Leading our children from cynicism to hope…
It was December when she said it.
We were snuggled up together on the couch, under a quilt; we’d just finished reading the story of Jesus healing Jairus’ daughter. What a glorious story! And then she said it, quiet, to herself,
“God doesn’t do that anymore.”
My breath caught, struck that her unguarded childlike words would reflect what I too suspected, way down deep:
Does God do that anymore?
The truth was, though I’d read those words dozens of times, I wasn’t quite sure if God “did that anymore.”
My own inner doubts seemed harmless enough, honest questions, right? But once I heard my own unbelief spoken softly into the air, through the very lips of my precious daughter, the one I have devoted my life to discipling into a follower of Christ … then I knew something great was at stake:
My life is becoming her doctrine.
I closed my eyes and saw the sand in the hourglass–time running out.
See, childlike faith can quickly turn to cynicism. Certainly, we cannot (and should not!) shelter our children from all disappointment. God does not say yes to every prayer. (This too is grace.) But children give us the gift of unfiltered speech:
The Emperor has no clothes!
They see right through religion. What is real? We’re often afraid to speak the obvious, afraid it will expose our own inadequacies, and as a result we sometimes miss seeing a real God do real stuff in the real world every single day.
Later, months later, we sat on the couch and read The Hungry Thing. When all the adults cannot fathom was schmancakes and hookies and gollipops could possibly be, the small child speaks up with the clarity that only humility can bring:
Pancakes, and cookies and lollipops!
This year’s read through the Bible has only been a lesson in childlikeness. Believe what the Word actually says. Keep living as if “biblical” is real, because it is, even if you don’t feel it or see it at first.
Eventually your “real” will rise to meet biblical. Don’t give up.
What does this mean for my mundane? It means refusing to give up. It means meeting the questioning gaze of my daughter when she prays again and doesn’t see the answer she’d hoped for. It means honestly admitting that I also don’t understand sometimes. And it means celebrating every glimpse of the miraculous in our mundane. (Four times recently Heidi has prayed on her own to find a misplaced item and each time God immediately answered. She prayed for a specific need on Wednesday and had it clearly answered. Mundane miracles start tiny!)
It means cultivating an atmosphere of childlike faith and steadfast hope. It means rejecting cynicism, doubt, discouragement, and unbelief. It means come to the Father again and again in faith, in prayer, asking for everything from miracles to meals.
Let’s not lose our children to cynicism. Let’s commit afresh to seeing His kingdom come, in our homes and in their hearts as it is in heaven.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Rom. 15:13)
{Happy weekend. Thanks for reading.}
Free-range kids and letting go of labels
Spring’s come early to Oregon and the chickens are laying again. At this moment I’m sitting on the back porch as I watch the kids creating animal farms in the yard. Yes, “animal farms” are as simple as they sound: tupperware containers filled with worms, spiders, centipedes, snails, and slugs.
Over to the left are the chickens.
We joke that we only raise the finest “free-range” chickens. Of course they are free-range, we leave the gate and let them roam around the yard during the day.
Achieving “free-range” is much easier than it sounds.
But “free-range” is a funny thing, right? It’s a label we attach that conjures up an image that’s probably far from reality. More and more we are becoming label-obsessed and label-dependent, and while I’m certainly not here to take issue with the food industry (I’m just happy to have food on my table!), I’ve noticed that the label-happy mentality sticks itself to our homeschooling habits as well.
Classical, TJED, unschool, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Waldorf, and there’s more … all of these have excellent elements, and one of them may be the perfect fit for your family.
From Fatalism to Faith
“I guess it’s just meant to be.”
The words rolled off her tongue, a verbal white flag.*
Before, even months ago, I probably would have nodded, smiled, perhaps even commended her for her full surrender.
But now, something rose up inside, indignant.
No. That is not true. The works of the devil are not just “meant to be.”
They are meant to be … destroyed. (1 John 3:8)
The anger that rose up inside wasn’t about me. In fact, it would’ve been easier, in that moment, to assent to this line of thinking. Easier to slip my hand softly on hers, around that white flag, and wave it with her, to resign together to the “will of God” and feel a strange sort of comfort, pride even, that we were chosen to “suffer” in that way.
Except that isn’t what our King calls us to do.
Friends, it’s hard to even know what to write here, confined to a few hundred words every few days. I wish I could share with you in person all that God is doing. Online communication is so flat, so prone to be misconstrued or misunderstood. Sharing my heart in this space feels like trying to write a memoir on a post-it-note.
Remember that statue, the one I mentioned here, it’s coming unveiled, taking shape, and it’s massive. It changes everything. It has everything to do with the power and presence of God coming here, to earth, because of Jesus and through the Holy Spirit, to actively move, convict, free, heal, save, transform. It has everything to do with the simple prayer, Your Kingdom Come.
This bit about suffering is huge. It radically changes the way we pray. Digging deep into God’s Word clearly reveals the heart and will of God. He’s shown us the Stuff Jesus Does and He’s verbally given us a clear and great Commission. Sure, He might not have told us which brand of toilet paper to buy, but He’s made His overarching will for us on earth crystal clear.
Preach the gospel and perform signs to physically demonstrate the love and power of God (Matt. 10:7, Mark 6:12-13, Luke 10:9, John 10:38). Destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). While you do that, you will suffer much persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). But the persecution will actually work to increase your hope and prove your faith and prepare for you a glorious reward in heaven (Rom 5:3-5; 1 Pet. 1:6-7, 2 Cor. 4:17).
