Sometimes I think that I've decided that there are some things about Christian Spirituality that we've heard enough...I need to think of something new or pertinent or relevant...something that will rock the world and make people stop and stare and say "Wow! I've never thought of that before!! My life has been changed!!" Yet I'm realizing that this is not the way I need to be...I don't need to think of a different story. I don't need to call to a different, life-changing place, because honestly, the only true life-changing story is that of a God who pursues, calls and redeems. I need to tell that story...
I'm reminded of that this week. Last night I got a Facebook message from one of my students (insert scolding note here from someone about doing work while I'm on vacation and about the ways that technology keeps us chained to our lives of work......OK, now I'll continue) about a boy named Kenzie. Kenzie is a sophomore in high school who comes from a broken home and a bad situation. Kenzie has no belief in God, and from what I understand, he's always been a little hostile towards Christians. The student who messaged me has been praying for Kenzie for a while now, believing that God would do some work in the life of this young man. Apparently Kenzie loves heavy metal music and recently had been listening to the band "Dream Theater." This is not a Christian band, but while Kenzie was reading the lyrics, something stood out to him. He came to band, found a student who he knows follows Jesus and asked her if she knew anyone who could talk to him about God and the Bible. Suddenly he was curious about God and about who God might be. So, hopefully next week I'll be sitting down with a curious student whose curiousity about Jesus has been piqued by the death metal band called Dream Theater. Please continue to pray for God's prevenient grace to be flowing into this young man's life and please continue to pray for me, as I have the opportunity to simply share the good news of God's love.
Isn't it incredible the ways that God pursues us? From the fall of humanity, God has been beckoning people, wooing people, running after us in order to let us know of God's great love. God pursues messed up high school students like Kenzie and God pursues middle age success stories. God pursues junkies, drop-outs, alcoholics, lawyers, doctors, mothers, fathers, middle schoolers and even dentists. While I might believe that dentists practice the devil's handiwork, God even pursues dentists. God meets us where we're at and reveals Godself to us through ways we can't even begin to dream up. God writes stories of pursuit and love that even Hollywood couldn't make into a movie, because it would seem too far fetched. And probably the best thing about it is that God continues to pursue us. Sometimes I wonder why God continues to give chase to us, and then I realize that God continues to pursue because we continue to wander away. We in the church are like the people of Israel who are in the wilderness. We've seen God part the Red Sea, we've seen God deliver from slavery to sin and death, we've eaten manna from heaven and experienced God's provision, but as soon as we get the chance, we move along and make ourselves an idol...maybe because it's easier to get attached to, maybe because a golden calf isn't as demanding as a holy God, maybe because we think that we can ride it away...but even then, God continues to hunt us down and show us just a glimpse of the fact that following a Holy God is SO much better than a golden cow. Sometimes we simply get impatient with God's timing and hard work and decide that we should just make our own calf. We run away, but God is hot in pursuit.
The other thing that is so difficult for us in the church to understand about God's wild goose chase after people is that we don't get to choose who God pursues. Shortly after I received the note about Kenzie I shared the exciting news with the family we're on vacation with. I told the kids about this other kid that they might now who is suddenly interesting in meeting up with God. When I told them his name, their faces fell. One of the girls looked at me and said "If Kenzie starts coming to Youth Group, I probably won't be there for a while." Apparently, all throughout middle school, Kenzie called the girls derogatory names and said and did hurtful things. Beth calmly looked around the table and said "The secret is that church really isn't for the Christians anyway." While I know that she would never actually NOT come, I realize the truth to that sentiment...too often we'd rather pick who gets to come in and who gets left out, when the truth of the matter is this...God, like all the cops in those TV cop shows, is in hot pursuit. And God, who is so good, invites us to help make sure that God gets everyone God's after...May our churches be filled with those people who we thought were far beyond God's grace, and may God in work in such a way that we are always reminded of God's holy pursuit...of us and of others.
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