Stay Gold

“Stay Gold.”  

We watched the last half of the movie The Outsiders last night.  These were the last words to Ponyboy from his friend Johnny just before he died.  Johnny was referring to a poem Ponyboy had read him entitled Nothing Gold Can Stay written by Robert Frost.  He explained in a letter to Ponyboy that being Gold meant being young.  It was seeing the world as new and good, the way a child sees it. 

This is sometimes a very difficult concept for those of us who are “older” and should be wiser.  We have seen a lot in ourselves, in others, at work, at church, in our families, and in the world that we tend to lose some of our excitement.  We have been disappointed so relentlessly and so completely that we might find it hard to be encouraged to make a new friend, start a new work, take part in a new (same old thing) ministry effort or have to deal with so-and-so’s same old problem again. 

If we aren’t careful we will fall into a negative thought sinkhole.  We start with why should I try again today doing what I have done the last decade just to be the same person I was then?  In fact, it becomes easy to reason that you were better, then.  In this evaluation such thoughts will lead you to do things that are out of touch with Who it is that made you Gold and excited to live.  I think this is a part of what I have seen in others.  They are reaching so hard to live, but have forgotten that internal fire and passion that they had for living was from Jesus and it is Him that makes them Gold.  So they abandon what they were and put themselves into a position that they can't back out from.  Then when they try to return, they have trouble grasping why everyone treats them as a different person.

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” – 1 John 1:5-7

Try this small test.  Look around, wherever you are now, and imagine with all that you can imagine that someone, no matter who it is, has died suddenly and is no longer there.  Try to grasp all that it means.  …  Are you sad?  Are you heartbroken?  Or, are you numb to it?  …  This is certainly not a perfect test, but you should have been able to at least tell if there were pangs of heartbreak or not, even for someone you might not know very well.  A result of being gold is having a heart for what God cares the most about and that is people.

“Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” – Philippians 4:8

This fight to “Stay Gold” is a fight in our hearts to let Jesus rule it and not our selfishness.  It is also a fight in our mind to focus on thinking correctly.  The world is quick to drag you down and show you everything wrong with it.  To flaunt its sin fullness in our face and lead us to depression and apathy.

Have an open heart that follows what you believe Jesus is leading you to do.  Focus on the good and praiseworthy things in this world.  “Stay Gold.”