Apr 30 - 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.

1 Corinthians 13:11

^NRSV

 

In college, I was in a freshman dorm. Trying to prompt collegiality, our tenth floor pretended to be a fraternity. We were known as Tau Sigma Nu. (Get it? T�N.). 

 

My best friends from home – on the eighth floor and not to be outdone – commissioned themselves as the GYZ� (pronounced, "guys"). 

 

They were all pretty good guys! But nowadays, not all guys are. 

 

Now, this is definitely not the beginning of a guy-bashing theme! Rather, our goal in the midst of these weeks is to understand the covenant of marriage. Indeed, our theme for today is …

 

The Call to Be Covenant Keepers – Part Two

 

Cultural commentators have been noticing a growing trend among young adults, especially among modern GYZ�. It seems as if the onset of "adulthood" – of career and family responsibility – is being pushed to higher and higher ages. If the Harris twins rightly lamented the delay of mature responsibility from 14 to 19, what should we be saying about jobs, careers, and responsibility being increasingly delayed to the late-20s and early-30s?

 

Nowadays, age of first-marriage is being delayed to the late-20s and early-30s too. And if we're going to understand the marriage covenant, we need to understand the cultural factors that are shaping the people who are entering into this covenant.

 

So … why are the late-20s and early-30s becoming the functional age of adulthood and responsibility in our world today? There are four primary factors. Today I'll address two.

 

·         Part of the day, at least compared to previous generations, is economic.

 

It's hard to find jobs – especially careers – in the age I'm writing this!

 

Most young people would obviously like to work! Most would like to be productive, to have good salaries, to own their own homes. But out of economic necessity too many young adults are forced to continue living with their parents (or in college dorm-like settings) until they're thirty.

 

Part of the delay in the marital age is because of wisdom: "How can I support a family, when I can't even support myself?"

 

In one sense, that's a very wise question. In another sense, if we wait for the "right time" to get married or have kids or do whatever, we'll discover there's never a "right time." Part of being an adult is being bold. It is working hard. It is creating your own future.

 

·         A Second part of this is priorities.

 

Yesterday we heard the call to Do Hard Things, and we said that with "fewer formal responsibilities teens had more time for play and relaxation, and the purpose of teen-life began to be viewed by many as 'having fun.'"

 

Have you seen that with teens?

 

Well, nowadays, that's stretching well into people's twenties, especially among the GYZ�. 

 

Follow this trail … Without viable careers, there's more boredom. With longer-term boredom, there's a longer-term tendency to self-medicate with video-games and TV … or worse, drugs and alcohol. All of these things are addictive, even TV and computers. Therefore, with ten to fifteen years of reinforcement of a bored life-style, a relaxation-ethic (rather than a work-ethic) is beginning to define a generation.

 

Obviously this is not true of all young adults! Nevertheless, many of the employers that I know are leery of hiring folks in their twenties. A generation is getting branded as lazy. "They'd rather have fun than do the job," is the complaint. "They don't know how to work."

 

I hope this isn't you. Forgive me for painting with broad brush. But even if it's not you, don't you have friends that seem hopelessly stalled? This is having a huge impact on marriage. It's not only pushing back the age of first weddings, it's robbing the potential of GYZ� and GALZ who are "marriage material."

 

QUESTION: See below.

 

In Christ's Love

a guy who moved from

the tenth floor (T�N)

and became an honorary

member of the GYZ�

(and by the way most of us GYZ�

exceeded all expectations!)

 

QUESTION: Before we learn to be "covenant keepers," we need to learn to be "covenant makers." We need to become good "marriage material." As Mufasa told Simba, "You are more than what you've become." Whoever you are and whatever you are, you can be a very good husband or wife. You can become a powerful covenant keeper. What, if anything, does today's devotion remind you that you need to do to be a strong person? a stronger husband or wife?