The World’s Half-Truths for Teens Pt.6: The Power for Change Comes from Within

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When I first began working with youth, the first Percy Jackson series was all the rage.  Greek gods, adventure, and awkward teen drama had captured the imaginations of youth all over the country - and some at my church.

Being totally unfamiliar with the books, I was curious to read them to find out why these books had become so popular.  So I picked up the first book in the series and began to read.

It didn’t take long to figure out what kids found so alluring about Percy Jackson’s story.  As the story begins, Percy appears to be relatively insignificant, marginally outcast, and and uncomfortable-in-his-own-skin pubescent youth.

Before long, we discover that -despite appearances - Percy Jackson is anything but normal.  Much to Percy’s own astonishment, he’s really a demigod - the son of a human mother and a Greek god for a father.  And Percy doesn’t have just any Greek god for a father, his dad is Poseidon, one of the “big three” in the Greek Pantheon.

Along with the revelation of his lineage, Percy also discovers that as Poseidon’s son, he inherits some of Poseidon’s power.  Percy discovers he can breath under water.  Water gives him strength. And most importantly, Percy can control water, bending it to do his will.

How awesome would it be to discover that a god-king was your father and that your father-god shared his power with you...?

Yeah, pretty much that’s the gospel - isn’t it?  Pretty amazing.

In Christ, haven’t we become children of the One True God, king and ruler over all things? (cf. Galatians 3:29, 1 John 3:1-2)  And what’s more, because we are his children, hasn’t God shared his power with us, filling us with the Holy Spirit as a downpayment of our inheritance? (cf. Galatians 4:6, Ephesians 1:13-14)  Isn’t this the source of our joy and delight? (cf. Ephesians5:18-20, Colossians 3:15-17)

Familiarity with these truths sometime blinds us (and the youth) to their sheer awesomeness.  Sometimes it takes something like Percy Jackson to wake us up to the sheer wonder of the story in which we find ourselves.

Obviously there are some difference between Percy and the Christian.  First, and most importantly, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is fiction whereas our adoption and inheritance are reality.

Secondly, there is a fundamental difference between the power of Poseidon at work in Percy and the power of Yahweh at work in us: Percy seeks to control Poseidon’s power to wield the god’s strength for his own ends, while we seek to be controlled by the Spirit to be wielded by Yahweh for his ends.

It’s here that we begin to see the lie that underscores Percy Jackson’s interaction with the world.

In the end, any difference that Percy makes in the world or change that happens in himself emanates from his own willpower and ability to control the power of his father god, Poseidon.  Ultimately, and change is of his own doing (the gods are rather disinterested in the affairs of their children and the human world).

For the Christian, however, meaningful change cannot begin with our own efforts but with the grace of a God who cares deeply about us and this world. 

Biblically speaking, the power to redeem doesn’t come from us learning to control the Spirit of God, but the other way around.  The Holy Spirit is not a weapon or tool that we wield, but that wields us even as the Spirit works to renew us into the image of our creator, Jesus (Colossians 3:10).

Certainly we are called to participate in the Spirit’s work as we seek to put off the old self and put on the new self - but even this is done by faith as we learn to rest in Jesus’ finished work and receive from him the inheritance he secured for us in the Spirit as the Lord bless our time in Scripture, prayer, Christian fellowship, and the sacraments.

So concerning the world’s half-truth of the power to change coming from within, I say, Amen! Let us find the power for change within...but not within us as ourselves, but within us as children and temples of the One True God who is generous with his grace.  And let us cling to his grace by faith - not as a reward for our personal effort, but as a gift of the Spirit works within us to conform us to the very likeness of Jesus.

Mark Howard is the Youth Director and Assistant to Pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Covington, GA. Mark has a Masters in Theology from Wheaton College Graduate School. 
 

The World's Half-Truth's For Teens Pt.5: "I Am Generally Good"

Several years ago, I received a rap on my door at 6:00AM. A sheriff stood on the porch and yelled in my half-asleep face, “Come on out and see what you did last night.” I had taught a Bible study the night before at a local Starbucks and gone to bed at 10:00PM, so I was confused at his proclamation. He pointed out that my car was on top of the base of a mailbox, and the mailbox itself was three feet from its foundation. The Sherriff then accused me of drunk driving. (After three minutes of common sense investigation, we all saw that my bumper was dented and someone had done a “hit and run” on my car, knocking it on top of a mailbox.)

