Secular Business writer Jim Collins says it best. "Good is the enemy of great...We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don't have great government principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life."
Have you ever met one of those "save-the-world" types? We read about them. We think to ourselves that what they do is great. We love watching them on TV. Sometimes, we even get a little teary eyed at their stories. Then, we close the book, set down the paper, put the magazine back on the stand, turn off the TV, and get back to real life checking out at the grocery store, fixing dinner for the kids, paying the bills, and heading to bed so we can get up and do it all again tomorrow morning. And for us, it's a good life. And for our kids, we hope it's a good life too.
I think our faith is like this scenario sometimes. When it comes to those "save-the-world" types, Jesus lands somewhere on our list. We come to church, we hear sermons, we have Bible study, and we feel good about ourselves. We have a good relationship with God. And so, we feel good about ourselves. Buuut, at the end of the day, we're back to real life. We can usually manage to get through life with good faith in a good God as we go to a good church.
But that's where the problem lies. God is not just good. He is great and mighty, able to save. And so, in the business of real life, we pass on fast food faith to our kiddos. We run through the drive through with our kids in the back seat. We pass them a Happy Meal complete with a toy. And for us as parents and youth workers, the Happy Meal is a good thing because it satisfies the kids and keeps them quiet. It's quick and easy.
But faith is not quick and easy. And while we pass Happy Meals into the back seat, our students our missing out on what it means to dine with Christ. They are missing gourmet faith. We've replaced Christ with a cheap substitute that does a wonder on their spiritual cholesterol. No wonder when they're 21 Happy Meals don't make them happy anymore. No wonder only 8% of teens have consequential faith meaning they own their faith for themselves. (National Study of Youth and Religion). No wonder 88% of teens no longer attend church after they graduate High School (International Mission Board).
We can't keep feeding them cheap and easy faith. We can't let them settle for good when our God is great. Think about the education of teenagers. They are doing calculus, chemistry, trigonometry, and speaking foreign languages. We teach our children for the sake of their education. Millions of dollars are spent on sports equipment and private lessons for students who will never play professional sports much less make a walk on at a college. We teach and train and equip. We all have plans for the education of our children. We even save for their college education hoping to provide them with a good life.
All the while, we simply expose them to our faith once or twice a week at church. We drop them off for an hour or two and hope for some sort of spiritual osmosis. We think by getting them in the doors that faith will make its way into their lives. But, we never teach them faith. We struggle to teach them how to pray. We help them answer their questions about algebra, but we hope they don't ask us any tough questions about faith. It's time we invite them to sit at the table and savor the greatness of Christ. It's time we teach them faith. It's time we don't just have save-the-world type people but save-the-world type families who teach and translate faith in the home. What if some of us set aside money to send our kids on a mission trip when they graduated High School hoping and praying it would make a lasting difference in their faith journey once they were on their own in the world? What is we had a spiritual checklist of things we wanted to share and teach our kids about faith before they graduated? What if we worked to unveil the greatness of God to our kids while we have the chance? We're underestimating our teenagers. If they can learn chemistry and calculus, they can certainly learn theology.
Look at what happens when people sit at the table with Christ in the Scriptures. I hope we don't just drive through life, but we participate in saving the world. I hope we are inviting our teens to dine with Christ each and every day. I hope that as we gather around the table we are sharing stories about life transformation and greatness that would make for great TV, magazine articles, newspaper stories, and the like. And I hope people are watching our stories unfold. And as they watch, I hope they are moved to join us at the table.
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