Last night we gathered as a family an hour before bed. My kids love the show "America's Funniest Home Videos" (or "AFV", but seriously, that's dumb) and since it's on Netflix we like to watch it as a family sometimes at night. I remember doing it as a kid every Sunday evening, and I love to give that to my kids as well.
So before we watched we decided to do our family prayer time. This is essential with 4 kids under 7 because once 7:30 passes prayer time becomes a mish-mash of "I'm TIRED!", "I'm THIRSTY!", "I want to pray for (insert name) not you!!!". Tired kids often resemble angry drunks (look it's been proven that tiredness does the same thing to the brain as drunkenness, I'm not just saying it to be mean!), and because of this timing is EVERYTHING.
Because we got the timing right this night, prayer time went swimmingly. The kids were passionately praying for our loved ones and as a father I was very proud. Then as prayer time was winding down I decided to lead them into a time of just resting in the presence of God. So we invited God to come and touch us and we shared laughs as He did (He ALWAYS does!). As this was happening I started to lead the kids in a prayer of thankfulness, and as I started I heard in my head, "I love to watch shows with you guys!". This made me smile and so I told the kids and watched as they lit up and laughed! They were enjoying God, and basking in His enjoyment of them. And I just had one of those moments where you think, "this is what it's all about."
Why do so many kids raised by Christians turn away from the faith? I really believe it's because:
a) western Christianity has taught us that good theology is all you need and so we have substituted teachings for experience
b) we have expected our kids to know truth without encounter
c) we have been so afraid of sin that we focus more on avoiding sin instead of focusing on how joyful a life with God is
d) we have lived our own lives without joy, and as kids grow they don't want to be like us anymore as a result.
Along with teaching our kids the Bible and "good theology", we have prioritized leading them to actually EXPERIENCE God. We are obviously not perfect, and I can't speak as to what choices my children will make in the future, but I know that my six-year-old is already speaking in tongues, has conversations with God, prophecies over people, and has had multiple people be healed at the touch of his hands. He already knows that God answers His prayers and that God is REAL. Not because we told him, but because of his own experience. That is not something that he will lose because of good teaching by a atheist college professor someday. My son already feels the pleasure of God in his spirit and his body, and he knows that God loves to laugh with him!
He's the oldest and the boldest, so his experiences have already far surpassed his sisters, But even they are learning the pleasure of God and the FUN of God! My daughters love to dance to worship (yes, we love and encourage DANCING in our house! It IS Biblical!). Almost every day my 4-year-old Sonora wants music put on so they all can throw what they call a "God party!" As a parent I just marvel at this. Despite the many mistakes I've made with them, to see them still loving and going after God on their own means that something is going right!
And thinking of this now I've thought about the world around us.
Over the years I have talked to numerous people about God, most of them young adults. One of the things I frequently hear from them is that they don't believe God is any fun. They think of Him as some extremely serious old man in the sky looking to ruin their fun. Their mindset is perfectly summed up by Billy Joel in the song Only the Good Die Young.
He sings about heaven, "Some say it's better but I say it ain't. I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints."
Billy Joel isn't alone. Multiple times in my life I've heard "Why would I want to go to Heaven? At least in hell my friends will be there."
Are these ignorant statements? Absolutely. They are statements that hold no clue as to what truth is. But that's not the fault of these people, it's OUR fault as Christians.
We are the ones who created the "serious God" perception. We are the ones who started trying to convert the world by telling people how BAD hell was. We were the ones who took the focus off of how GOOD God was!
The world doesn't want Jesus because we have done a horrible job of communicating how good He is!
Oh we do a great job of saying "God is good because He sent Jesus to save you from Hell," but it mostly stops there. Then we try to ram down their throats just how BAD Hell is, and people either get terrified or apathetic. We are doing our recruiting with negative reinforcement, and we wonder why people tune us out?
What people need to know is the God of joy, the Jesus who was happy! They need to know that God doesn't want to ruin our fun, He wants to lead us to the BEST fun! A life of joy and peace and love and hope!
It's time for the church to pick this up again and run with it. Let's teach people the Good News! Not the "Better than Hell so it's Good News" but the fully true, fully joyful, fully transformational GOOD NEWS! The news about a God who loves us so much that He died not just to save us but to LIVE WITH US. He died to give us things on earth that we couldn't get without Him, good things!
Jesus was full of joy:
Luke 10:21 - "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit"...
John 17:13 - "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I'm still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them."
Hebrews 1:9 - "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you (Jesus) with the oil of joy."
And so were the disciples:
Acts 13:52 - "And the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit (which lives in us!):
Galatians 5:22 - "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, goodness, kindness, faithfulness,"
If Jesus was full of joy, and the disciples were full of joy, and the Holy Spirit that is in us is full of joy, WHY AREN'T WE FULL OF JOY!?!
I personally believe we have placed asceticism above joy as Christians. Somewhere in history western Christians decided that since the Bible said we'd share in the sufferings of Christ that we should start MAKING ourselves suffer. Since James wrote that we should find joy in tribulation, we should CREATE tribulations for ourselves. Somewhere we decided that God wanted us to be miserable and find joy in it. That God doesn't care about our dreams.
This is such a lie!
As Christians we should be more alive than anyone else. Will we suffer sometimes? Of course! But that suffering is not to be self inflicted! I know too many Christians who refuse to do anything fun for fear that fun is a sin. They won't dance, they won't watch a movie, they won't have a glass of wine, they won't get involved with sports, etc... They just sit around and criticize everyone else who is having a good time. Instead of using discernment to determine WHICH movies are ok, WHICH dances are ok, HOW MUCH wine is ok, they are just too afraid to even participate.
And they wonder why the world keeps choosing hell?
The church is the closest thing people can get on earth to experiencing what heaven should be like. We ARE the church. Nonbelievers should be amazed at how safe they feel with us. They should be awed at the fun we are having even though we don't need to sin to do it. They should be jealous of how close we are as a family, and how good we are at taking care of one another. They should be looking at us and thinking, "God must be so good to have such a happy, whole people."
THIS is how we help people. By showing them truth! By showing them a God who believes in the dreams of His children. By showing them a God who is all-loving, all-generous, all-caring. We should be serving with joy!
Instead what they are seeing and hearing is criticism. They are hearing hate. They are hearing fear.
Church, it's time to lead the world into an encounter with the real God. Let's allow God to bring us joy and fullness of life again, and watch as the world around us changes. I have already seen the changes it is bringing to my family and others, it's real, and He is good!
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