So, some of you may know
that I’m in school {if not, don’t worry, this will become increasingly clear as
the semester thunders on – taking with it my aspirations of a clean home, my
wardrobe *pajama pants as going-out clothes, anyone?*, and my ability to handle
even the smallest conversation without first having to pause for 2 minutes
while I search my exhausted *because I’m too stinking old to be a grad student,
people* brain for coherent thoughts}. If
you know that much, you might wonder what I’m in school for. Officially, I’m enrolled in the Masters of
Divinity Program at {a local--because my views don't necessarily represent theirs} Seminary, with a focus on Christian Formation and
Soul Care {translation: Masters degree, pastor track; specializing in being
still and lighting candles to really hear God, or hiking and just breathing in
God’s awesomeness – just not fully Catholic or hippy. More amalgam of all the tools people have
used over the centuries to commune with God, with a good dose of Evangelical
Protestantism as the foundation. You’re
glad you asked, now, aren’t you?}
So, now you know where I’m
coming from. We do Lent. We do mega-church. We do home bible studies. We do theology every.flippin’.chance.we.get. I read a New Testament textbook to my son, and he decided he needed to be baptized – I wasn’t even
fully grasping the text; but the 5 year old comprehended and acted. My daughter absolutely nails the ontological
argument. Like a boss. If anyone in our family would make an apologist, it’s that
logical young lady. Because, as a
family, we greatly value knowing God: both in an intimate, personal way, and in
a theological, God wants us to know about Him way. Yes, every morning, the minis get up early
and before leaving their rooms, they crack their bibles {they’re better at
it than me -- just one more snooze}. But, sometimes, for family
devo’s, we read Mommy or Daddy’s textbooks.
And we talk about the stuff in them.
Other times, the Officer
or I find something {gasp} “wordly” – and we study God using these tools. Tonight, the minis and I screened “To This
Day” by Shane Koyczan. It’s about
bullying, and being hurt by other people’s words. It doesn’t mention God or Jesus or the Spirit. Not once.
It does mention: cutting and suicide attempts and abuse and loneliness
and beauty and fear and trying to be strong.
And it is truth; even without God or Jesus or the Spirit in the
overt. It’s about fallen human being –
the hurt we inflict on each other, the scars our sins leave all over the lives
of other people. The broken hearts in
the wake of cruelty.
So we watched it (don’t
worry, quite a bit went over their heads – they don’t know what “suicide”
means). And then, we talked about what
the poem’s about. And we talked about
why we don’t hurt people with words, or with exclusion. About what the Firefly would do if she walked
into a classroom where a sign reading, “beware of dog” was taped to another
little girl’s desk. About what the Koala
would do if there was a boy in his class who was bombarded with spitballs. About what Jesus did when He called Zacchaeus
out of that tree – about what Jesus might do if He were in the 1st
or 3rd grades. How He would
invite Zach, the lonely, weird kid who picks his nose, to play football instead
of leaving him to hover by the fence just watching. About how Jesus would invite Zachariah, the
mean, fat kid who steals everybody’s pencils from their desks, to play groundies,
instead of trying to hide from him all recess.
About how Jesus would go sit on the bench with Zahava, the gangly, loud girl
whose clothes are always the wrong size, and ask if they could jump rope,
instead of standing with the other girls pointing at her and laughing. How Jesus would walk around the playground perimeter
with Zaida, the shy, chestnut-skinned girl who always smells spicy and doesn’t
read so well because her first language isn’t theirs, and talk about horses and
puppies and kittens and the shapes of clouds, instead of throwing pebbles at
her and mocking her in guttural sounds when she flinches. We talk about how the Holy Spirit is in us so
that we can do exactly those things.
We talked about how
every-single-person is made by God and is so precious to Him that He would give
up all of the universe just to give that person His love. About how each person is so valuable to God,
that he or she is worth Jesus dying for.
{It’s a very familiar refrain in our house. And yes, the minis sometimes respond with the
exasperation of “do-we-really-have-to-go-over-this-again.” Yes, my darlings, until people stop hurting
other people; we most certainly do.}
Because while good, solid
theology is crucial – it is our practice of it that matters most.
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