Seven Signs You are Growing Up

Dispatch from the X-Calliber Hotel, Las Vegas Nevada

Seven Signs You Might Finally Be Growing Up
Sign #1 — You Start Wanting the Right Things

Las Vegas is a city built on wanting things.

Jackpots.
Attention.
Luck.
Another round.
A better hand.

The whole town runs on appetite.

And if we’re honest, most of us have spent a good portion of our lives chasing something—success, approval, security, love, respect, or just a little relief from the noise inside our heads.

That’s why the words of Jesus Christ in Gospel of Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7 hit so close to home. In what people now call the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn’t start by telling people how to behave.

He starts with what they hunger for.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

That’s a strange blessing if you think about it. Jesus doesn’t say blessed are the people who already have everything together. He doesn’t say blessed are the religious experts, the successful, or the morally impressive.

He says blessed are the people who hunger.

Growing up spiritually often begins right there. Not when we become perfect, but when our appetite starts to change.

When we’re younger, the hunger usually points outward. We want recognition, control, success, or a little applause from the crowd. Nothing unusual about that. It’s part of being human.

But somewhere along the road something shifts.

You begin to notice that some of the things you chased didn’t actually satisfy you. The applause fades. The victories feel temporary. The things that once looked important start to lose their shine.

And a different hunger begins to show up.

You start wanting truth more than appearances.
Peace more than winning arguments.
Mercy more than being right.

That’s one of the first signs you might actually be growing up.

Your appetite changes.

Jesus goes on in those same chapters of Matthew to talk about prayer, forgiveness, generosity, worry, and judgment. But underneath all those teachings runs a deeper invitation: learn to want the things that lead to life.

Seek first the kingdom of God.
Ask, and it will be given.
Knock, and the door will be opened.

That’s not the language of pressure. It’s the language of desire.

Maybe growing up is not about forcing ourselves into holiness by sheer willpower. Maybe it begins when we quietly admit that what we really want is something deeper than the world has been offering.

Grace begins to make sense.

And the strange promise of Jesus begins to feel believable:

Those who hunger and thirst for what is right…
will be filled.

So here’s a question to sit with today:

What are you truly hungry for?