Becoming Like Children: Repentance and Beginner's Mind

Devotional

Day 1: Returning to Square One at the Foot of the Cross

A child sits still, wide-eyed, as Jesus places them in the circle of disciples. Spiritual progress isn’t about climbing ladders but returning daily to the foot of the cross. Like a game board where victory means circling back to the starting line, faith thrives when we release self-importance and let grace reset us. Every morning offers a clean slate—forgiveness received, wonder restored, hands emptied of yesterday’s trophies. The kingdom belongs to those who kneel here, small enough to be lifted. [49:43]

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 18:3, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been clutching achievements or regrets this week? What would it look like to lay them down today and let grace meet you as a child?

Day 2: Answering Fools Without Becoming One

Two proverbs back-to-back: “Don’t answer a fool” and “Answer a fool.” Truth lives in the tension. Wisdom isn’t a rulebook but a discerning ear—knowing when silence disarms and when truth must pierce pride. Like Butch Cassidy weighing the cliff’s drop against the posse’s guns, every moment demands situational holiness. The difference lies not in the words but the heart: will you mirror folly or mirror Christ? [45:09]

“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.”
(Proverbs 26:4-5, ESV)

Reflection: When has silence served you better than argument? When have you avoided speaking truth to avoid discomfort?

Day 3: The Ancient of Days and the Eternal Youth

God’s hair is white as wool, yet Wisdom laughs like a child at creation. He is both the bedrock of ages and the spring’s first ripple. Maturity in faith isn’t outgrowing awe but marrying reverence to playfulness. To dwell with Him is to age into wisdom while staying young enough to chase mysteries. The kingdom is built by those who carry wrinkles and wonder in the same hands. [48:06]

“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth… Then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always.”
(Proverbs 8:22-23, 30-31, ESV)

Reflection: When did routine dull your wonder? How might you approach prayer or Scripture today like a child discovering a hidden trail?

Day 4: Beginner’s Mind in a World of Achievement

Zen masters call it shoshin: the mind that greets each day as if everything is new. Jesus called it repentance. Both require shedding the armor of expertise to stand vulnerable before the unknown. Faith falters when we worship our own resumes—how much have you “achieved” versus how much have you received? The cross-legged disciple and the kneeling saint share this: empty hands, open eyes. [51:02]

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant.”
(Philippians 2:5-7, ESV)

Reflection: What habit or assumption have you treated as “expertise” that might need unlearning? Where could curiosity replace certainty today?

Day 5: Maturity Found in Childlike Trust

Paul urges growth into Christ’s “full stature,” yet Jesus insists the kingdom belongs to toddlers. The paradox dissolves when maturity becomes less about self-sufficiency and more about dependence. A redwood’s strength lies in roots drinking deeply, not limbs straining upward. To be adult in faith is to know your smallness, to lean harder, to let the Father’s grip become your confidence. [52:29]

“Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ… speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”
(Ephesians 4:13-15, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you equated maturity with independence? How might trusting God like a child deepen—not diminish—your strength?

Sermon Summary

Jesus puts a child in the middle of the disciples and gives a hard word: unless they turn and become like children, they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Paul, however, says that childish ways are to be put away when adulthood comes. The apparent contradiction opens up a truth that comes from both directions, like “Look before you leap” and “He who hesitates is lost.” The situation matters, but the deeper point is that God’s truth often comes in a paradox.

Proverbs gives the same kind of puzzle. One verse says not to answer a fool according to his folly, and the next says to answer a fool according to his folly. The Hebrew phrase carries two senses: foolish words, or what a fool deserves. Wisdom refuses to become foolish in answering a fool, yet wisdom also refuses to let folly stand unchallenged and become wise in its own eyes.

God holds the ultimate paradox. Isaiah and Daniel give the picture of the Ancient of Days, high and lifted up, everlasting from generation to generation. Proverbs gives the female voice of Wisdom, beside God in creation, rejoicing like a master worker or perhaps like a little child. God is beyond old, yet God is forever young, always doing something new.

Jesus makes childlikeness a matter of repentance. Repentance lets go of self importance and turns to God like a child. Christ himself lives that way, emptying himself and living and dying as God directs. Christian progress, then, does not work like Monopoly, where the point is to keep moving around the board, collecting more property and cash. Christian progress means continually returning to square one, at the foot of the cross.

The foot of the cross is the place where the child sits still before the Lamb of God, is received, forgiven, restored, and sent out to begin again. Beginner’s mind names the same reality in another register: no thought of having attained something, no self centered claim of achievement, but openness to learn. The call to begin again each day may seem backward after all that adulthood has learned, suffered, and achieved. Yet God intends this wide eyed, curious dependence for his children. The Holy Spirit brings those who keep returning as children into the mature adulthood Paul commends, the full stature of Christ. The paradox may boggle the mind, but it gladdens the heart.

