There’s a book I came across a few weeks ago that has inspired the series we’re going entering in our youth program this week titled Do Hard Things. It’s written by a couple of teenage twins who have been igniting a revolution of their peers against the low expectations that our culture has for teenagers.
The official definition of the ‘rebelution’ is “a teenage rebellion against the low expectations of an ungodly culture.” When you look around today, in terms of godly character and practical competence, our culture does not expect much of us young people. We are not only expected to do very little that is wise or good, but we’re expected to do the opposite. Our media-saturated youth culture is constantly reinforcing lower and lower standards and expectations.
Preparing for this series has inspired reflection on my own course over the past year. How has my own desire to avoid hard things stunted my development? Here are a few candid thoughts:
My desire to avoid hard things in my marriage causes me to avoid conflict that could bring life, and instead choose to avoid, delay, and ignore areas that need attention.
My desire to avoid hard things in my ministry allows me to let myself off the hook when things are not as good as they can be, because “I can only do what I can do.”
My desire to avoid hard things can cause me to choose shallow connections with people over deep and dangerous relationships that require work, trust, and time.
So what are the hard things that you’ve been avoiding?
Life is simply complicated. Following Jesus, I’ve learned, can intensify the complexity. Setting aside all of the obvious and colossal benefits of salvation for just a few minutes, I’d like a chance to explain. Our lives are largely consumed by activities we have chosen for ourselves. We work in careers we have selected, spend time with friends and family as we chose, watch movies and television we select, recreate in places we please, use family planning techniques to fix our family size, shop for clothes at our favorite stores, and on and on.
When my life is my life, then I chose how these big pieces of my time are spent. Why I chose what I chose is sacred, and in our society protection of choice is elevated to highest level. I readily admit that I am a fan of choice, and resist feeling cornered into uses of my time and life. This attitude has profoundly affected my relationship with Jesus (heck, the use of the wording “my relationship with Jesus” alone kills any doubt).
I’ve always understood the personal and private call of Jesus which leads me to make choices about my life. The Scriptures lay out many laws and principles which should inform my actions. I’ve always understood this in a private way as God’s commandments affect my inward life. Many of these are black and white issues: like the 10 Commandments. Do _____, Don’t _______ . I get those.
Something uncomfortable about my life that I’m learning is that all things considered- I’m totally selfish. I make choices with the greatest consideration given to how it will impact…me. So lately I’ve been feeling like a bit of a scum bag for someone working for a church full-time. I truly do desire to follow Jesus, and to be close to him. The source of my uneasiness of late are two connected thoughts:
If I want to follow Jesus, I’ve got to go where He goes.
Jesus seems to go smack dab in the middle of people who are weak, hurting, and outsiders.
(okay– 3 thoughts) AND I tend to avoid those people.
Today I went out to the mall and lunch with a friend of mine from church. My wife and I have a 2 year old boy Eli, and my friend and his wife have a 2 year old girl. We spent most of our time in the play area of the mall carrying on a conversation frequently broken up by interventions in one or both of our children falling, pushing (often each other), hitting (mostly my boy), and clogging up the slide line by refusing to get off. Lunch was an experience like trying to control the effects of two small, simultaneous tornados.
My son Eli was overextended by the time we were driving home and the last 20 minutes of our drive was filled with a constant, argumentative, whining “My rhino!” from the back seats as Eli clutched his new rhino stuffed animal. The innocent Bella (my friends daughter) would wait for Eli to settle down some and then softly speak the words that would set Eli into another defensive toddler fit. ”My rhino,” she’d prod from the other side of the backseat, and off we were again. After one three minute stretch with no crying or whining the peace was broken by a soft “my rhino” from the gentle Bella and my friend and I couldn’t stop laughing at the “my rhino” symphony that re-erupted behind us.
Lately Bethany and I have been talking about plans for growing our family (more on this later), so this little experience was a funny to me since I had commented on how having a brother or sister for Eli to play with could possible make things play days like today easier. Silly Micah…
I had a chance to speak for LifePOINT this Sunday and work out some of the things that have been weighing on my heart.
God is good forever, yet the world is full of things that are broken. We are called to BE the good that God is to a world in desperate need. He has no other plan.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the action side of the gospel, and of our calling as Christians to be salt and light. If you have a little time and you want to hear my thoughts from Sunday, you can check it out online here.
I’ll be blogging more about this in the weeks ahead.
Much has happened since my last entry. The continued family vacation was followed up by a scrambling week of preparations for the summer camp we took our teens to and last week I was at the beautiful Forest Home for a spectacular week-long summer camp where 21 of our teens joined hundreds of others.
Here’s a video of the High School camp:
The experience was a great one for our students. For many of them it was the first time they have really connected with God in a personal way. For a couple of the guys in my high school group this summer they decided to follow Jesus, which is a total 180 from the life they’d been living.
I felt challenged by the God this past week at camp too. Sure there was the mondo face flop (it was supposed to be a belly-flop for our team), cheering like crazy for our team in competitions, and dancing…alot (side note: if you don’t know me– I can’t dance, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Now our group has even named one of the terrible moves I do “The Micah”. Someone would say “let’s do the Micah” and they’d do this terrible dance involving pointing both arms up with index fingers extended. ”The Micah” is not very smooth.
Besides all that, the theme for the camp has continued to challenge me. We discussed being salt and light in our culture. It’s something Jesus told his disciples they were. I’m struggling with this because I feel like I’m at a potential crossroads in my life where following Jesus may take a different and more authentic reality in my life.
The big idea is that while our relationship with Jesus is extremely personal, it is not individual. If I am truly following Jesus then I have to go where He goes, and this means more than an inward journey to self-enlightenment. Journeying with Jesus means that I embrace the concept that I am salt, that I am purposed to preserve the world around me. I am invited to be the love and life of Jesus in the world around me, and following Jesus in this way affects everything.
Suddenly every decision is an opportunity to be salt and light…every day and choice matters. What I eat, say, and wear. Every person I meet, dollar I spend, conversation I share, movie I watch, candidate I vote for, and graphic I design is an opportunity to worship God.
It also reminds me that Jesus seemed to love certain types of people in a special way. Children, the poor, the outcasts, sinners, widows, and sick seemed to have a special place in God’s heart. What do we do for them? How does our decision to follow Jesus change how we respond to these people? And at a personal level, Bethany and I have been talking about adopting lately. We both feel like God has opened up our hearts to want to open our lives up next to a son or daughter that has no mom and dad, and be that mom and dad.
I think adoption is close to God’s heart. He talks about taking care of orphans. What’s more, every Christian is adopted by God himself. The actual process of adopting a child seems huge, expensive, and frightening right. Having said that, it seems that our hearts are both set that this is a place that Jesus is walking us to, and we are both eager to follow Him closely.
I have so much more to say, but this is probably more than enough for now & It’s raining outside, which is quite beautiful, so I think I will just lay back and enjoy it now.
