I feel like I have made a breakthrough in my boys bible class- they are actually starting to think for themselves. After spending a few weeks discussing prayer, i.e. what our prayers should consist of, things to pray for, prayers from the bible, and things like that my eighth grade boys have started asking the right sorts of questions- no longer is it, "How should I pray so I can get the things I want?" but "How do I know what God wants me to do?" and "Why cant I hear Him speak to me?"
We discussed the discipline of fasting yesterday. Not fasting for fasting's sake or for others to perceive you as holy, but fasting to put down the things of the world, and spend that time seeking God. As a friend of mine puts it "Word up and world down" like God and the world were two competing radios. Which one can you hear? The one that you make the loudest in your life.
I challenged them to a media fast, that is, turning off the video games, the cell phones, the TVs and Myspace to really seek after God. There were some guffaws at first, then the acceptance that they could do that for a day. To which I said how bout a week or a month? Do you really want to hear what God wants to say? Their response made my heart sad, knowing they had missed some crucial element in their education.
"Isn't there a shortcut?"
Life isn't like Candyland. There's no shortcut over the rainbow bridge.
The work of Christianity always seemed worth the effort too me. I'm being loose with my language because of my frustration, but isn't doing the work that God calls us too, infinitely more valuable than beating level seven on guitar hero?
Please give me your thoughts and suggestions? I feel that part of their openness is due to the modeling of Christ in my life, they see it and want it, but when I give them just a taste of what needs to change in their own lives to follow hard after him, they recoil as if I had dropped a snake on their desk.
How do I convince them He's more than worth it?
