Grow up! (I Cor. 13)

One of my favorite writers, the Calvinist scholar R. J. Rushdoony, wrote a book on Biblical psychology with the intriguing title Revolt Against Maturity. The default setting for human life, the state in which we spend most of our lives, is adulthood. Adam was created an adult, just to drive home the point that this is the normative state. In a healthy society, as in a healthy life, people yearn to take hold of adult life, to measure up to their opportunities and obligations. At some point, you need to grow up. In C. S. Lewis's book The Last Battle, one of the original four characters was not found in the moment of consummation. Susan was, as the professor said, determined to race as quickly as possible to the silliest time of her life, then park there for as long as possible. Normal people grow up, marry, and raise kids who will grow, marry, and keep the story going. Let's look at a few words from Paul:

1Co 13:11 Çocukken çocuk gibi konuşur, çocuk gibi anlar, çocuk gibi düşünürdüm. Yetişkin biri olunca çocukça davranışları bıraktım.

Let's look at a few words:

• Çocukken -- during the time of childhood. Turkish uses the -ken suffix to indicate that the event the sentence describes took place during the condition that the root of the word describes.
  
• çocuk -- a child
  
• gibi -- as. This is a post-position. çocuk gibi means "as a child."
  
• konuşur -- spoke
  
• anlar -- understood
  
• düşünürdüm -- thought, pondered, meditated
  
• davranmak -- behave. Take action.
  
• davranışları -- behaviors.
  
• çocukça -- Childish. The -ça ending turns a noun into an adjective.
  
• bırakmak -- to leave. Set down. Let go. Drop. My mnemonic -- "to break off."
  

Growing up can be painful. Many cultures have initiation rites to definitively break off the time of childhood, and usher boys into manhood. For example, the Boy Scouts are modeled on African tribal initiation societies. Peter Pan was the boy who never wanted to grow up. That's crazy stuff. I still remember a schizophrenic friend who went off his meds, and began reacting to life like a seven year old lad. That's scary stuff. May God give us the grace to grow into all that He has for us.