Do you remember when you were little and every time you encountered something for the first time you were so overwhelmed with the excitement and intrigue of newness that your eyes literally sparkled and you had to focus all your energy on not bouncing up and down.  And how every time you’d meet someone new you would be blinded to their faults by your overwhelming naivity of all-consuming optimism.  And how anytime you looked up at a tree you were sure it stretched all the way to the sky.  And how every hill was an invitation to roll and every puddle to splash and everything was an adventure.

And do you remember the first time that you realized things aren’t always as bright and full of life as they seem?  Do you remember the moment, somewhere between finger painting in kindergarten and cramming for finals in university, where we lost that inner sense of adventure and curiosity and willingness to act on intrigue.

I fear that we have become creatures who are scared to be childlike.  In faith and in life.  And I guess I’ve been thinking about what it really means to surrender, but I guess really, to be childlike is the greatest surrender.

Because when we were kids we… lived loud.  We told everyone we could everything we loved about everything we had. We enjoyed things for every ounce of goodness they held.  We were loud.  We were confident in what we had and who we were.  We weren’t afraid to be sad or joyful or scared or in love, or tell people when we were.  We acted on what we knew to be true and what we believed in our huge hearts.  And I think a lot of times, if we have these feelings now, we suppress them, because we fear that the person walking behind us will laugh or the world won’t take us seriously.  We don’t post blogs because people might diss our use of ellipses, or we don’t dance in the street because our neighbours might laugh, and we don’t tell people how we feel because they might think we’re silly.

And I’m not sure which is more frustrating – the fact that we feel we have to be clothed in layers of skepticism and reserve, or the fact that we’re letting that force win by standing back.

But who cares.  Let’s be childlike again, remember that life isn’t about the world.  Life is about discovering God’s beauty all around us through loving and receiving grace.  Who’s to say you can’t find grace in rolling down a hill?  In completely surrendering all aspects of modern day dignity in a beautiful display of childlike enthusiasm.

Let’s dance undignified like David.  And sing like we’ve just heard the Psalms for the first time.

I want my life to be living praise.  A daily abandon to childlike faith.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.”  – Romans 12:1