The End of Childish Ways

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 an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

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Fifteen there's still time for you
Time to buy and time to lose
Fifteen, there's never a wish better than this
When you only got hundred years to live

"100 Years" by Five for Fighting

There's a genre of songs that take the listener over the course of a life in a song. Frank Sinatra won a Grammy for Best Male Vocal Performance in 1966 with a song called, "It Was a Very Good Year." Harry Chapin had a huge hit with his contribution to the genre, "Cat's in the Cradle." This version is from Five for Fighting.

"100 Years" tells the story of a young boy (the singer/songwriter is a boy so I going with the subject of the song being a boy) who is fifteen years old, "stuck between ten and twenty." The story continues throughout the years and benchmarks of life as the boy becomes a man, and a father, and continues until the age of ninety-nine, just a moment from dying.

Then again, it may be the boy, age fifteen, imagining all of this. Imagining how life will unfold. That's what's great about art, I can imagine both and not worry about being right or wrong. The song writer can tell me what he intended, where the "truth" lies, but in the meantime, I can have both views.

In any case, as the boy grows up, he increases in responsibilities. He increases in wisdom, and not so coincidentally, the time lapse of the song increases. It takes four verses to go from fifteen to forty-five, but from there it speeds up the next verse takes us from forty-five to ninety-nine. Ninety-nine gets its own verse though, examining life and awaiting death.

Paul tells this young boy that when he is young, he will be young. He'll speak like a child, think like a child, and reason like a child. When it comes time to be an adult it's time to put away childish ways. In the verses where the boy becomes a man, when he has a wife and a family, he must be a man and take care of his family like only a man can.

If we have only one problem it is that we have too many children having children. A child can't raise a child. Only an adult can raise a child. Some kids in their tweens have become borne children, and some forty year old's with kids haven't left childish ways behind.

Stay young at heart, laughter is essential! Seeing wonder in life everyday is important to growing in wisdom. Childishness is different, and it's dangerous past a certain age, and destructive once you have children of your own.

Paul put away his childish ways. He accepted responsibility. He did what he had to do instead of what he wanted to do. He acted with wisdom instead of impulse. At fifteen there's still time, but time marches on.