Not long
ago I could tell something was out of sync with my son. He is thirteen now and
I believe is coming to the rude awareness that his innocent elementary days are
behind him. He is observing his friends who said they were Christians make hurtful
choices that show they are not at least acting that way and he is trying to
walk through the confusion that brings. That is a tough place. But something
God is showing me is that this really is normal. So normal I need to anticipate
that this occurrence would and will happen. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the
entire school system disappoints us let alone our friendships in that system. There
will always be the feeling for the children brought up since child birth in a
Christ honoring home to sense that something is a little off in school. And that can be a major awakening, and one parents
need to be prepared for.
The school
system will never have what the Church has. My son said something to me when he
was quite young that has stayed with me like a pondering of Mary’s own heart
with her son Jesus. We were pastoring then and so it shouldn’t have seemed like
such a surprise. It was just the insight my little boy had that shocked me as
well as his verbal expression of it. We were going to the store and as we
walked in I remember his looking around and seeing all of the people and after
a few moments saying to me without turning towards me, “Dad, the people here
don’t know us.” I didn’t understand then how huge that was. Years later I
continue to unpack what was in the heart of such an observant child. And I
think I am beginning to scratch the surface of that.
We were
pastoring then and so my son was raised in a home well aware of the kingdom of
God lived in community. Think about it. Every week we would go to the building
across the lawn and see and be with people who ‘knew’ him. Focus on that word ‘knew’
and what that means. The same people week after week, perhaps with different
methods but the same purpose—to meet for the sake of Jesus Christ and his story
and discovering that our story is a part of the continuation of his. People
shared, prayed for one another, sang, read the Bible story, and ‘knew’ each
other. Every week my children were spoken to, greeted, recognized, smiled at,
accepted, loved on, had hands extended to shake, welcomed into as being a part
of, embraced. And so should it be any wonder that at a store with so many
people where no one greeted you, but everyone was walking around us and past us
and these elements experienced at our gatherings in another setting were entirely
missing—that a little boy should make one the greatest observations a growing
child of God can make in life—“These people don’t know me, dad. Something is different here. Something is missing.”
And so another time comes when a
child of God is in the school system and notices at a rite of passage age, that
people there are no longer as they seem. “Something isn’t right like I thought
it was, dad. Something is different, and I am noticing it, don’t like it, and I
am wondering what to do about it.” What are you going to say?
“You’re right son, it isn’t. You will
never feel ‘at home’ at school for two
major reasons—the school is a fallen system put in place by another fallen
system in our world, the government, that is under a prince—the prince of this
world. The school system that we have today seems like it is a lot of things that
it really isn’t. Don’t get me wrong—God has secret agents stationed at their
posts in this fallen system, but the school will never offer you what the
kingdom of God in the Church offers you. That feeling you have is normal—normal
because it acts like a compass pointing you to the place our heavenly Father
has prepared for you—a new world that’s coming and that you are a part of. That
feeling that you have at school is much like the feeling you had years ago at
the store—you long know and to be known, to belong, to represent, to feel that
sense that you have a greater purpose to serve and were created for. That
feeling will never be satisfied at school by those around you. But it can be created. And that is the next
step in your journey.