The Day of Reckoning

I mentioned in my previous post about a day of reckoning. Since graduating I've run into many people who have seen and realized this phenomenon. Simply put it is a point in time when you begin to evaluate yourself down to the core. A self awareness when you challenge long held dogmas and traditions and figure out who you really are. Everyone goes through this at some point and on some level. Perhaps they realize now how committed they are to Dr. Pepper, or perhaps they realize that they never really were liked bean sprouts. They just tolerated them. For some it can be a major life altering event, and for others it is barely noticeable. But everyone goes through it at some point or another, maybe in high school, perhaps in college, but most after college.

Every child goes through this. And college, or that age group, is prime time for self discovery and establishing who you are. It is the transition from strict high school, living with parents, to dependant but free adulthood. It is the perfect time to get your hands a little dirty. Now make no mistake hands will get dirty, but again at some point this is going to happen anyway.

As I said in the previous post "isolationism doesn't work", that is because at some point the child will have their day of reckoning. It is just a matter of time. But I almost feel that when that day comes for the isolationist it is far more acute then it is for others not in an environment of isolationism. For me it came right after graduating. For the first time in my 20+ years of life no one told me how long my hair should be, what kind of pants I could wear and what I should do on Sunday night. No one told me what church to go to or if I should or shouldn't stop by the store on Sunday to pick up something needed for Monday and how many times a week I had to shave. For me it happened during my first secular job and the process was rather upending. Everything had to be reevaluated and nothing was off limits. I had to determine what was true conviction and what was merely tradition of how I was raised. I had to figure out what was truly my beliefs verses what I was taught to believe. It isn't a straight line and sometimes you return right back from where you came, but in the end it must be done. Isolationism simply delays the day of reckoning it doesn't avoid it.

Paul had an extremely upending day of reckoning (Acts 9). For 3 days Paul remained blind. Now of course his day of reckoning was a literal day with Jesus speaking directly to him, but it was no less earth shattering and upending for Paul. Everything he believed was shattered in one moment.

I think Peter is another example of people facing self discovery and how it isn't always clean. In the events leading up to Christ's death on the cross Peter assures Jesus that he will not forsake Christ when only moments later, seemingly, he denies Christ three times cursing on the last. But after that he would become the corner stone of the faith.

You see the day of reckoning is a good thing. It is that moment in time when our faith either becomes real or not at all. It is the time when we take all of our childhood teachings and throw it in the fire coming out the other side a better adult. It is that time when we shape who we really are and not just who we've been told to be.

For some this process is extremely messy, and for others not much changes at all. Still others completely lose their faith. The one thing I do know is this, it is going to happen. Some day there will be a Day of Reckoning. But God is faithful.

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.