So, exactly what is a “childlike faith?” For starters, it’s something not to be taken lightly. In Matthew 19:14, when the disciples rebuke those who have brought little children to Jesus, what does Jesus say? “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Clearly, Jesus is big on children. He sees something special in them. He defends them… But what is it about children’s approach to faith that’s so engaging? Though Jesus doesn’t get specific about that, the answer is in their approach to life. As children, we are not jaded by the sophistication of the world. We’re real. We’re humble. We’re willing to admit our needs and trust that others can help us. We’re unpretentious and adventurous. We’re lighthearted and imaginative. And we’re fearless, willing to take a risk -- a juvenile version of what the early twentieth-century Bible teacher Oswald Chambers calls “reckless joy.”
And then, of course, we grow up. And what happens? In many cases, we get jaded by the world. Instead of being real, we rationalize behaviors. We learn to put our personal spin on our shortcomings rather than deal with them. We become pretentious. We throw ourselves into all sorts of physical adventure but are cowardly regarding relationships, flitting from one person to the next, lacking the courage to commit.
We hide our needs from others. From God. From ourselves. We play it safe, settling for too little in life. Rather than live by faith, we embrace one of the many forms of legalism, be it a secular or religious version. Rather than try to please God with simple faith, we complicate things by trying to prove to Him how worthy we are by our works. We’re full of fear, but we mask it with everything from busyness to addictions to rationalization, as we desperately seek to convince ourselves that we’re content. In reality, we know little of Chamber’s “reckless joy.”
-- Bob Welch in “52 Little Lessons from It’s a Wonderful Life”
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