The Blessing of Responsibility

Young people aren’t growing up the way they used to. Most young American adults under 30 still live at home. In 1975, 45 percent of adults ages 25 to 34 had not only left home but were working, married and had kids. Now that figure has dropped by more than half: only 21 percent. In Britain, the number of people ages 25 to 35 who are unmarried has more than doubled to 5.8 million.

Why the shift?

Rather than seeking fulfillment through marriage and family, more people are looking for it in careers, entertainment or hobbies. Some take the easier route of staying at home due to lack of ambition or motivation, due to addictions or rising house prices and rent. Though some people might have good, unselfish reasons to live with their parents into their 30s, the overall result is that millions of young and not-so-young people are avoiding responsibility.

Refusing to take responsibility for your own life, for marriage and for family is a societal malaise, even a disease. It is showing up in the growing levels of anxiety and mental health problems. In a 2023 UK study of over 25,000 adults born 1946 to 2002, young adults had the highest levels of anxiety and depression.

Many people have taken responsibility for their lives, of course, but many of us still view this negatively. In fact, some people view it as something to be relieved of—for eternity.

The late Herbert W. Armstrong relayed a discussion he had with a professor about Jesus Christ’s teaching on the afterlife: Christians receive eternal life (Romans 6:23), responsibilities awarded according to their works (Matthew 16:27), and positions of rulership on Earth (Matthew 5:5; Revelation 5:10; Daniel 7:27).

“I don’t want your kind of religion,” responded the professor. “I don’t want to be saddled with responsibilities for all eternity. I’d rather just accept Christ, decide for myself how I’ll live the rest of this life, and then go to heaven with nothing to do for eternity.”

This professor held the responsibility of a high-level job. Yet he resented the burden it imposed on him.

Mr. Armstrong said he met up with this professor many years later after he had retired. “I wish I had something to keep me busy like you have,” he said. “All I do is sit here in my little living room all day long, day after day, with nothing to keep me occupied. It’s the most boring existence I could imagine.”

Life without responsibility is a curse! Without responsibility there can be no achievement, no success to take joy from.

Leaving your parents’ home, establishing a career, getting married, and having children can seem daunting. The weight of responsibility demands strength. But it also builds strength and enables you to experience the wholesome joys in life—fulfillment and happiness you cannot otherwise experience.

“As a young advertising man at age 20, I was given the responsibility to try to sell a magazine advertisement to a certain manufacturer,” wrote Mr. Armstrong. “I succeeded. As I left the factory office with signed contract in hand, it seemed I was walking on air. A feeling of ecstasy thrilled me as I walked from that office.

“Years later, I had completed my first evangelistic campaign of nine nights, with three new converts baptized, the very first of my entire ministerial experience. The fact that God had blessed my efforts with this accomplishment electrified me through and through in a far more intense thrill of joyous ecstasy than I had ever experienced before. I have learned by experience that nothing else is as satisfying and rewarding as achievement of a responsibility accomplished” (Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course).

That kind of thrill is what God wants for all mankind—for eternity. “We shall be constantly looking back on happy accomplishments and anticipating even more pleasurable accomplishments ahead,” wrote Mr. Armstrong. “It will be one continuous pleasure after another for all eternity” (ibid).

Perhaps it is natural for young people to want the benefits and freedoms of adulthood without realizing the duties that go with them. As we grow up, we might come to view responsibility itself as an unpleasant burden.

Avoid this mistake. A negative view of responsibility can hold you back from embracing God’s plan for your life. It is crucial that you see responsibility for the blessing it is. God has created you to continually grow in responsibility, with the duties you have grown into preparing you for greater responsibilities ahead—and greater accomplishments and greater joys!