Looking for an Adultier Adult by K. Denise Holmberg

First It Made Me Laugh

This Facebook post, by a friend in her early thirties, made me laugh. I remember when I realized I was an adult. Do you?

For me, the light went on when the lights went out. The pile of bills I accumulated to “worry about later” had reached great heights. An adultier adult, my mother, told me she actually paid them each month and on time. Imagine that.

                                                                                                                                                                               

I realized I was an “older” adult when the pounds I put on during the holidays no longer magically melted away afterwards. I was actually referred to as a middle-aged woman. Ouch.

Then It Made Me Think

That was mentally and physically, but what about spiritually?

There is a lot of truth in the idea of looking for an “adultier adult” in the spiritual realm. 

A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of having dinner at Joel and Lynn Rosenberg’s house. Joel shared something that night that never left me. 

He spoke of Paul, who had somebody that came alongside him … an “adultier adult”, spiritually speaking. His name was Joseph, but the apostles nicknamed him Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. That gives us great insight into his method of mentoring. 

John Piper calls Barnabas a leader-maker. He was someone who was successfully adulting. Two of the men he supported wrote one-third of the New Testament, Paul and Mark.

Paul then came alongside a younger man named Timothy, who also wrote part of the New Testament. There was no way these men would have known in their lifetime the impact they would have for the cause of Christ. 

Joel Rosenberg said we should all have a Barnabas and Timothy in our lives. In other words, that we should be the one successfully adulting to someone, and we should be looking to another who is an adultier adult than us.

Mentor and Protégé 

The purpose, in a nutshell, is to equip, empower, and employ. I have been fortunate to experience that in the Christian writing community. 

A few years ago, the premise of a story came to me, but I was not equipped at that time to tell it. 

Jerry Jenkins, author of the Left Behind series, had started a group called the Christian Writer’s Guild. Its purpose was to equip new authors in the craft of writing. Which in turn empowers them to employ their talent to tell stories clearly … all for the glory of God. 

I worked with a mentor named DiAnn Mills, who is the author of over sixty Christian novels. What amazes me the most about Jerry and DiAnn (and the many others that supported the Guild) is the selflessness of their work. It isn’t for money or fame, they both have that in spades. 

It is their calling, their way of serving God in ministry. 

Both are making an impact for the cause of Christ that neither may see in their lifetime. Most important, they are equipping successors to carry on the gospel message now and long after they are gone.

The Titus 2-tor

Titus 2 gives us a little more insight on being an “adultier adult”.

Speak the things that are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. (NKJV)

I love that it boils down to being teachers of good things (plus, that men need to be patient and women need to keep their mouths shut!). So look to someone who teaches good things, and then teach them to someone else.

The ultimate adult … our Father in Heaven … teaches us what those good things are in Micah 6:8:

He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you,

but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Blessings!

KDH