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Key Takeaways

1. Childlikeness is repentance from self importance. Jesus does not call disciples into immaturity, ignorance, or childish behavior. Jesus calls disciples to turn from the self that insists on being important, accomplished, and in control. Repentance becomes a return to dependent trust before God, with empty hands rather than spiritual credentials. [48:24]
2. Christian progress returns to square one. Christian growth does not mean accumulating religious property, status, or proof of advancement. The cross remains square one because forgiveness and restoration cannot be outgrown. Christ sends forgiven people back into the world to begin again, not to congratulate themselves for having arrived. [49:21]
3. God is ancient and ever new. God is the Ancient of Days, beyond every human measure of age, change, and decay. God is also the Creator whose Wisdom rejoices before him, forever young and always doing something new. God’s eternity is not stale permanence but living fullness. [47:49]
4. Maturity grows through beginning again. Beginner’s mind refuses the inward claim that something has already been attained. The Spirit uses that humble openness to make real learning possible, even after years of experience. Paul’s mature adulthood comes not by leaving dependence behind, but by being brought into Christ’s full stature through it.

## [50:47]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[41:26] - Becoming Like Children
[42:11] - Paul and Jesus: A Paradox
[42:56] - Look Before You Leap
[45:09] - Answering a Fool Wisely
[47:00] - The Ultimate Paradox of God
[48:24] - Repentance and Childlike Trust
[49:21] - Returning to Square One
[50:28] - Beginner’s Mind
[51:39] - Mature Adulthood in Christ

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Matthew 18:3 — “and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’” [41:57]

1 Corinthians 13:11 — “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” [42:11]

Proverbs 26:4–5 — “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” [45:09]

Proverbs 8:30–31 — “then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.” [47:49]

Observation questions

In Matthew 18:3, what does Jesus say must happen before a person can enter the kingdom of heaven? What action comes before becoming like children? [48:32]
What contrast does Paul make in 1 Corinthians 13:11 between being a child and becoming an adult? [42:11]
Proverbs 26:4–5 gives two apparently opposite instructions about answering a fool. What danger does each verse name? [45:59]
According to Proverbs 8:30–31, what is Wisdom doing beside God, and what words describe Wisdom’s attitude toward God and the world? [47:37]

Interpretation questions

Jesus calls people to become like children, while Paul calls believers to put away childish ways. How can childlike trust in God be different from childish behavior or immature thinking? [42:31]
The call to become like children begins with turning, or repentance. What does repentance from self-importance look like when a believer is used to being competent, respected, or in control? [48:49]
Proverbs says not to answer a fool with foolish words, but also not to leave folly unchallenged. What might it look like for a Christian to speak truth clearly without becoming harsh, mocking, or foolish? [46:05]
God is described as the Ancient of Days and also as the Creator who is always doing something new. How can these two truths help a believer face seasons of change without fearing that God has become distant or stale? [48:03]

Application questions

Where has self-importance shown up most easily in your life lately—perhaps in needing to be right, appreciated, independent, or in charge? What might it mean to turn to God with the trust of a child in that area? [48:49]
Christian progress is not collecting spiritual achievements but returning to the foot of the cross. Is there a failure, burden, or sin that you have been trying to manage alone rather than bringing again to Christ for forgiveness and restoration? [49:43]
Think about the beginning of a normal day. What would it look like for you to begin that day “wide-eyed and curious,” dependent on God rather than assuming you already know what you need? [51:46]
In a recent difficult conversation, did you avoid speaking when loving correction was needed, or did you answer in a way that began to resemble the foolishness you were confronting? What could a wiser response look like next time? [46:14]
Where are you tempted to measure your Christian life like a Monopoly game—by comparing progress, knowledge, service, influence, or recognition? How might returning to “square one” change that measure? [49:21]
What is one area of faith or Scripture where you have quietly thought, “I have already attained something”? How could a beginner’s mind make you more ready to listen, learn, and receive from God this week? [51:02]
God brings childlike, dependent people toward mature adulthood in Christ. How does that promise encourage you to take one humble next step without needing to prove that you have already arrived? [52:12]

Sermon Clips

78s

“It does seem counter to common sense that we as adults, after all we've learned and achieved and been through, should leave it all behind. And begin again each day like little children, wide eyed and curious about the world and what the day will bring. But from the beginning that is the way God intended his children to live. The way Jesus showed us to live. The way the Holy Spirit inspires us to live. And lo and behold, as we practice living like children, in his own good time and unbeknownst to us shall bring us to mature adulthood. The adulthood that Paul commends to the measure of the full stature of Christ. Put that paradox in your pipe and smoke it. It'll boggle your mind and gladden your heart.”

57s

“In his talk, pastor Christensen used the image of a game board to talk about the Christian life. Unlike monopoly where progress means to move your token around the board acquiring as much property and cash as you can, the progress of a Christian consists in a continual return to square one. And where is square one? At the foot of the cross, of course, where you sit still before the lamb of God like a child to be received, forgiven, and restored, and sent out to begin again. Always to begin again.”

48s

“Unlike monopoly where progress means to move your token around the board acquiring as much property and cash as you can, the progress of a Christian consists in a continual return to square one. And where is square one? At the foot of the cross, of course, where you sit still before the lamb of God like a child to be received, forgiven, and restored, and sent out to begin again. Always to begin again.”

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