In those moments where my integrity was challenged, I immediately started to justify in my head how good of a person I considered myself. “I am a youth minister; I teach Bible studies; I’ve never been arrested; I’m nice; I tithe; I didn’t drink until I was twenty-one; I’ve never smoked a cigarette. I waited until marriage, by darn…trump that!” Even though I preach the depth of human sin and theologically include myself in that category, deep down inside in that moment of being challenged, the dirty truth, that I really think that I’m a “good person” based on my merit, came to the surface. 

“I’m a good person; it’s not like I’ve killed anyone.” We all probably have heard this one before from a teenager. Helping teenagers understand their sinfulness may constitute the biggest challenge a youth pastor faces, given the humanist sentiments in the world today. The idea of human goodness is a lie. It’s why we all lock our doors at night, and we don’t leave cash on our dashboard.

In truth, man can become good, but the biblical means, by which this occurs, differ drastically from the secular conception. And if teens embrace the secular sense and means of achieving goodness, they will be set up for a life of either misery, denial, or both.

Where is this true?

The incredible reality of the Gospel is that through saving faith in Christ, in the forensic sense, believers become righteous. This means that God imputes all of the “goodness” that Christ earned in his life to a believer. So, in a biblical sense, believers become “good.” It’s not just that our sins are forgiven; imputation means that believers become perfectly righteous in God’s eyes through imputation. However, this goodness comes through saving faith and God’s generosity. Not one ounce- an utter and complete zero percent- originates within us.

Where is this false?

The world’s conception of human goodness comes through the merits of a person’s actions or mainly through the absence of atrocities. Teens, convinced of their moral adequacy, will justify their goodness by pointing out that they don’t do hard drugs, make racist remarks, or commit acts of violence. Meanwhile, they may point to acts of charity, kindness to other, or community service as further proof of their righteous. (Let’s be honest, in our sober moments, we all think we’re pretty darn good. I know how deluded I am, deep down inside.) They fail to understand that to be good in God’s eyes requires one to be completely perfect. Imperfection equals badness. Period. Man can gain no righteousness by his or her own efforts. They look internally for goodness, rather than externally.

What’s the problem?

Buying the lie that we are good or can become good out of our merits is a miserable place to live. It’s a life of intense pressure. This belief requires that a person try very, very hard all of the time to be perfect to maintain this good. The alternative is to live in utter denial as one tries to somehow justify his or herself in comparison to others, rationalize their sins, or overlook them altogether.

Not challenging kids presupposed belief in their inherent goodness sets them up for burden or denial, neither or which is…..good. Pointing them to the goodness that comes externally from God through imputation sets them free.

The World's Half-Truths for Teens Pt.4: God Wants You to Be Happy

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Right in the middle of my talk on the exclusivity of Christ, a hand went up in the back of the room.  “Yes?” I asked.  The young man cleared his throat.  “How can you say that Jesus is the only way to heaven?  I mean, what about all the other billions of people around the world—are they going to hell simply because they don’t believe what you believe?

I started to answer his question when I realized that he had lots of questions.  I asked him if he could stay after the meeting.  He agreed.  As the other youth were filing out of the back door, I made a beeline for my examiner.  Among the many topics we covered during that conversation, one struck me.  I asked him, “What’s your ultimate goal in life?”  His answer (like most Americans would probably respond): “To be happy.”

As I reflected on his answer, I have come to realize that it’s a half-truth.  God does want me to be happy—in him.  It sounds like something from John Piper…and the Bible.  As Piper quips, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”  Many students see happiness and church-life as exclusive realities; happiness comes as a result of entertainment, not God, right?

The “I’m-bored” phenomenon plastered all over Facebook and Twitter suggests that teens are often living between one pleasure-high to the next.  In between Justin Bieber’s swoosh and the latest iPhone game lays the black hole of boredom.  The joy of serving others is lost in the sea of narcissism, which has led to a culture of depressed, self-centered, and unhappy teens.

Ironically, the endless stream of entertainment has not brought happiness or joy to the ever-wandering heart of the American teen.  Instead, it’s led to loneliness, disillusionment, and a sense of being let down.  As Ravi Zacharias has said, “The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced that which you thought would deliver the ultimate, and it has let you down.”

