Milk or Meat

When I hear of safe spaces, free speech zones (as opposed to free speech period), mid-terms being postponed because election results weren't favorable, counsellors being made available for the same reason, and a general sense of mollycoddling of college students who are preparing to enter into the adult world as leaders and captains of industry, I want to send them a blankie, a bottle of milk and a ticket back to their parents' home for a little more incubation time.

Comparing these young adults to the young men and women of our armed forces, who live in the harshest of conditions, face bullets and IEDs, return to the States with wounds and injuries that have altered their lives forever, is like comparing rising stars and Moon Pies - there is no comparison, only contrast.

Something very wrong happened on their way to growing up to face a world of challenges and disappointments.  In the real world of winning and losing, acceptance and rejection, first and last, top and bottom - they have been conditioned to believe that effort equals outcome, that showing up equals measuring up, that participation equals performance, that everyone is a winner regardless of the numbers on the scoreboard.

For them, to face the fact that their voice wasn't heard over everyone else's is shocking.  For these "not ready for prime time," not quite grown up adults, chewing on the gristle of defeat or rejection or loss or disagreement or challenges to their world view - anything that doesn't result in stroking of their fragile self-images is simply too much.

The simple fact is that at a time in life when they should be sharpening the sword of readiness to enter into a world of in-you-face competition and demands that can be daunting, these young people are being held over in a nursery, suckling on bottles of milk instead.  Their state of being reminds me of the words found in the Book of Hebrews:

"In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (vss. 12-14).

At some point, we have to grow up and accept the fact that things won't always go our way, that we really don't get a trophy just for participation, that we won't always be treated fairly, that others will say and do things we find objectionable, that our ideas will sometime be shot down, that being offended is a part of having sensibilities not a reason to seek out counseling or court action.  At some point, everyone needs to retire the milk bottles and reach for a piece of meat with the bone and chew on the realities of adulthood along with the challenges of life.

Being an adult does come with some heartaches and disappointment, but it also comes with a sene of accomplishment and the development of the mind, body and soul as you face the challenges.  And, the really Good News is that regardless of the battles we may face in this world, Jesus has already overcome this world (cf. Jn 16:33) and offers each one of us the victory over life and death.  Jus' Say'n.