A Game of Tag Gone Bad...

When I was in the fourth grade I had three teeth broken in a fight.  Calling it a fight is like saying that the Battle of Little Big Horn was good odds for the U.S. Cavalry.  Saying that I was in a fight would imply that violence went both ways...it was more like a massacre. The evening started off innocently enough playing basketball in the church gym.  I don’t know when things went south, but I recall making a teasing remark toward one of my friends about him liking a certain girl (which he did) and this led to a grand chase around the gym.  I was wily and untouchable up until the point where his ninth grade sister grabbed hold of me as I was running by.  No longer able to defend myself by running in circles, I received several tooth-breaking hits to the face which led to my discovering that he was genuinely out to hurt me…and I just thought it was a game of angry tag.

It is a story full of irony…getting beat up at church over a girl who was the pastor’s daughter.  The greatest irony was that earlier that same day, I had willfully disobeyed my mom and she had given me a choice: get a whipping for my disobedience or not be allowed to go the gym and spend the night with a friend.  I opted for the whipping since mom didn’t spank that hard.  By going to the gym I got broken teeth, made a late night trip to the dentist, and didn’t get to spend the night with my friend anyway.  I chose poorly.

I tell this story with much chagrin.  I can somewhat laugh about it now but it was one of those moments in life where I recognized how a poor choice can have significant, life-altering ramifications.  It is an example of a time where acting like a kid without restraint can have some grown-up consequences.

1 Corinthians 3:1-4 talks about how “mature” adults are suddenly transported back to the fourth grade again.  Paul tells us here that the difference between the spiritual man and the worldly man can be determined by heart attitudes that make their way to the surface.

When was the last time you acted below your spiritual age?  When was the last time you embarrassed yourself by your lack of self-control?  I think we fancy ourselves to be beyond those kinds of conflicts only to have a reaction that reveals the state of our hearts.  We will always have the potential to show off that latent infancy that tries to come to the surface when opportunity rises.  When it does…will broken teeth result?