But in God’s presence there is fullness of joy; in his right hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11).  God wants his children to be happy, joy-filled disciples of Jesus.  But make no mistake: the gospel of Jesus Christ provides the foundation and fuel for happiness in him.  That reality that you are chosen in Christ, born again by the power of the Spirit, justified in the sight of God, and adopted into his covenant family, ushers the unhappy to see the majesty of our gracious God.  That God is self-sufficient—complete in himself from all eternity—and therefore without need of you or me or any celebrity, draws the unhappy, self-centered teen, again, to see the majesty of our gracious God.  Such majesty cannot but make the redeemed heart long for his fame and glory—bringing with it a sense of satisfaction; indeed, happiness.

As St. Augustine once taught about the dangers of dis-ordered love, the same can be said of dis-ordered happiness.  If we seek first the happiness in the creature, we will never know that happiness which we seek.  But if we seek first the happiness in the Creator, we will know the fullness of joy.

While the young man I talked with wanted “to be happy,” his quest for happiness was too small.  He was, as C. S. Lewis said, “like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.”  God is supremely happy in Himself and, by grace, offers the teenage soul happiness in Him through Christ our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The black hole of boredom explodes with “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).  It is there that the self-centered, unhappy heart vanishes.  God wants you happy; don’t pursue lesser loves. 

Brian H. Cosby is pastor of Wayside Presbyterian Church in Signal Mountain, TN and author of Giving Up Gimmicks: Reclaiming Youth Ministry from an Entertainment Culture (P&R, 2012) and Rebels Rescued: A Student’s Guide to Reformed Theology (Christian Focus, 2012).

The World's Half-Truths For Teens Pt.3: If it Comes Naturally, it's Okay

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For all of it’s silliness, there is one thing the ubiquitous Twilight saga does well - it offers a powerful challenge to a popular half-truth in the world today: if it comes naturally, it’s okay. Since most of our youth have some form of Twilight mania (either loving or hating the series), it can be useful in starting a discussion

For those of you who have miraculously avoided knowledge of the basic plot-line of the Twilight saga, the main character, Edward Cullen, and his family (a coven of vampires) are caught up in an existential identity crisis: should what they now are determine who they are and what they do?

You see, Edward and the Cullens all used to be fully human, doing human things, eating human foods, and living by the human moral code that murder is wrong.

Fate, however, changed them into vampires without their consent.  Through no fault of their own they now desire human blood, and need blood to live.  They’ve been transformed into killing machines.  Murder has become fundamental to what they are.

Moreover, blood makes them stronger, it brings them intense momentary satisfaction, and it feels supremely good to drink.

Enter the moral dilemma: does being a vampire make killing humans and drinking their blood okay?  Does the fact that it comes naturally and feels good make murder morally permissible?

Here is where - despite his annoying hair and brooding demeanor - Edward provides a useful example for youth seeking to follow Jesus and live by the gospel in today’s world. 

Edward and the Cullens say no to their vampire nature, concluding that however “natural” and pleasurable it is for them to drink blood as vampires, it still isn’t right.  And here’s the great part - they come to this conclusion based on who they “really” are, not what they currently are.

There are many parallels between the vampires’ plight and a biblical understanding of human nature (theological anthropology).

The biblical narrative tells us that what we are now isn’t who we should be.  Scripture makes clear that there is something profoundly unnatural about the fallen human condition.  Like vampires, our desires are out of whack with the way things should be.

We may not want to drink human blood, but we too want illicit pleasure (porn, cutting, revenge).  Human blood doesn’t make us stronger, but we (along with our youth) naturally apply our cunning to cheat, lie, and steal our way to greater power and comfort.

Just because something comes naturally doesn’t make it okay for the Christian.  Our moral code and behavior aren’t determined by the desires of our current state of being, but are based on who we really are in Jesus.

Scripture tells us that our identity isn’t in our flesh, but in Jesus who promises to one day redeem and make new our flesh (Colossians 3:1-4 and 1 John 3:1-3 make this point well).

And so, like the Cullens putting off their vampire nature, we are called in Scripture to put off the “old self” with it’s fallen ways and put on the “new self” which is being renewed in the image of Jesus.

Perhaps, though, while encouraging our youth to follow Edward’s example in fighting his “natural” desires, we should encourage them to avoid (as far as is possible) Edward’s propensity for angst-ridden teenage pseudo-romantic drama.  Just saying...

Mark Howard is the Youth Director and Assistant to Pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Covington, GA. Mark has a Masters in Theology from Wheaton College Graduate School.