I DARE YOU TO ASK A HIGHSHOOLER THESE QUESTIONS!

I love asking highschoolers these questions in this order:

The first question is this: What do you want to be when you grow up? Each person will always fall in one of two groups. The first group will look me straight in the eyes and say without any hesitation, “engineer!” or “architect!” or “accountant!” The other group will drop their head and look away with shame and mumble, “I don’t know…”

I proceed to the second question. “What do you think your parents want you to be when you grow up?” The first group will squint his eyes as the gerbil in his head wakes up and frantically jumps on the wheel. He’ll respond with a little less enthusiasm, “engineer.” or “architect.” or “accountant.” The second group looks at me with utter dread as if he were sitting guilty on the witness stand with his right hand in the air.

I ask the third question, “What do you think the Lord wants you to be when you grow up?” Both groups without fail look at me like wide-eyed raccoon staring at fast approaching headlights in the middle of a country road in the middle of the night - horn blaring.

These questions bring to light some startling realities. I think we would like to say that our goal is for our kids to be who the Lord wants them to be, but this is not how our kids are responding to the questions. Are they responding with this goal in mind?

 “When I grow up I have to go to the best school I can, pick the best major I can, so I can get the best job I can, so that I can make the most money I can, and have the best benefit package I can, so I can live as comfortably as I can, and take the nicest vacations I can, and retire as early as I can, in the warmest weather I can.”

 But before we let them declare fine art as their major, you might want to read “Silver Spoon DNA”.

SILVER SPOON DNA

Compared to most of the world, the average American Christian is born with a silver spoon not in their mouths, but in their DNA.

Next time you are close to your computer try this: Type in a Google search “poverty in Indiana” and click on images. Scroll through to get a good look at all the pictures, graphs, and nicely dressed people. Go back up to the search and delete the last two letters off the back of Indiana and hit enter.

The images are stark and disturbing. As country club Christians, we don’t think in terms of this kind of physical poverty. Unless you have been to a place like India, you’ll be like me and won’t understand the reality behind the pictures.

We have grown so accustomed to our prosperity it is difficult for us to even imagine a poverty that threatens the basic necessities of life such as food, clean water, and shelter. This is evidenced by our lifestyles, and to some degree how our kids are answering those questions. Hold on Jonah, where is the pursuit of prosperity directly condemned in the Bible? Well, I can’t give you a verse without ripping it out of its context.

But here’s where it becomes a problem as I look at the whole of Scripture. The pursuit of prosperity becomes a problem when use it to glorify ourselves instead of God and when we desire it more than Jesus. For most American Christians, prosperity is running through our veins. We are born in to it, we grow up with it, we think we deserve it, and we assume we are entitled to pursue it solely for our own comfort and pleasure.

We see it how our kids answer those four questions. The underlying question is this: Why do we want to be what we want to be when we grow up? Will it make a lot of money? Is it because our parents want us to?  Or, is it because God wants us to? Is our motivation first and foremost to bring God glory? Is our motivation to really use who were are and what we do as a platform to tell a dying world about our loving savior? Is it really? At any cost?

            Or is our motivation to make for ourselves a most comfortable living that ends up blinding us from who God called us to be? My DNA test came back positive. My heart is so torn between the comforts of this world and the call of my savior to reach a dying world. This life is so short. Eternity is so long. I’m reminded that for all of us there is a time to die! The time is now!

A GOOD OUTCOME MAY BE THE WORST THING FOR YOU!

So much of our prayer life is spent praying for good outcomes.

 

Dear Lord…

Please heal my grandmother who is on her death bed.
Be with the doctors. Give the nurses wisdom.
(or more likely...give the doctors wisdom and be with the nurses)
Help me find a new job quickly.
Please help us to find a house soon.
Lead us, guide us, and direct us in a special way.
Please let me get married.
Please let us get pregnant.
Please help our children behave.
Please let it be your will for my children to get a job and move out of my house... 

You may be praying for a good outcome even today.  Good outcomes can be good for us! And God glorifies himself through them! But what is the condition of the heart that is found habitually praying for good outcomes?

