Arrested Development

Episode Transcript

Ethan (00:00):
Raising joyful children in an angry world, a podcast
dedicated to faithful parentsnavigating their families
through a stormy culture
You may be familiar with theterm arrested development.
It was a comedy show, but thisweek I want to get into wall
street journal writer, RachelWolf, and her piece about a
generation that refuses to growup.

(00:22):
This is raising joyful childrenin an angry world.
I am your host, Paul Osborne.
Rachel Wolf went into a reallyinteresting explanation about
the statistics and the number ofpeople in their thirties who
have no intention of marriage.
Owning a home or havingchildren, sometimes known as the
three pillars of adulthood, atleast historically.

(00:43):
And she, in this article,attempted to debunk the usual
explanations of debt or cost orbad choices.
What was interesting is, as youwork through this, the same
weekend, A story came out of aneight year old boy in Africa who
had wandered from his villageinto a nature preserve, which is

(01:04):
filled with lions and elephantsand tigers and all sorts of
dangerous beasts.
And he managed to survive forlike five or six days.
Based on the training, youngAfrican children get on how to
find water, food, and shelter inthe wilderness.
The contrast of those storieswas quite insightful.

(01:27):
One of the things about theother stories that Ms.
Wolfe has written, is thereseems to be one common
explanation surrounding ArrestedDevelopment.
That is the unwillingness togrow up.
And it's an unhealthy.
Pleasure principle.
In other words, it's in aconstant drive to find pleasure.

(01:49):
And outside what we might callthe governing understanding of
it, that too much of anythingisn't good for us.
But she takes a little differentpath.
She says, well, she, she triesto debunk their rational
arguments.
She says, you know, you look atthings comparatively, actually,
most people are better offfinancially than their parents.

(02:11):
And she talks about theabilities and the opportunities
to do this if you're willing tomove or make certain choices.
But I think the issue that, thatshe doesn't get to is, for one,
these people all haverationalizations of their own.
They can counter every argumentthat she makes.
But the reality is when you boilthis all down, what sits at the

(02:33):
bottom of it is an unwillingnessto give up their autonomy.
This is a spiritual, this is aphilosophical, this is a
worldview issue and we have totry and figure out how do we
raise kids in a luxury societythat constantly promotes this,
that says self choice is thehighest value.

(02:57):
And that your desires aresomething that you can master
instead of understandingsomething about the reality.
See, the one thing about theAfrican child in the jungle
isn't about survival training,but it's more about
understanding what's true,what's real and how to deal with
it.
And so I think, for Christianparents, there are a couple of

(03:21):
things that can help.
Most people today are involvedwith sports.
I don't have a problem withsports, but you've got to have
sort of a biblical understandingthat it, that what it's supposed
to teach, what's the value ofit.
You can see this in Paul'sletter when he talks about an
athlete competing for the prize.
And one, it talks about takingcare of your body.

(03:44):
To the training is required toachieve, that you have to push
yourself past the levels of painto reach your maximum
capability.
So if you have kids in sports,it has to be part, the biblical
understanding and framework hasto be part of what they're
learning.
The sports that try to take theshortcut, right, that want the

(04:06):
eight year old to compete on aPGA golf course or, you know,
frame everything like they wereplaying for a super bowl.
You got to watch that becauseyou've got to have the biblical
framework.
What are we actually doing?
And I think secondly, the mostimportant thing is to learn that
you're running your own race todo your best.

(04:29):
And if you run the race withyour eyes on others, you're
going to miss the gifts thathave been given to you.
And so when you, when you're,you're celebrating, of course,
when someone else does a littlebetter than you, you learn to
congratulate them, but you'realways working on your personal
best.
That's the real concept ofsports and the disciplines and

(04:50):
the striving and the trainingthat goes with it.
Well, of course, the hardquestion then is, well, how do
you get kids to see this, right?
What we're really talking aboutis how do you get the kids to
see reality?
And well, just because you toldthem, well, it's not bad.
You should listen to yourparents, but it's probably not
going to be enough.
And I don't think, an athleticrole model.

(05:13):
Or a great coach or somebody,those things all are helpful,
but we really need God to revealit.
What we're dealing with is aspiritual reality, what we're
always trying to do in theraising of our children.
Our primary goal has to bedelivering reality.
That is reality as God and hisword define it.

(05:34):
And so there's a couple ofthings that I think can be
helpful in this.
One is spiritual reality.
That is the Sabbath day.
We are built on a pattern of sixdays and seven rest.
I hate list.
I don't like to tell people whatthey have to do or shouldn't do,
but the concept of resting frompleasure or resting from our

(05:54):
work or the striving issomething that kind of helps us
build a reality.
It's a reality that says youweren't built to chase stuff
seven days a week, 24 hours aday, and that is a gift.
That's an instruction ofsomething to do versus so much
of the commandments that arerestrictions of what not to do.
And then I think the mostimportant thing that I I'm

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believing these days is that wewe've got to tell our Bible
stories in The understandingthat the goal is to not only
just lead them to the gospel inother words to trust Jesus with
their life But also understandthat the Bible and that Jesus
are reality Let me share what Icall a story I've developed
called the secret of the sandand the rock, and I'm still

(06:38):
working on it.
So it may be a little, a littlebit, rough around the edges, but
the secret of the sand and therock tries to take this entire
concept of the scripturesthemselves.
You may be familiar.
I think we're all familiar whereJesus says, don't build your
house on the sandy land, butbuild it on the rock because
when the storms come, it'll belike that sandcastle on the
beach.

