42 high-school aged guys huddled in the men’s staff cabin at a camp. They were from every corner of the state with a few sprinkled in from out of the state. Many serving for a second or third time in the summer. Lifeguards, kitchen staff, archery, maintenance . . . you name it. The jobs were as varied and eclectic as these young men who sat around me introducing themselves and proudly telling where they were from. Well, except Wyoming. Apparently, there was some inside joke that the state didn’t actually exist. Fire up the idk emojis, because I don’t understand that one.
The workday was over and most of them had showered. All in all, it was less like a men’s college dorm than I expected. And it smelled better too! I had been asked to speak for the evening devotions. I was the morning Bible speaker at the camp that week, but the guy in charge asked me to stop by to talk with the teen men. “What do you want me to talk about?” I asked the guy in charge? The eager young man smiled big and said, “Whatever you want to talk about!” He shared what they had been studying and then gave me full liberty on the choice of topics.
The Most Important Thing for a Young Man to Hear?
Now comes the quandary. If you had the chance to talk to 42 young men, about whatever you want, what would you choose? What do you think is the most important thing for a young man to think about? As I thought about it, the usual suspects came to mind. Purity would be a good choice. Men are assaulted beyond all comprehension in this front in our age. The guys-only context makes this even more appealing. Responsibility would be a good topic too. Playing video games is very fun, and sports do have some physical benefit. But taking care of all your responsibilities is a God given task.
But as I thought about my own life, and the struggles I faced as a young man and also as an adult, I had another thought. At the center of my own life, and connected to every sin and struggle I faced, was lurking a nefarious lie that had taken years to unlearn. That lie was that my life was my life. Which is to say that I believed that I owned my life. It was mine to do what I wanted with. It was mine to enjoy or destroy. It was mine to make every decision in as independently as I wanted. Afterall, at the end of the day, I saw my life as my life.
The Most Important Thing for Anyone to Hear
So many sins grow in the fertile soil of self-ownership. Offense is cultivated with ease when others treat my time poorly. Bitterness behaves like a weed fed Miracle Grow when a friend dares to tell me how to live my life. Parents court outbursts of wrath as they comment on the wisdom of my decisions, and bosses face slander if they don’t affirm my goals or my identity. And woe to the one who suffers. The problem of evil is truly a problem when it is my life that crumbles under the weight of the pain and suffering which seems so unjust.
But the Bible does not agree with this outlook on life. I did not create my life. I do not sustain my life. I have no powers of providence or sovereignty with which to ordain the many miniscule details and events. I did not even deserve life to begin with. As a sinner, and rebel, I deserved death. But thanks be to God for his provision through the Son. He saved me and bought my life with his own blood (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). I am not my own. My life is not my own. I am best viewed as a creation and a servant. To become content with this is truly great gain.
My Life is not My Own, but My God is Trustworthy
And so, in that room of young men, many of who reminded me of myself at that age, we opened to 1 Corinthians 6. We skipped the part about fleeing lust (not because it was unimportant) and spent the majority of the hour talking about what it means to not be the owner of your life. What it looks like to take the identity of a servant. How God’s character is the ultimate rock on which we can trust. He is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, and He loves us dearly. He can be trusted with all the details, planning, and caretaking. But before we can avail ourselves of that hope and comfort, we must first submit to the truth that our lives are not our lives. He has the right to do whatever He thinks best. Ours is to trust in him. Whether we are in high school and don’t get the summer job we want, or whether we are an adult, widowed by the loss of a spouse. God is good. God is trustworthy. And my life is not my life at all.
19 Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.
Thoughts Worth Thinking 