Too big for your britches

When I was a teenage boy, every once in a while, I’d muster up the nerve to challenge my father’s authority. He’d instruct me to do something and I’d foolishly reply, “You can’t make me!” I well remember him saying, “Boy, you’re getting too big for your britches.” Of course, that didn’t have anything to do with the size of my waistline, but the size of my ego. If I continued to exercise my stubbornness, it wouldn’t take long to (re)learn that not only had I overstepped my boundaries, I’d overestimated my abilities! Full grown teen or not, I was no match for my father. Now, he never abused us boys, but he did know how to “bring us back down to size.”

No longer a teenager, but someone who has been in the ministry for 20 years, I have regrettably seen too many people get too big for their britches. Again, this has nothing to do with girth, but an overconfidence in the wisdom and abilities of depraved mortal minds. When a finite created being no longer thinks he is dependent on his Creator, they have gotten too big for their britches.

Sadly, many parents reading this article have experienced exactly what I am talking about. Watching your children, not necessarily reject parental authority, but more dangerously – rejecting, refusing, even denying Divine authority. Having their minds filled by the smug humanism of some pompous professor, how many of us have seen our children outgrow God? Our little ones grow up in church. Our children seem to be well grounded in biblical truth, yet somewhere in the arrogance of youth and the pressures of conformity, they enter college as Christians and exit as Atheists?

Unfortunately, this turning away is not limited to young people. Far too many adults on this planet, and even here in a supposedly “Christian nation,” no longer think God is an invaluable part of life. Even in our quaint town of Perry, there are numerous families who have convinced themselves that God is either not real, or unnecessary. Simply take notice on any given Sunday at the sheer number of homes that are occupied, while church buildings are nearly empty. Count the number of liquor stores in our conservative small town. Perhaps even more telling, compare the names on the church roll with those actually faithful in attendance at worship services.

This article isn’t intended to debate the proper or improper place of alcohol consumption and liquor stores. Nor am I suggesting that you have to go to church to go to heaven. Further yet, am I not saying, “God is going to send you to hell, if you miss one Sunday.” But I am suggesting that the overall apathy in spiritual things is telling indeed. Even in a wonderful southern town like ours; among the Bible Belt, why is there such an indifference to God? My answer … we’ve gotten too big for our britches. Like the exiled Israelites, we’ve become intoxicated with Babylon.

Perhaps we need to be reminded of this warning, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17). Should it take a national catastrophe, or terrorist attack for our country to remember just how much we need God? Have we gotten so self-reliant that we no longer can truly say, “In God we trust?” Has America gotten too big for her britches?

However, this turning to God only in the midst of tragedy isn’t just true nationally, but even individually. Far too many people are like those in Psalm 10:4, “God is not in all their thoughts.” Having pastored for several years now, I have seen over and over again how scores of people live as if there is no God, until disaster strikes. In their moment of potential ruin, they cry out for God’s aid, yet as soon as the storm has passed, they disappear. Alas, it is disheartening to repeatedly witness how serious some folks get about serving God when facing some calamity; yet when the crisis wains, so does their commitment.

If we rebel against God’s authority by stubbornly pressing our self-sufficiency we have not only gotten too big for our britches, but worse, we are in grave danger of being perpetually punished. Shrugging aside eternity and ignoring our spiritual need, reveals we have overestimated our boundaries and overvalued our abilities. None of us can save ourselves, we must trust in the finished work of the Risen Messiah for our only hope of heaven. Don’t make God “bring you down to size.”

Bow the knee to King Jesus, He is able to save to uttermost all those who come unto God by Him!

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