Growing Down: Unlearning the Patterns of Adulthood that Keep Us from Jesus

What does it mean to be an adult? Different individuals and cultures will answer differently, but they all will have one common theme: self-sufficiency.

Here is where the problem lies for the Christian. On the one hand, the world needs grown-ups, now more than ever. But if growing up is mainly about self-sufficiency and self-reliance, the gospel runs diametrically opposed to both of those things. The gospel tells us, in fact, that we need to "grow down”—to become like children.

True maturity, according to Jesus, is entering the kingdom of heaven like a child. In Growing Down, Michael Kelley wrestles with Jesus’ words that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the likes of little children. If that is true, then we must grow down in characteristics that make us functional and effective adults, if we want to truly grow up in Christ.

Michael Kelley is a husband and father of three who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where he serves as the Director of Groups Ministry for LifeWay Christian Resources. He is also the author of Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal: A Boy, Cancer, and God and Boring: Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life. Follow him on Twitter at @_michaelkelley or read more content like this at michaelkelley.co.