Here is what I’m trying to say: I have taken the biblical concept of surrender and skewed it. It has slipped from surrender to resignation to fatalism, all in the name of trusting the sovereignty of God. This is a perverted view of sovereignty. God is SO sovereign that “when He redeems a situation He does it so thoroughly that it looks like He created the problem as an opportunity for His power and glory to be seen” (Bill Johnson). [bctt tweet=”When God redeems a situation He does it so thoroughly that it looks like He created the problem as an opportunity for His power and glory to be seen.” @billjohnsonBJM”]
We think that a situation was “meant to be” but in reality God is so powerful He can destroy the works of the devil and turn them on their head, redeeming them and using them for good. But He calls us to partner with Him in this. Practically, this means that we must not just resign to the evil around us, but we must believe God and press in, praying in faith for the complete redemption of every evil, for the glory of God and the furthering of His kingdom.
Get what I mean about a memoir on a post-it-note? There’s just so much to talk about here!
What does this mean for my mundane today?
- It means I will refuse to mindlessly accept all that happens as “meant to be.”
- It means I will immerse myself in the Word of God so I can better understand His heart and His will.
- It means I will pray in faith, as best as I can, for evil to be destroyed, for sin and sickness to be destroyed, for salvation and health and life to spring up, so that many will witness the power and glory of God.
- It means I won’t look at my child’s sin and say, “Oh that’s just the way she is. It’s the terrible twos.”
- It means I won’t give in to cynicism and defeat.
Getting really mundane it means I won’t give in to the entropy of my endlessly dirty house–I will reject apathy and destroy the works of the devil and scrub that toilet once again! 🙂
I will surrender my way, and my will, and take up God’s way and God’s will. And I will trust His Word to show me that good and perfect will.
Fatalism says, the future is fixed. Accept it. Faith says, God is alive, and He has graciously chosen me to be an active part of His will, in His world, to let His Kingdom come.
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
{Thanks for reading.}
*This is a fictitious conversation that’s a compilation of various discussions and situations.
From Good to Grace
Why am I so burnt out on church?
What does it mean to be a “good Christian”?
Is it enough to just believe in Jesus?
Where does the gospel end and individual conviction begin?
Why do I feel like what I’m doing is never enough?
Why am I consistently jealous of or competitive with other Christians?
What’s the point of all this?
At one time or another, most of us have asked one of these questions. As Christians, we “know” the clear gospel, that Jesus died for our sins, making us accepted to God and giving us the gift of eternal life to all who receive Him, but after that sometimes things get muddied up.
What next? Often what’s next is that we find ourselves making a mental religious checklist of all the things we must do to be a good Christian. As we grow older The List gets longer. As we get married, The List gets longer. When we have children, The List gets longer. As new authors and books and movements develop, as we read more and hear more and look around more, The List gets longer.
The List wraps itself around my neck: Basically, unless I’m a TOMS-wearing, gluten-free, homeschool mom of 8 (6 of which are adopted from Africa), and my husband and I have weekly romantic date-nights, and I lead a Bible study and have one-hour quiet times from 5-6am each morning, and I make all my food from scratch and wear jewelry made my Noonday and drink fair trade coffee … there is just no hope of me being a good Christian woman. *smile* (Note: I love all those things, by the way, it’s just fun to glob them all together into one.)
The List varies widely based on our geographic location and church culture, so even if you happen to conquer it all, you might move across town and have to start all over. *sigh*
So, if you’ve ever struggled with convictions, comparisons, and Christian-life complications (who of us hasn’t?) …
… meet Christine.
Christine Hoover is one of the most gospel-centered, grace-saturated writers I’ve ever read. What strikes me about Christine is her wholehearted devotion to elevate Christ, not herself. Never have I left her site (or her books), struck by her. She always points people to the Savior. She may not always have you laughing out loud or always bring you to tears, but she will always bring you to Jesus. (And that’s my highest compliment to give.) She writes in a clear, straightforward manner that’s refreshing. Her first book, The Church-Planting Wife came out just 6-months into our church-planting adventure, and let’s just say the timing was impeccable!
Her new book, From Good to Grace, exposes what she calls the “goodness gospel” — a subtle skewed version of the true gospel, which traps us into performance, pride, comparison, depression, and burn-out. She humbly and vulnerably shares her own struggle with perfectionism and performance, and how God gently let her out of this endless cycle and into a place of freedom, grace, and joy.
Theologically rich and saturated with scripture, Christine takes readers on a journey of identifying the “goodness gospel,” and exposing where it deviates from the true gospel of grace. She then leads readers on a journey seeing how this freeing gospel of grace leads us to receive, and then how it leads us to respond.
I especially appreciated the last section of the book, highlighting how the gospel leads us to respond. She uses such relatable examples of how finding our hope, security, joy, and identity in the gospel frees to truly love others and serve, pursuing our God-given passions and using our God-given gifts for His glory, without pandering to the flesh’s constant craving for people’s approval and praise.
For anyone looking for a book that will draw them back to the pure and simple gospel, that will lead them by the hand back to the simplicity in Christ, that will refresh them and bring the big picture back into focus, I highly recommend From Good to Grace.
{May your weekend be filled with His life-giving grace. Thanks for reading.}