So often in life we look at what our friends and even sometimes our enemies have and become envious and jealous. We want to have a better car than our neighbor, we want better jobs than our peers, and we strive for greater material gain as evidence of “arriving.” And while some of it is human nature to strive to be the best, at a point there must be a limit. We cannot be so consumed with possessing what our neighbors have, or what are friends are capable of accomplishing that it becomes our raison d’etre. God gifts every woman and man according to God’s own will and purposes.
The basis for this blog is found in I Samuel 6:1-9.
A large part of the Philistine problem was that they never had enough. They always desired to consume others' land and possessions. Despite having their own land and possessions, they always wanted more; more of what others had. The Philistines had misappropriated what was important in life. For them it was about getting more stuff. As I continue to serve in ministry with young people I sometimes see a bit the Philistine spirit creeping up in how we raise our children. We teach them to value and appreciate stuff and material gain more than family. We give them stuff to assuage their desire for more substance like relationship with us. The truth of the matter is that our children love us more than the things we give them, but we often easily and more readily give them more things than we give them of ourselves soooo, they rebel. They choose not to excel in school, they choose to do everything they are told is off limits, everything that pushes the envelope just enough to force us to give them what they really crave- time with us. To get time with us, they work to get time in the principals office, the jv ward, the youth minister’s office. They crave time with us or some responsible adult they can trust, one they with whom they can hold a decent conversation, so they concoct shocking stories and plots to get them closer to us. To someone who will show enough concern and compassion to them if only for a season sometimes young people will push the limits of sexual orientation and sexual experiences. Or maybe they forget about trying to find love, affirmation and acceptance from adults and look to their peers to love them, to hold them, to show them concern and compassion. Whether that is care and love in the vertical or horizontal position.
Time and again I speak with young people, on the streets, on trains and planes, in schools, in my neighborhood and even here in the church and they resoundingly share the same anthem- church people don’t come out of the church long enough to make a difference in our lives. Yet, we’re silent. We continually drive up to our houses of worship as if we are making our way to the exclusive club for the elitist ecclesia and paying our membership dues expecting to reap the benefits of club membership while the children we raise, can’t read, won’t read, choose Beyonce instead of biblical awareness, can quote Nick Jonas and Lady Gaga but know nothing of Nehemiah, Joshua or Daniel. Where is the benefit in membership if the legacy we leave perpetuates the waste of the blood sweat and tears of our foremothers and forefathers? God says I know the plans I have for you- plans for your welfare and not for your harm. Yet in the same canon we are reminded by the writer of Ecclesiastes in the 7th chapter and 29th verse that “God made human beings straightforward, but we have devised many schemes.” Something in us just isn’t satisfied unless we continually acquire more stuff. Today, consider talking to your children about who they actually are. Instead of buying them more stuff this week, why not go out and DO some stuff together.
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