Is there any point in your life when you say to yourself, ‘the party’s over’? Most of us don’t look back over our lives until there is a reason to cry.
Growing up as a teenager in the ‘70’s, the party seemed to go on forever. As a teen, there was no worry about politics – it seemed to take care of itself. Not like today, where you have these intellectually unenlightened folks in Congress who actually embrace the evils of socialism/communism, abortion – even for babies outside the womb – these insidious and degenerate homosexual marriages, and so on. What a disgrace this country is in, and where is the Church, for Christ’s sake?
In my idealistic youth, we had free sex, drugs and rock and roll, and since the Church had just begun to fall asleep, avoiding abortion for starters, we just grew our hair long, indulged in mind-altering substances and looked to the future to bring us even greater experiences and freedoms. I’m talking about ‘Christians’ here, but the way…
Then, for some of us, reality set in, and the party was over.
As an 18-year-old, I needed to earn money and invest in a future more stable that what the party offered, so I left it and I joined the US Army as a medical specialist/combat medic. It was a fully-loaded three years of incredible experiences. Hence the sacrifice, I suppose.
The purpose of this week’s Shiloh blog is to get you thinking about how long the party’s going to last for you. For some, it will last throughout your lives until you are carried out and dumped by the curbside – useless, nameless and completely forgotten – but for most of us, like me, it ended abruptly, and there were residual consequences that were most unpleasant. Yet, I consider myself one of the lucky ones.
The devil wants the party to last. If he had his way, it would last forever. Even for some of us, when the party is finally over, he continues to stay. He loves the love of laughter. He loves music! He dares the Lord to name the crime he is guilty of, resting his hope on a sort of virtue, but he has none. The devil today is like an old cobra who no longer has his venomous fangs, yet doesn’t realize it when he continues to attack Christians. When he strikes us, he does so with the soft gums with fangs long lost. How ridiculous he seems to us who have left the party behind and have embraced our Lord’s plan for our lives.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”
“Child” is synonymous with “adolescent”, “teenager”, and “young adult”, since the actual childhood of people in Paul’s days was very brief. Many married by the age of 14 years of age, as lifespan in those days was so short.
Fast-forward to 2019 and we have thousands of 30+ year-old boys and girls still living at home with Mommy and Daddy in their finished basements still “trying to find themselves”. Not to ruffle the feathers of these overgrown kiddies, but at 18 years old, I had a full-time job, a home 1500 miles from my parents, a car and a wife. At 18…
When does the party end? I’ve thought a lot about this. I think it ends when either Mom and Dad’s house burns down to the ground, forcing their overgrown kid to get moving out of necessity, or when such a kid finds Christ. With Christ, there is a very powerful, invisible emphasis on reaching our potential as His image bearer – reaching our potential as MEN and WOMEN – the kind of adults that He intends for us to be.
Life is short, and without Christ, this short life can amount to just a small pile of useless years – years spent in the devil’s never-ending party, which leaves each pleasure with the bitter sting of impending doom. Long after you’re gone and the party is over for you, the devil still hangs around, and he will remain until the Lord shuts him and the party down for good – I think, much to his surprise. Hopefully, it won’t be to yours too.
In summary, the question is, when will you grow up and be counted as one of His own?