Here is a what a Boston Globe article from a few years back had to say about some local neighbors:
"It can never be said that Adele Gaboury's neighbors were less than responsible. When her front lawn grew hip-high, they had a local boy mow it down. When her pipes froze and burst, they had the water turned off. When the mail spilled out the front door, they called the police. The only thing they didn't do was check to see if she was alive. She wasn't. On Monday, police climbed her crumbling brick stoop, broke in the side door of her little blue house, and found what they believe to be the seventy-three-year-old woman's skeletal remains sunk in a five-foot-high pile of trash, where they had apparently lain, perhaps as long as four years. 'It's not really a very friendly neighborhood,' said Eileen Dugan, seventy, once a close friend of Gaboury's, whose house sits less than twenty feet from the dead woman's home. 'I'm as much to blame as anyone. She was alone and needed someone to talk to, but I was working two jobs and I was sick of her coming over at all hours. Eventually I stopped answering the door.'"
Yeah, we might think this would not happen in our neighborhood, or in a student dorm, but the problem of isolation is a profound reality. Do we really know the people located all around us? For the present iGens generation of people, relating electronically far outweighs knowing the individuals that pass me by every day. Even in an actual conversation with another, there can be multiple technological relations taking place through cell phone texting and/or tweeting on the computer.
Although technology serves a purpose and helps connect us in ways previously unheard of, it is now possible to have five-hundred "friends" on Facebook, but have no one person to share the secrets of my life with and express the vulnerability needed for close relationships. There may be, geographically, people all around me, but I can live in virtual anonymity and loneliness in a modern day prison of isolation of self, pretty much keeping to myself and only letting people see a few electronic phrases.
College students are highly relational creatures, but those relationships can easily be a mile-wide, and an inch deep. If students, and all of us in this present electronic age, are going to find fulfillment in a search to belong, we must find a small band of people who spontaneously go in and out of each other's lives, are actually available to relate face to face instead of being so busy, frequently see one another and spend time together, and share meals and lives often.
The irony of our age is that we can have hundreds of acquaintances, and not one intimate friend. Technology is not the real culprit, but only serves to allow us pseudo-relations that protect our obsession with work and time, and guard us from the inevitable pain and hurt that can come with true relationships. Grace and love are much harder to offer than a tweet. We are to love one another deeply, from the heart, and experience the true community that shows the world that we are Christians (1 Peter 1:22; John 13:35).
A dead woman may not be next door to you and me, but the spiritually dead reside all around us. May we simplify our lives and allow the grace of God to touch us, that we might, in turn, be available to offer grace to those who are isolated and cut off from the love that could be theirs in Christ and Christian community.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The Testing of a Student's Faith
I recently read a study that found that 65% of American evangelical students lose their faith while attending college, and that only 20% of students who were highly churched as teens remained spiritually active by age 29. In my own experience, these statistics ring true. It is not uncommon for Christian students entering the university to drop out of church altogether, become disconnected from faith, and eventually adopt a more secular worldview so that Christianity has no real bearing on their lives anymore by the time they reach their 30's.
There are a host of reasons for this arresting phenomena, with no simple answers. I think, however, it may be pertinent to observe how God is using university life in a person's life: he is testing a student's faith.
When the ancient Israelites came out of Egypt, and passed through the Red Sea, God took them out into the desert in a very roundabout way to the promised land. Through the new, different, and hard circumstances the Israelites faced, God was testing them to see if they would pay attention to him and obey his commands. Through this it became evident that the majority did not have a genuine faith in God and their hearts became hard (Exodus 15:25-26; Hebrews 3:7-19).
Jesus, when beginning his ministry, was baptized in an identification with the ancient Israelites in their baptism through water, and was immediately sent into the desert. While there he was tempted, tried, and tested in order to prove the genuineness of his Sonship and that he was doing what the Jews could not and did not do for themselves. Through Christ's championing of faith in his life, and in his redemptive events of cross and resurrection, he is able to give us the faith that we need for life.
As believers in Jesus Christ, Christians undergo entry into faith, and are tested in their devotion to God. This testing is important for each person, so that it may affirm belief, and bring needed endurance and maturity to live for God throughout the entirety of life (James 1:2-4). For the Christian life is not a 100 meter dash, but a marathon that must be run over the course of a lifetime.
Going to college is a sort of rite of passage into adulthood in our American culture. As students enter into university life, God is using the new, different, and hard situation to test the faith of the Christian. Those who allow their faith to be stretched and grow come out of school as being one of the greatest formative experiences ever in their lives. But those whose faith has not been found as genuine allow their hearts to become deceived and hard.
Knowing this reality, we must endeavor to be an authentic community of redeemed persons who provide a loving and nurturing place in which to grow amidst the rigors of college life. We must also strive to wrestle in prayer for students on a regular basis, that they will be challenged in their faith and come through affirmed and strengthened in belief instead of jettisoning their background in the church. Furthermore, we must also seek to be mentors who walk with students through the desert so that they are not alone in their journey. May college be the desert place of spiritual formation into knowing God. Amen.
