If you grew up Adventist, you probably learned early that fear was a great motivator.
Fear of Sunday laws.
Fear of caffeine.
Fear of missing the Time of Trouble survival training because you were at the mall on Sabbath.
But somewhere along the way, fear stopped feeling holy. It just felt heavy.
And then — maybe quietly, maybe painfully — your faith started to grow up.
Grown-up faith doesn’t wake up panicked about end-time charts. It wakes up asking, “How can I love better today?”
It doesn’t need every mystery solved, every verse weaponized, or every non-Adventist gently corrected. It’s stopped auditioning for salvation.
This faith still burns — but the fire’s different now.
It’s not the bonfire of certainty that scorches everyone who disagrees.
It’s the steady glow of compassion that warms everyone who draws near.
You’ve traded adrenaline for peace.
Fear-based obedience for relationship-based joy.
End-time obsession for present-time purpose.
And maybe that’s what spiritual adulthood looks like — realizing that God isn’t holding a stopwatch; He’s holding space.
When faith grows up, it doesn’t rebel against its roots — it redeems them. It remembers why it believed in the first place.
Still passionate.
Still Adventist.
Just no longer afraid.
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