One day a teacher asked her students what they wanted to be when they grew up. Someone said a football player; another said an astronaut. One said the President, another said a doctor, and someone said a teacher. Everyone named some profession, except Tommy.
The teacher asked Tommy, “What about you, Tommy, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
And Tommy said, “I want to be possible when I grow up.”
His teacher said, “Possible? I don’t understand.”
Tommy said, “My mom is always saying I’m impossible, so I want to be possible when I grow up.”
I think Tommy had the right perspective. Hopefully, when we grow up, we too will be someone who is “possible.”
Someone with whom it is possible to see patience and kindness. Someone with whom it’s possible to hear in their voice words of grace and forgiveness.
Hopefully, too it will be possible to forgive ourselves for all our errors. Possible for us to forgive others who have hurt us, because we have experienced God’s loving forgiveness.
If those things become possible in us, then we will have truly grown up into being a genuine person.
It’s not easy to grow up. Even as adults, we are inclined to act selfishly -thinking that the world and the people in our lives must attend to our needs and make us comfortable.
However, a genuine person seeks to move outwardly rather than inwardly. As Jesus put it, “to love God with all your being, and to love others as you love yourself.” Notice that the movement is away from self, not toward self. Such a movement is the mark of maturity.
The Apostle Paul once said, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; but when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.”
Paul was speaking about the love of God when he spoke about becoming an adult. The greatest gift, Paul said, was to experience the love and grace of God. When you do, it causes you to grow up.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Possible? Yes, possible to live out of God’s love and grace.
Rev. Dr. Curtis Fussell