Institutional Pimples

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Some of us are older, we pay our own bills, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we are doing what we wanted, or even that we’ve grown up.

When you’re younger you might be more idealistic and presume that success will come in time. When you’re older you might realize that you’re running out of time and nothing is ever ideal. And this is common to all men of all ages: not being where we’re at when we’re there.

Proverbs offers wisdom on this:

The discerning sets his face toward wisdom,
but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
(Proverbs 17:24 ESV)

The fool is sure if he keeps scrolling he’ll find whatever it is that he’s looking for.

Considered from one angle, our church body is younger, not just that it has many young persons in it—which is a sign of mature life—but that taken altogether we have some signs of undeveloped potential. Maybe we could say, there are some institutional pimples.

One metaphorical pimple, common to adolescent life under the sun, is youthful passions. These can include lust, but just as much includes the passion of pride without production, the passion of discontent without diligence, and the new ability to see how great something could be with the passion to wonder out loud why no one is doing anything about it.

The antidote is to cultivate self-control, along with others-centered virtues (“pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace”) and surrounding yourself with good community (“along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart”)(2 Timothy 2:22). It’s good to “grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).