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And I think kids can see thatvery clearly.
but there is a secret between,well, what is the difference
between what is the sand and therock?
And so what I would say is tokids, listen, here's the secret
of the sand and the rock.
Long before people even came tothe earth, the father in heaven
declared that Jesus is the son.
He's going to be the King of allof the universe.

(07:21):
And I'm borrowing a little bitfrom John Milton and one of the
angels, Lucifer, he didn't likethat announcement.
He was envious and angry.
Okay.
So he gathers the other angelsor at least some of them.
And he says, we weren't made tobe governed.
We were made to rule.
In other words, we don't have tohave a king.
We can be king.
And so he starts this rebellionand Michael and Gabriel and

(07:44):
eventually Jesus drive thisrebellion out of heaven.
The scripture says, I sawLucifer fall like lightning from
heaven.
Well, Lucifer wasn't satisfiedwith that.
Now he's been kicked out ofheaven and he wants to get back
at God.
And so he comes up with a plan.
I know what I'll do.
I will go as mankind, his latestcreation that he loves and I'll

(08:07):
deceive them.
And I'll trick them.
And so he goes, and as we knowthe story, he says, did God
really say you shouldn't eat ofthat tree?
And you can eat of all the otherones, but not this one, Eve
replies.
And he says, oh no, you can eatof that.
You'll be just like God.
See, it's the same lie.
And once people believed thatthey could be King by eating

(08:29):
from that tree, they could beGod.
Then they couldn't tell thedifference between what was rock
and what was sand.
And for years and years, God'screation and people were fooled
thinking that sand was rock andthey built their lives on sand
over and over.
And this devil was so clever atselling them sand as rock.

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He.
Packaged it in beautifulcontainers and it looked like
rock, but it wasn't.
Well, there was only one thing,only one thing that Jesus and
the King could do.
He had to come to earth.
And so he came as a baby, hegrows up to be a man and he's
about to reveal the secret.
And he tells the story.
Don't build your house on thesand.

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Cause when the storms comes,it'll fall down, build it on the
rock.
And everyone said, Oh yeah,that's, that makes sense.
Right.
And he's talking about more thanthat.
He's saying, don't build yourhouse and your life on what is
false, build it on what is true.
And then he asked his discipleswho have been following him a
question.

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Who do you say that I am?
And there lies the secretbetween knowing what is rock and
what is sand.
And Peter answers him and hesays, you're the son of God.
Oh, see, Peter understood.
The king.
Revealed to him by the HolySpirit, Jesus says, and that

(09:54):
profession, that faith that I'mking, that God reveals to you,
that's the secret.
And once you know that, nowyou'll be able to tell the
difference between what is sandand what is rock.
I would say it this way toparents in our community, our
church fellowship, when yourbrought you here to be baptized,
you were given God's name.

(10:16):
And you were named into thekingdom.
Children of a king.
And then the pastor, he taughtyou the stories that Jesus
taught Peter and your Sundayschool teachers and your Bible
at home.
And you started to get thestories.
And the secret of what is sandand rock was revealed to you

(10:38):
because Jesus said he wouldbuild his house.
On that profession and we buildour lives on that profession and
we come to his house, which isright here, our church, and
there were told more and moreabout what is rock and what is
sand and that lie that the deviltold and he got the angels and

(11:00):
some of the angels to rebel withhim and the one he told the
people fell for.
We no longer fall for because weknow what's true.
We know what's rock.
And we know what is sand.
See, Jesus is the king.
And once you know that, and onceyou trust that, then you will
know the secret of reality ofwhat is true and what is false.

(11:26):
And then all of the good thingsin life come from our King and
we have to trust what he saysabout what is good and what is
true and what is beautiful.
The Christian home has to be aplace where we're trying to
formation the mindset, the waywe see the world.
This is, this is critical in howwe tell the stories and how we

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ourselves understand the world.
The last thing I'll say aboutArrested Development and one of
the things that I find the otherside of this, this cause is so
much of this world and all ofits prosperity has such a
dystopic negative worlds comingto an end for you.

(12:09):
You got to keep that poison outof our kids heads by giving them
the reality that as it says, thefather made me.
I'm fearfully and wonderfullymade, and I and God live in his
kingdom and he will provide forall my needs.
That's a positive reality of whoGod is, and that gives people

(12:33):
the ability to have a worldviewthat allows them to reach
adulthood and development in apositive, wonderful, and godly,
good way.
The ultimate battle for theheart and soul is a fight for
identity.
Our king invites our kids toknow who they are, what to

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believe, and where they belong.
Until next time, let's rememberthe words for theirs is the
Kingdom of Heaven.