J. R. Woodgates

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:2, The Message)

Energy and ambition go a long way in making money, acquiring academic degrees, climbing Mt. Everest, and hitting home runs. This is indisputable. But such goals, all of them much lauded by our culture, have very little to do in themselves with growing up in the land of resurrection—with living a mature life.

Competitive ambition can be pursued without conscience, without love, without compassion, without humility, without generosity, without righteousness, without holiness. Which is to say, quite apart from maturity.

Immature millionaires routinely walk out on their families. Immature scholars and scientists who collect Nobel Prizes make do with estranged and godless lives. Immature star athletes regularly embarrass their fans by infantile and adolescent, sometimes criminal, behavior.

These are the men and women who set the standards for getting to the top, making a name for themselves, beating out the competition. These are the men and women who provide the examples of what it means to be standout human beings.

—Eugene Peterson in Practice Resurrection

via Our Immature Heroes | Men of Integrity.