On being 18

I have this theory that after you pass the age of 18 you still feel like you are 18. Your body might not feel like you are 18, you probably know a bit more and have more life experience but there is something inside that makes you feel like you are 18. I have tested this theory out (like a good statistician) by surveying at least two other people of different ages and they still feel like they are 18 too. We are the same people, yet different.


Yesterday I met up with people I lived with or close to in my final year of university. We have all grown up (a bit), there were added partners and children, but, for all intents and purposes we all felt the same as we were when we lived in close proximity. We still had those years of our lives in common and to be honest, despite all we had been through, we hadn't changed that much.


So often I feel like I am only pretending to be grown up. I still make decisions about pensions and insurance and the future and am amazed at myself for being so very grown up despite having made these decisions by myself since I was at least, well, 18. 


When you are 18 you are at the beginning of adult life. You begin to make decisions that are life changing. Perhaps that is why that age sticks with us. We realise that those decisions never stop, that life changing decisions happen all the time and we still feel as overwhelmed as that first time we stepped into the world of grown ups.


We talked in church today about making the decision to know more of Christ. The decision to know more needs to be made again and again. The thing about Christ is that there is so much more to know, so much more to experience. We can know in our heads that Jesus died for us. We can know in our hearts that Jesus died for us. I want to know Christ, however, through the whole of my being (not just my head or heart) and to do that I continue to seek him, continue to spend time with him and continue to live out my life in him. 


I'm overwhelmed by the greatness of God each time that I choose to follow Christ.


(I have just realised that it was 18 years ago this month that I was baptised......)