There are a host of reasons for this arresting phenomena, with no simple answers. I think, however, it may be pertinent to observe how God is using university life in a person's life: he is testing a student's faith.
When the ancient Israelites came out of Egypt, and passed through the Red Sea, God took them out into the desert in a very roundabout way to the promised land. Through the new, different, and hard circumstances the Israelites faced, God was testing them to see if they would pay attention to him and obey his commands. Through this it became evident that the majority did not have a genuine faith in God and their hearts became hard (Exodus 15:25-26; Hebrews 3:7-19).
Jesus, when beginning his ministry, was baptized in an identification with the ancient Israelites in their baptism through water, and was immediately sent into the desert. While there he was tempted, tried, and tested in order to prove the genuineness of his Sonship and that he was doing what the Jews could not and did not do for themselves. Through Christ's championing of faith in his life, and in his redemptive events of cross and resurrection, he is able to give us the faith that we need for life.
As believers in Jesus Christ, Christians undergo entry into faith, and are tested in their devotion to God. This testing is important for each person, so that it may affirm belief, and bring needed endurance and maturity to live for God throughout the entirety of life (James 1:2-4). For the Christian life is not a 100 meter dash, but a marathon that must be run over the course of a lifetime.
Going to college is a sort of rite of passage into adulthood in our American culture. As students enter into university life, God is using the new, different, and hard situation to test the faith of the Christian. Those who allow their faith to be stretched and grow come out of school as being one of the greatest formative experiences ever in their lives. But those whose faith has not been found as genuine allow their hearts to become deceived and hard.
Knowing this reality, we must endeavor to be an authentic community of redeemed persons who provide a loving and nurturing place in which to grow amidst the rigors of college life. We must also strive to wrestle in prayer for students on a regular basis, that they will be challenged in their faith and come through affirmed and strengthened in belief instead of jettisoning their background in the church. Furthermore, we must also seek to be mentors who walk with students through the desert so that they are not alone in their journey. May college be the desert place of spiritual formation into knowing God. Amen.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Maturity
It maybe goes without saying that a genuine Christian wants to follow Jesus. We all may have various ideas of how to do this, or differ on what the goal of spiritual growth is. Yet, maybe we need to ask what God wants and what his goal is for his followers? Maturity is where it is at, man, and we all need it, including college students. It is not unusual for me to have a conversation with a student who is hot for God, and bemoans some problem in the church or world, but lacks the maturity to go with the fire. I usually say something to the effect, "yeah, well, you can post your 95 Theses once you own a door to put them on."
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians telling them his aim: "Him (Jesus) we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ" (1:28). He echoes this again with the Ephesians letting them know that the process of maturity is to not be done in isolation, but together as a community of believers, so that no one is left out or behind in God's goal of seeing a well-rounded church, fully developed and equipped to follow Jesus in every circumstance of life (4:13). Our Lord himself exhorted us to be mature, just as our heavenly Father is. Since God is mature, we are to reflect him in all of our relationships by handling them in a mature manner (Matthew 5:46-48).
The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that those who are mature have developed a keen sense of discernment in distinguishing between good and evil (5:14); and, Paul told the Phillipians that maturity brings a proper perspective from which to view hard situations and allows one to endure suffering (3:12-15).
Maturity results from spiritual growth which occurs over an extended period of time in the context of community. Maturity can neither happen with only growth, nor with just time. Both are needed in order to reach a mature state. The process of growth over time is of vital importance to Jesus, who knows that this is the manner in which one bears fruit that will last (Luke 8:9-15).
Are you spiritually mature? If so, how did you get to this point? If not, how will maturity be realized? Does my ministry and church have maturity as a goal? Why, or why not? May God be gracious to work in us and instill in his children his own mature nature, that we may be like Jesus in all we do and say.
In the New Testament, the apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians telling them his aim: "Him (Jesus) we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ" (1:28). He echoes this again with the Ephesians letting them know that the process of maturity is to not be done in isolation, but together as a community of believers, so that no one is left out or behind in God's goal of seeing a well-rounded church, fully developed and equipped to follow Jesus in every circumstance of life (4:13). Our Lord himself exhorted us to be mature, just as our heavenly Father is. Since God is mature, we are to reflect him in all of our relationships by handling them in a mature manner (Matthew 5:46-48).
The author of the book of Hebrews tells us that those who are mature have developed a keen sense of discernment in distinguishing between good and evil (5:14); and, Paul told the Phillipians that maturity brings a proper perspective from which to view hard situations and allows one to endure suffering (3:12-15).
Maturity results from spiritual growth which occurs over an extended period of time in the context of community. Maturity can neither happen with only growth, nor with just time. Both are needed in order to reach a mature state. The process of growth over time is of vital importance to Jesus, who knows that this is the manner in which one bears fruit that will last (Luke 8:9-15).
Are you spiritually mature? If so, how did you get to this point? If not, how will maturity be realized? Does my ministry and church have maturity as a goal? Why, or why not? May God be gracious to work in us and instill in his children his own mature nature, that we may be like Jesus in all we do and say.
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