Babies vs Vikings

       I want you to meet 30 year old Stanley Thorton. He is an Adult Baby. Say what?! That's right, Stanley sleeps in a giant crib, plays with baby toys, drinks juice from a bottle, sucks on a pacifier and perhaps the worst part, the guy wears a diaper! Warning: This video will probably scar you. I don't apologize. There's a point to this... Let these images burn into your brain.

       These images should be disturbing. An adult living like a child is just wrong. But I wonder how many of us are living like Spiritual Babies. In 1 Corinthians 13:11 Paul writes to those in Corinth, "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways." At some point we ought to put away the toys and the sippy cups and use tools and drink from "big boy" glasses.

      "We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." -Hebrews 5:11-14

      ARE YOU HUNGRY? Do you thirst for righteousness, or are you still choking on milk like a baby? I think we are like adult babies sometimes. Now don't get me wrong. When you first become a believer in Jesus Christ, you gotta crawl before you walk. But at some point, we need to grow up. We need to mature... But what does that look like?

 

          No doubt Vikings are strong. (Much stronger than a baby, and I bet they eat a lot better too!) Not only did they row themselves miles across the seas, but they also built their own boats from scratch. Imagine all the axe swinging it would take to chop down trees, and cut logs into planks and hammer them together all by hand! No wonder Vikings are still known today. They worked very hard; an not just at war, they worked hard at all the little things too. Nothing was beneath them. They were willing to take on responsibilities that others delegated or neglected. That's why the Vikings were so great.
         So who would win in a fight, a Viking or an adult baby? It's not even a question is it? Vikings are trained for battle. Their whole lives are a training ground for it. Now contrast that with the generation around you. Are those around you, be-it at school, work, or even church really working hard doing the little things? Or are they "just making it” ? We live in an age of laughably low standards. Almost no one does more than is required. Yet aren't we in a fight? (See Ephesians 6:12) So why then are we not preparing to fight like the Vikings?     Simple answer? Being a Viking is hard, being a baby is easy. The expectations placed on a baby are to eat, sleep, poop and cry when they don't get their way. Are you living that way? What kind of standards do you hold yourself to? Do you succumb to the low expectations society places on you, or will you hold yourself to a higher, more heavenly standard and expectation? 

"For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:14