LIKE A CHILD

Live It Well – (Switchfoot)

THE STORY:

“Life is short…I wanna live it well…”

I was at the table at the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada just about a month ago. Ha but not the table you are thinking of… (although I did get a little lucky one night at a classic game of black jack). This was the breakfast table at a restaurant inside the hotel. I was the last one to get there out of my group and I was excited to order my food. A good friend of mine told me one time that “breakfast is the essentials…it’s the most essential meal of the day…” so now that has never left my memory and I’m always excited when I actually get the chance to have the time to eat the essentials in the morning! But instead of asking me for my order, my waitress caught me off guard and asked me something I have never been asked in my life…and I will never forget it…

Back when I was growing up in Tupelo, MS, I remember when I would get in trouble my parents would often tell me “Adrian…you need to stop acting like a child! Grow up…” And a lot of the times they were right because I would act like a child…sometimes unfortunately I think I still do that…But they would also discipline me (hit me with a paddle) to help me learn from my mistakes. [Quick funny story: My family had this famous paddle that me, my brother, and my sister would all be “hit” with when we got in trouble. My parents would even take it on trips with us! Well one time we were in Atlanta on a trip and me and my brother decided together we had enough of the “paddle” so in the last day of the trip we slid it underneath the couch of our hotel room right before check out…and we never got hit with that paddle again. I like to think it is still there!] But when you get older you don’t have your parents to get on to you every time…you get older, you don’t always get to “act” like a child and you get to real life. In real life everything we do can have an impact on someone and on yourself…

Back to the table at the Mirage…

I kind of noticed my waitress kept looking at me and smiling as I was looking over the menu…she said “Can I get you something too?” and I just smiled and said “Yes mam…” but she kept looking at me and then she said, You’re a child of God…aren’t you?” And I think the whole table just stopped… because everyone was kind of like “did I really just hear that?” And just to make sure I heard her correctly I said, “Mam?” And then she said, “You’re a child of God…you’re a Christian… right?” And I looked at her said “Yes mam..I am” and the she just smiled back at me and said “I thought so…”

THE QUESTION: What does it mean to be a child again? What does it mean to be a child of God? You only get one life to live in this world…so how do you want to live it?

THE ANSWER:

“Life is short; I wanna live it well…One life, one story to tell…Life is short; I wanna live it well…
And you’re the one I’m living for, awaken all my soul, every breath that you take is a miracle
Life is short; I wanna live it well…”

Switchfoot is an American alternative rock band from San Diego, California. Lead singer, Jon Foreman, explains the name of the band comes from a surfing term and says, “To switch your feet means to take a new stance facing the opposite direction. It’s about change and movement, a different way of approaching life and music.” Foreman chooses not to be labeled as a Christian band because he wants to reach more and more people with his message in music. He often says “We’re Christian by faith, not genre.” When asked about the purpose and meaning of the song Live It Well, the band says, “Sometimes you say it to yourself to remind yourself of the importance of each day and each moment and the brevity of life…this song is almost 20 years in the making…hope shines the brightest in the darkest places. You have to experience it.”

1 John 3:1 | Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are!

In my childhood story my parents would say stop “acting” like a child…over and over again as I got older but I want you to see the big difference in acting vs being. When I acted like a child I did what a child would do, I would just make any random decision I wanted and never thought about any consequences, but when you become like a child you have that sense of trust again. You believe and trust in who watches over your every step. Well God is inviting us to trust Him…trust His word and become children of God…his sons and daughters…even if you feel like you are running from Him…He wants you to run right back…become a child again. He’s the one who never runs…

I just recently joined up in a small group Bible study and we had our first one last Monday night and the last question we asked each other is what is one shame that you sometimes hide from God? I would never discuss anyones answer to that but I will share mine…My answer was that I don’t say thank you enough…every day of my life really is a miracle to me…and I just don’t thank God enough… I’m thankful for my job…thankful for a family that still loves me unconditionally, thankful I’m not serving time in a prison…I’m thankful I’m still alive… Thanking God should be my daily essentials… and I’m thankful for my waitress in Las Vegas…she became our waitress everyday after that while we were there at the hotel for the week. I tried to go back and find her on the last day to thank her and talk to her one more time but she wasn’t there…and I never saw again…But I think back about how she saw a light in me…she saw something good and I don’t even know what I did for her to see it but she saw it…but what if she had known me six years ago? What if she had seen me selling in the street…what if she had seen me in those dark days when I wasn’t this “nice” guy that people call me today…what if she had seen me “acting” like a child… but look I can’t think like that anymore! And you can’t either! So just stop… because whatever is going through your head about your own past right now….if you have truly asked for forgiveness (and you can do that right now), then believe me God doesn’t think about it anymore, God doesn’t even remember it!

The verse at the bottom today comes from one of my friends serving time in prison down in south Mississippi. I started to print out and send him my TenDaysInLove blog entries with my letters and he passes them out throughout the prison to other inmates… We write each other every chance we get…we encourage each other every time. At the bottom of the last letter he sent me, he said, “Adrian just always remember what Jesus says in John 8:12.” I needed that…and God spoke to me through him and it was a perfect fit for this entry…so take time to read that verse and remember to always be a light of life in this world, everywhere you go, because you never know when that moment will come when someone may be in the dark and they need your light to shine bright… I pray we all learn to become like a child, because honestly at the end of the day we are all just broken adults and this life is so short…so live it well…but live it with = LOVE. Nothing is impossible…

John 8:12

12 I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

(Listen below to Live It Well by Switchfoot)