love and grow to become more like you.  Amen.