Become like Little Children

I've just started reading John Piper's book "What Jesus Demands of the World", and while I am planning on reading it straight through, I skip around a little at the same time. I came across Demand #17: Humble Yourself in Childlikeness, servanthood, and brokenhearted boldness.

Biblical Text Reference: Matt. 18:2-4

In that chapter, Piper writes:

"Humility is not only like the servant who says, 'I am an unworthy servant;' humility is also like a child at rest in his father's arms."

I remember back when we lived in Albany, Oregon. My dad would hold me in church and I would strum the decorative buttons on his dress jacket sleeve to the beat of the music that my mom was playing up at the piano. I remember curling up in bed next to him in the middle of the night when I had a bad dream. I remember having to sit on his shoulders to see over a crowd of people. I even remember finding the wrong pair of blue pants, and upon looking up, realized I wasn't hugging my dad's leg, but rather had found one of the McDonalds employees. ...that terrifying memory has stuck around for a long time.

But all of these experiences point to a type of neediness. I was to little too see over the crowd of people. I was too restless to stand still on my own in church. I was too scared to be alone after having a nightmare. I wasn't enough for me.

Piper writes: "'Little ones' emphasizes that they are not great in the eyes of the world. They are not strong. They are not self-sufficient. ... Children may have all kinds of faults, but in a normal, healthy family they trust their daddy to take care of them."
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Several years ago, a few of my sisters were sitting in the school room. Aundra had a question for Sarah, and Sarah didn't have an answer. Megan looked up from her coloring picture, and in a completely serious tone said, "Ask Dad that question, he knows everything." ...and resumed her coloring.

Piper writes: "We must humble ourselves in both ways: like an unworthy servant and like a trusting child. ... "What marks them is that they 'believe in me.' That is, they trust not in themselves but in Jesus." ... "They are happy, anxiety-free, and confident that everything they need will be provided."

Megan knew that my dad could give her an answer to anything. She recognized his immense knowledge and understanding and trusted his answers beyond a shadow of a doubt.
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Later in the chapter Piper writes, "Jesus knew that children were not models for imitation in his day. The reason he chose them is because of "their powerlessness and their low social standing."(Ulric Luz, commentary) His demand is that we end our love affair with power and status and self-sufficiency and rights and control."

Remembering back to my childhood days, I didn't give a rip about social standing or what was normal...

While Christians need to represent Christ well, it's important that we not get wrapped up in our social standing. Instead, realizing how much we depend on God, we ought to be honest and transparent, knowing that we don't have to prove ourselves. Our standing with God is the only one that matters, and Jesus took care of that.

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Piper writes:

"Of course, Jesus is not calling us to be as unproductive or as immature as children. That's not the point of the comparison. The point is that we not love being stronger or more intelligent or richer than others-that our joy does not reside in a feeling of superiority. The point is that we not begrudge the absence of recognition if the world does not value what Jesus calls us to do. We must not fret over being thought lowly and even foolish by worldly standards. Instead we must "believe" in Jesus the way a child believes. We must find our security and meaning and joy in Jesus and all that our heavenly Father is for us in him."

Essentially, childlikeness ought to manifest itself in humility, but also a deep-seated and transparent trust in Christ. It ought to bring about a joy through relying on Christ's gift of salvation, and an enduring hope that keeps my eyes bright and my gaze set on eternity. In the same honest way a little one trusts in a father, I can look to God with that same childlike belief that says, "I just have faith, and that's all I need."