Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
Dear Disciple of Christ,
If you’ve been reading the Faithful Friday postings for any length of time, you can understand how concerned I am for the next generation of disciples. I suppose this comes from our getting older and being concerned for our children and grand children. When you and I were young, elementary school age or so, we could (and some of us did) get in trouble. There were temptations around us that might cause a teacher to write a note home to our parents or even, in extreme situations, have our teacher call for a parent/teacher conference. Can you remember being sent to the principal’s office (or, if you didn’t, can you remember a couple of kids fighting and getting sent there)? Boy, were they in trouble, right?
It sounds pretty quaint to remember those days. That was trouble? I was in elementary school in the 1950’s. The point I’m going to make is not about gun control nor is it coming as a political statement. I mention this to point out how times have changed and just how much more dangerous it is for our children in the world today than in the past. I was in elementary school from 1955 until 1965 and in all those years, there were no school shootings in America. That was what we experienced getting our education and preparing for the future (marriage, parenting, occupation, etc.). In the past 5 years there have been 1,136 people wounded or killed on school property. No matter where you come down on gun control, we have to say it is different day and age and it’s not a better one. It is hard to suggest that people maintain any concept of the “sanctity of life.” If God has no connection to our lives, it’s hard to see the value He holds in all lives.
So I wonder what it is like for parents working to protect their children, what it is like for my own two daughters to try and protect their children. And it is not simply a matter of guns that is much worse. That may well represent a lack of self-control and discipline and personality disorders, but it certainly also represents a lack of value people have for other human beings. The primary concern for the shooters is their own lives, their own frustrations, their own desires to affect others, to make a difference in the world, even if it is a horrible difference. We would never want our children affected by these terrible events much less to cause them, but that is most often what the parents and relatives and neighbors of those people say as well. It is horrible and it is increasingly the response of more and more frustrated people.
Lord willing our children will never participate in those things, but what will they participate in? What will guide them (and what guides us) in our actions? The lessons above highlight the importance of the sharing of the faith and for faithful living with children. It is no guarantee for their actions, but it is a responsibility we have for our children that they know and see the will of God in our lives. This applies to parents as well as other disciples in churches everywhere That is a question we pastors have about our churches, the communities of faith where we serve and for whom we pray. We do that for th entire church and each individual disciple in our care. We know our own movement into ministry, a response to ‘God’s call. And we pray for each of you about living out the faith in this new day and age.
So, let me ask. Where did your life come from? I’m not referring to the miraculous gift from God but the lifestyle that you live, the values you hold, the difference you’d like to make in the world? At times I’ve been asked how I decided to become a minister and what it was like growing up in my home. Many pastors have children who become pastors (mine however was a boiler room mechanic, or “stationary engineer “as my mother taught me to say). We did not have Bible study at home. I had no relatives that were pastors. I didn’t have a particular pastor who spoke with me about it. Does my life sound some like yours? Since the need is so great and some (like me) are nearing the end of their calls, does the nature and development of my call connect with yours? I’d like to spend some time sharing the blessing of receiving and hearing God’s call for a lifetime.
So what did I have in my life that suggested I might be a pastor? I guess I’d call it a rhythm of life. Our family went to church every Sunday and at church we heard the Word each week. There was never a discussion or argument about going to worship on Sunday. My sister and I didn’t feel forced; it was what we did (she became an music major who used her talents as a church organist for many years and designs special services and directs choirs). It was like our parents had considered the value of the faith and worship and the Word for themselves and “passed that perspective” on to my sister and I. Even after confirmation, when the “norm” is for a percentage of kids to stop going to church and/or Sunday school, we continued. It had nothing to do with our age but instead with our identity. We were baptized children of God.
Have you ever started (or how many times have you started) an exercise program or a diet? You read something that indicated its value for your body and once you decided it was worthwhile, you did it day after day (at least until something else got in the way). The only times I’ve stayed with a healthy program was when I made that reasoned decision and did not allow myself to “discuss” the issue when I woke up (I would exercise first thing in the morning). If I discussed it with myself, I could at that moment find reasons it would be better to go out later in the day or I needed my rest or something else and a good habit was lost.
So what is the rhythm of your life? God, knowing us as he does, set up our gathering with Him to be a weekly event. Not that we don’t reflect on His will and ways each day, but He seemed to feel it would be best for us to stop focusing on our work and our efforts and our plans to give Him the opportunity to show us His work and ways and plans for us and creation. “So remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. Rest from your labors and look at mine,” God said (and says!). Would we dare to suggest we know better, that it would be better for us to ignore that Word of the Lord (some have tried that only to find themselves wandering from the Lord and faith itself)?
You may know that when I’m on vacation, I still set aside Sunday as that day of rest from my efforts to consider His loving efforts for me (a pastor on vacation is still a pastor). That means, at times, that I have led worship at our timeshare in Bahamas and on cruise ships in the Caribbean. It may mean a cruise line allowed me the space and time to provide some worship for the cruisers. It meant that my wife and I would gather with the Word in our room and read and consider and pray. It is simply what we do. It is a rhythm for life and it has served me well to rest in Him and in His Word weekly (and daily).
1) Do you have any rhythms in your life? Any that are God-designed and God-pleasing?
2) Do you believe that the more the Word impacts your life the better?
Peace and rhythm,
Pastor Johnson