I enjoy reading stories about rites of passage. There’s something fulfilling about a person leaving behind the safety they’ve known, facing a challenging personal quest and triumphantly returning as a respected member of society. They have faced danger, survived the experience, been changed by it and as a result have crossed over the threshold into adulthood. Why are these stories so cathartic? Perhaps because our society doesn’t have any definite rites of passage. Learning to drive, getting a job, buying a house, getting married, and raising children can all be important steps in our lives, but do this things transform us into men or women? True, getting lost in the woods, searching for an animal companion, leaping face first from a tower, or hanging from hooks embedded in the skin all seem like pretty strange ways to prove someone has reached that certain level of maturity. Still, there was at least a clear way to do so. Such methods don’t make sense to us anymore, but I wonder if we really are missing out on something those practices were meant to accomplish.

In the end, I think a lot of us simply prefer stagnation. We don’t want to leave the comforts of childhood to face real danger on our own. We don’t want to prove ourselves because it’s too much effort. We don’t want to be tested in case we discover that we’re failures, even though by not trying we’ve automatically become so. I find myself tempted to fall into the Peter Pan syndrome, not wanting to grow up, face difficulties, make sacrifices, and accept responsibility. I’m not saying we shouldn’t find joy in the little things of life. I truly admire those who find satisfaction in simplicity and I hope to follow their patterns. We should be thankful in all circumstances. But I must be on guard not to find contentment in the mundane. Have I resolved to build sandcastles on the shores of experience when an entire ocean awaits for me to explore? Am I so afraid of leaving behind what is comfortable that I’ve chosen a life of spiritual paralysis? These are things I must ask myself.

Thankfully, God tests us, whether we like it or not. I often remind myself that everything is a test. In a rather extreme example, God had Abraham prove his faithfulness by offering the one thing he cared about most, his only son. And not just any only son, but the one God had promised Abraham even though he and his wife we far beyond child-bearing years. Sure, God already knew the outcome beforehand, but I wonder what effect the experience had on Abraham and his son Isaac (who, I believe, was a young man at that point). And what an encouragement that story is to us now. Unlike many tribal rites of passage, God’s method is not a one-shot deal where failure is irreversible. Instead, we are constantly being tested. Testing is a purification process, comparable to the way gold or silver are refined through fire. Remarkably, God can work even through our failures. So I hope that I will face the next challenge willingly, seeing it as an opportunity for growth, knowing that, while it may seem terrifying, the outcome far outweighs the deceptive comforts of just giving up.

As a wee lad, nap time was by far my lest favorite time of the day and I didn’t really look forward to bath time a whole lot either. But now I greatly enjoy taking showers (you were worried weren’t you?) and though I’m still working on it, I cherish every opportunity to get enough sleep. Though I still love eating as much as ever, my tastes for food have changed significantly over the years and my palate has been greatly expanded from the simple preference for waffles, fish sticks, and chicken pot pie (not that I don’t still enjoy those once in a while). Looking back, I see a lot of changes in my life; decisions and events that led me to where I am now. Unquestionably, there’s a lot of things about me that remain the same, the things that make me who I am. Perhaps some of those things will never change. However, while I can’t honestly say every change in me has been beneficial (I’ve likely become jaded in some ways and, for example, hate glitter now more than ever), I think the majority of the changes have been towards the area of growth and not decline.

And now it looks like a lot of changes are either upon me or fast approaching. Changes in where I’m living, the church attend, work, all kinds of changes and with them comes all sorts of decisions to be made. “Change is good,” or so they say. While that isn’t always the case, I think that it might be true in these circumstances. It can be frightening, all those changes coming at once. And yet, overall, I really don’t feel afraid (that in itself is a big change), despite all the unknown factors. It’s a good place to be, realizing my uncertainty concerning the future while not letting it cause undue worry. I don’t expect things to get easier but I do believe, in one way or another, they’ll be better, or at least more how they should be.

C.S. Lewis wrote that in everything we do, we are transformed in one of two ways. We are either becoming creatures of heaven or creatures of hell. I pray that the steps I take are ones leading up the narrow heavenly path. There are lot of opportunities for growth up ahead and I feel like I’m in a place of preparedness to make the right decisions, the ones that will honor God. Knowing my fallible self, I can’t be certain of this, but I have a hope and a deep desire for it to be true. There are many roads before me, but, God willing, I’ll choose the one He has purposed for me to tread upon, the one less traveled by.