 

Is it a comfortable heart that does not want to be disturbed from the pleasures of life?
Is it a fearful heart that is terrified of God’s answer?
Is it a lazy heart that sees only the work involved?
Is it an impatient heart that hates to wait?
Is it a temporal heart that refuses to think past this life?

 

I can’t help but think of the all too familiar words of James:

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” ESV

 

Faith that is "perfect, complete, lacking in nothing" requires trials to get there.  Without storms in our lives, we would dry up like a desert. The best pictures of mountain tops are taken from cameras shuttering in valleys.  Help a butterfly out of its cocoon and it will die, not fly.  Is your life one marked by seeking lots of comfort in lots of ways? Perhaps the good outcome you’re praying for is the worst thing for you.

 

The big picture is this: There is a dying world on its way to hell that is watching how we handle these good and bad outcomes.  The world has them too.  They are watching us in an attempt to validate their suspicion that Jesus is a crutch and not worth following.  Whether you are bathing in the sun or crouching in a storm, I hope your heart is truly singing "Hallelujah, all I have is Christ. Hallelujah, Jesus is my life" as you live among this dying world. For all of us there is a time to die! The time is now!

Caskets here, get your caskets!

We've all heard the term the life expectancy of humans. But why is it that we rarely think in terms of the death expectancy of humans? Well, to think of or talk about death in is not exactly culturally acceptable. It is not popular for a crisp, white-collared executive to turn to his colleague after an important business meeting and say, “Hey Bob, have you purchased a casket yet? You should come over for dinner this Friday and check mine out! It’s made of solid wood! Clifton Walnut! We keep it in the living room so I can remind my kids that the day is fast approaching that their daddy will die.”

Let’s face it, there’s a higher probability of Bob getting struck by lightning. We just don’t have long lines of people wrapped around casket companies on black Friday.

In our culture, when we think about those who think about death, we think of the 16 year old skinny misfit who wears tight black jeans and a matching hood over his long maroon-dyed hair who refuses to speak when spoken to. Now check that guy’s internet history and might find a casket company or two- more likely there will be charcoal sketches of wicked awesome Goth caskets with matching tombstones in his dirty backpack. And this kid will not thrive in mainstream society. Ironically, but to his own credit, his thoughts are not far off from where they should be.

Jesus said that he is the answer to death. Is your life consumed with letting people know? Or have you been distracted by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches? As you read this another casket is being sold. Another person is losing the opportunity to respond to the plea of this loving and just Savior. Perhaps a casket sitting in our living room (or at least a good charcoal sketch of one) would be a good reminder that for all of us there will be a time to die.

So Jonah, what do you do for a living?

I play basketball every now and then on Saturday mornings  with some guys at a local church gym. There are always new guys showing up and inevitably the first question a guy will ask is, “So, Jonah, what do you do?"

 

As if two bulls just met head on in an open field, nostrils flaring, bloodshot eyes, sizing one another up to reveal who is the most successful and has the largest income. I’ve been tempted to say, “I am a Christ follower first, then a husband, and then a father. What do you do?”  But I think that would be  what Jon Acuff calls a “Jesus juke”. So I refrain.

 

I’ve also been tempted to reply, “What do I do with what?” or “Well, I don’t know, you haven’t given me two choices.” But I always just play the game and end up telling them what I do. Then I stand there with my eyes closed and brace myself as he squeezes my hand and stares me up and down. He’ll quickly decide based on what I tell him whether or not he will tell me what he does. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? It is! Welcome to Church!

 

So why are we Christians so concerned with what each other does for a living? Could it be that our identity is found in what we do for a living and not who we are in Christ? Could it be that our focus is so much on earthly things that we can't see heaven? Sadly, when our occupation becomes our primary preoccupation we begin to lose sight of those around us. Jesus so clearly calls us to die to ourselves so we are able to see the dying world around us.  So next time someone asks you what you do for a living be reminded of who you really are and why you're really here. For there will be for all of us...a time to die. The time for us is now.