A couple of weeks ago, I think it was, I came across an article written to the author’s eighteen-year-old self. That author — whom I’ve forgotten, or I would gladly cite — had a lot of good advice for a young person who, being a typical eighteen-year-old, was in need of a lot of good advice. He (or possibly she) concluded by asking readers what they would say, if they could, to their eighteen-year-old selves.
Well, my eighteen-year-old self sure could have used a good talking-to, along with several well-placed boots in the backside. But all that wouldn’t have mattered in the long run, because what I needed most was the gospel. So if I could talk to me-at-eighteen, I’d give me the gospel, over and over.
Skip forward to meet me, post conversion, at twenty, twenty-five, or even thirty, and then I’ve got some speech-making to do. The short version goes like this: “Shut up! You’re embarrassing me!” or, in a more patient mood, “Shut up! You think you know so much, but you’re ignorant, you’ve got a big mouth, and very soon you’re going to feel really stupid, so shut up!”
Channeling someone more polite, I would say it like this:
“You’ve got a genuine zeal for knowledge, but you’re going too fast. You’re swallowing things that sound good, that appeal to your commendable concern for the truth, but you’re not taking enough time to prove whether these things are so. And you’re spouting off at every opportunity about every new thing you learn. Someday, you’re going to look back with regret at the fool you were.
“Choose your teachers more carefully. Don’t give your ear to charismatic talkers who do not have the esteem of wise old men and women. The truth is ancient, and it is not hidden. If it’s new, it’s wrong. If it’s exciting, it’s probably gas. If you think you’re among the few who ‘get it,’ you’re deceived.
“Slow down. Treat all new ideas skeptically. In fact, consider everything think you know with a skeptical eye. Prove it. There’s no hurry. Study all things as exhaustively as you can, and then, when you’ve been convinced and five or even ten years have passed and you’re still convinced, maybe it will be safe to open your mouth dogmatically. Until then, let your elders take the lead. Be content to sit and listen, to question and learn. Be humble. Your elders may be wrong occasionally, or even often, but God didn’t send you to correct them, and he certainly doesn’t need you to save the church from their poor leadership. He’s got that under control. Just wait, you’ll get your chance. And if you’ve kept your mouth shut and your mind and ears open, maybe you’ll be ready. Maybe you’ll be prepared for such a time as this, whatever that time may be.”
Younger readers may object to being painted as gullible and impulsive, and some of you do not, in fact, deserve that assessment. Good for you; I certainly do not want to look down on your youthfulness. But it would be foolish to deny that these are common foibles of youth.
At the same time, old-timers ought to be careful lest they look condescendingly on their younger brothers and sisters. I know plenty of gray heads that seldom think a discerning thought. I am surrounded, in my community, with Prayer of Jabez-caliber theologians in the forty-plus range. I myself, at thirty-something, tasted and nearly swallowed whole a particularly embarrassing heresy that shame prevents me from typing in this space. We all, regardless of age, need to take heed lest we fall.
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