I have spent most of the past week promoting CH at the Christian College and Universities fair. CH is a sponsor of the fairs. It has been a great opportunity to talk to students about their futures and telling them about CH for when they are done school or for volunteering now. It has been interesting to be surrounded by so many teens. As I have been listening to their conversations and watching them interact I have consistently thought “I am so glad I am not at that stage anymore”. I have cringed often while listening to them, not necessarily because what they say is vulgar or sinful but because it reminds me of what I was like at that age. I am embarrassed of who I was at that age. I look back and regret the way I treated people and how self centered I was. Most of the things I did were “normal” but that didn’t make them right. After an event this morning I was reading in Psalm 25:
6 Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O LORD.
8 Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
“Remember not the sins of my youth”. As I think back on my teen self much of what I regret was immaturity but much of it was out and out sin. I think back on the disrespectful things I said about persons with disabilities and I shudder. I think about the way I treated women and it makes me ashamed. Can I simply jot these things up to youth? On the surface I can. After some prayer for forgiveness however I realized that though I do not speak like a high school boy anymore it isn’t necessarily because I am closer to Christ.
When I was at that stage I thought I was fine, maybe even above average because I was only comparing myself to the average teenager (and there were many teenagers who were following passionately after God who I could have compared myself to but didn’t). Who do I compare myself to now? In the near future will I be praying “Remember not the sins of my thirties”? I don’t behave like a teenager because it would be socially unacceptable. What sins am I committing that are socially acceptable. I still am tempted to compare myself with the average person rather than comparing myself to the Living God. I pray that I would not settle for the sins of my age or the sins of my occupation or the sins of my culture. May the good and upright Lord instruct me in his ways. I don’t want to cringe as I look back on this day in 15 years.
6 Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth
and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you are good, O LORD.
8 Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
“Remember not the sins of my youth”. As I think back on my teen self much of what I regret was immaturity but much of it was out and out sin. I think back on the disrespectful things I said about persons with disabilities and I shudder. I think about the way I treated women and it makes me ashamed. Can I simply jot these things up to youth? On the surface I can. After some prayer for forgiveness however I realized that though I do not speak like a high school boy anymore it isn’t necessarily because I am closer to Christ.
When I was at that stage I thought I was fine, maybe even above average because I was only comparing myself to the average teenager (and there were many teenagers who were following passionately after God who I could have compared myself to but didn’t). Who do I compare myself to now? In the near future will I be praying “Remember not the sins of my thirties”? I don’t behave like a teenager because it would be socially unacceptable. What sins am I committing that are socially acceptable. I still am tempted to compare myself with the average person rather than comparing myself to the Living God. I pray that I would not settle for the sins of my age or the sins of my occupation or the sins of my culture. May the good and upright Lord instruct me in his ways. I don’t want to cringe as I look back on this day in 15 years.
Mark Wallace
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