I vividly remember sitting in Bible classes in both undergraduate and graduate school, having intimidating professors sternly warn us young whipper-snappers that our heads held nothing but mush. We were told to “absorb” the breadth of their knowledge and experience; we were admonished to not venture into the land of “thinking” while we were still stupid; we were warned not to “stray from the ancient paths.”

I was sufficiently obedient.

Sadly, resting on the banks of three plus decades of heeding that counsel, I realize that they were false prophets and that I was led astray.

Yesterday I sat down with two of those “young whipper-snappers” that I once was. Heads were indeed full of mush but their eyes were bright with excitement at the discovery of the joy of frolicking in the fields of the Kingdom. They were bursting at the seams to tell me what they’d experienced and full of the wonder of what it might mean. One a convert-turned astray-now a believer and the other a seeker-turned atheist-now fully infatuated with Jesus.

I heard the voices of the prophets I’d sat under all those years ago sternly admonishing me to be responsible and to rein this serendipitous frivolity in before something “bad” happened. The voices even co-opted a favorite saying of my dad: “Hold ‘er Newt! She smells alfalfa!”

So, I adroitly handed them the keys and told them to have fun.

In the terminology used by that whipper-snapper crowd… sweet!