Once in a great while I get to speak at
Mobile Christian School here in town for chapel. The chapel services are split in to two different services. One for middle school and one for high school teens; each lasts about fifteen minutes.
I don't get the opportunity very often, but from time to time I do. Since I get the opportunity so infrequently I often beat myself about the brain to figure out what to talk about. I have this internal struggle that says - be funny, be balanced, but mostly be real and very honest. Well for the middle school chapel I spoke about the choosing of King David, I used an illustration of three beautiful bags, one large, one medium and one small. I had three different volunteers come up and take bags and not look inside them until I told them to. In each bag I placed a different article, in the large bag I placed an old receipt and a pencil and some other trash. In the middle-sized bag I placed a small t-shirt and in the smallest bag I put in a ten dollar bill. These are middle schoolers, so my main objective was to get them to see the old "you can't read a book by it's cover" thing, reading 1 Samuel 16:7. And to apply it in their lives with each other. At the end I shared what I bad job I have done with this in my own life, and shared some funny stories and examples, overall I think they understood what I was saying, and probably really identified with it and were hopefully in some way encouraged.
In continuing to wrestle with this thought I decided that sharing that message with the high school group, even though I knew they could use it, would probably not be as strong. So I basically decided to allow the spirit to guide me through a discussion of what I blogged about yesterday. I said some funny things, told the story about the handbag and then began reading from John 15, after that I found myself in John 13:34 and then finally in Matthew 5.
Now, in my attempt to be "funny, balanced, and real" I found myself with an audience so deeply connected that you could break the intensity in the room with a hammer. I asked them to consider what MCS would look like if we lived out John 15:12, and John 13:34, and Matthew 5? I saw people squirming, I saw people looking at me like, "I can't believe you are going there."
Yeah, today somehow, by the power of the Spirit I went there, I spoke about Jesus never qualifying anyone before he loved them , and that we needed to stop sizing people up before offering them love and friendship. And I shared about how I have miserably failed at this.
I know the teens at MCS get a lot of stuff thrown at them about how they are wrong and they have to be perfect and sinless, and I know it annoys them, because people come as if, "I am so perfect." I would be annoyed too. One time a guy even stood before them and said, "If you aren't a member of the Church of Christ, you have no place in heaven." That was a stellar day, trust me.
So, I try to be very mindful of what I say to them, I want to do it in a way that challenges them, makes them uncomfortable but yet also helps them realize that God is seeking to build a relationship with them that will bring them life and that by knowing and seeking God's will and living his principles their lives will be better ones.
Immediately after the talk I noticed that some kids wouldn't talk to me. If you know our situation, then you know why what I said might encourage some of them to avoid me, some of them did and in a big way. I left there wondering if that wasn't Satans way of trying to discourage me, I think it was. I often think about what it is that God wants from me in these situations. I pray today that I was used to encourage and share a message of hope with somebody. Only time will tell as to what the response was or will be.
May God allow us to always "go there" even when it isn't the most popular thing and even when Satan attacks after it's been done.
k2 said...
been there, done that, got t-shirt my brotha. keep it up. you're doing great.
JD said...
Great post, Chris. A question Jesus once asked: "will you also leave?"
The truth will cause some people to be repulsed. Not the way we have traditionally thought about that. WE have figured that if we tell people they are going to hell, they ought to love us. If they leave, they just don't love God.
Turn it around and the reality is there: when we can't live up to the truth we profess, we only have left a faux-Christian lifeview that keeps us int he category of 'fairly good people' but doesn't press us to bend and break in order to be like our teacher.
And that is a hard teaching for many to accept.
You done good, my friend.
