The Evolution Issue, Part 2

Jarett Van Tine continues his article on how to teach our students about biblical creation in a  secular world. Start of with Part 1 here.

Let’s examine the principle for determining truth conveyed by many public school science classes – again, the principle being that the only way a person can know something is true is if it has been “proved” through observations and tests using the five senses.  The first reason we should not believe this principle is because it contradicts itself: the principle is supposedly true, yet there is no way to prove it through observations and tests using one’s five senses.  So, based on their own criterion for truth, it has to be false!  Scientists (secular) are forced to assume the principle, or better, accept it by faith, in order to employ it as the standard of “what’s reasonable to believe.”  But then who are they to judge us Christians for embracing our doctrines by faith? 

Furthermore, the principle conveyed in our students’ science classes is unable to verify as true parts of reality that we all take for granted on a daily basis.  For example, how could a scientist prove by this principle that he is not living in a dream world?  This may seem weird to think about, but there is no way for a scientist to prove that he hasn’t been taken captive by aliens, induced into a permanent coma, and hooked up to a machine that creates an alternative dream world for him to experience as if it were reality (cf. The Matrix movie).  Someone may object, “That’s ridiculous – of course I am not living in a dream world!”  The point, however, is that there is no experiment or test that someone can perform that would be able to prove that the world he is living in is a false one.  To insist, therefore, that the only way you can know something is true is if you can prove it through observations and tests is absurd.  Here again the (secular) scientist must have faith – but faith in what?

Ultimately, by suggesting – as so many public school science classes do – that reliable knowledge can only be derived from our sensory experiences is to exalt humanity rather God.  Rather than relying upon ourselves to determine what is or is not true, we must first and foremost look to God.  Only by placing our faith in His good and kind character can we begin to trust our sensory experiences because we know that He is not a mean God who would give us these our five senses if they did not correspond to reality.  Back to the last example: so as Christians we know that the world we live in is not just a dream, not because we can “prove” it via our senses, but because we know that the God who loves us has given us reliable capacities to make observations that, by and large, correspond to what is actually true.  Both Christians and secular scientists must have faith, the major difference being that Christians actually have Someone reliable to place it in.

This brings us to my next point, namely, that the only real basis for scientific investigation lies in a Christian worldview.   As Jason Foster, a member of our congregation, so aptly put it, “The Christian view that all things were created and are held together by Jesus Christ (Col 1) formed the basis for scientific investigation of the natural world, because the idea that creation was created by a sovereign and rational God made the creation a legitimate object of study.”   Science, therefore, can be a great thing when used in the service of Christianity rather than as a basis for denying it.   That is to say, Christian students should be taught to use the scientific method to prove and/or understand better what the Bible already says is true. 

As I mentioned above, having attended public schools my entire life, I know personally the kind of angst, doubt, and faith struggles that can be raised by science classes not rooted in Scripture or a Christian worldview.  This entry is, in large part, the culmination of those struggles and God’s intellectual guidance amidst them.  I have, of course, only scratched the surface of the issues raised.  But I hope that my initial responses to the truth criterion (i.e. empiricism) employed by (secular) science teachers, textbooks, and adherents are helpful for equipping parents and students to hold strong to our Christian beliefs.  Feel free to email with questions.  For further research, check out following resources (testing everything against the Word ):

Creationism in Public Schools: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Movie – Make it a Blockbuster night with your family!

 Grand Canyon Flood Theory: http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/GrandCanyon.html

Jarrett Van Tine is the Youth Director at Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Kingstown, Virginia.

The Evolution Issue, Part 1

In Colossians 2:2-4,8 Paul writes – “My goal [in my ministry] is that [Christians] may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments… See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”

In this blog, I am going to attempt to refute what many of our students’ public school science classes are conveying to them in relation to the Christian religion.  Like Paul, my goal today is to move us more toward a “complete understanding” of our Christian beliefs, that we “may know…Christ,” and that we may not be taken “captive through hollow arguments” or “hollow and deceptive philosophy” against Christianity as is (often) taught in our students’ public school science classes.

This blog is born out of our Ecclesiastes series, specifically Ecclesiastes 3:21: “Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” What Solomon is saying, here, is that, based purely upon our five sense, we are unable to know what happens to us after we die.  Why?  Because nobody has died, experienced life after death, and then returned. The only way we can know what happens to us after we die is if God tells us. 

My concern today is not so much the function of Solomon’s statement within its immediate context, but with the twofold principle Solomon here affirms.  The first part is that there is much we cannot know in our lives based purely on the evidence we gain from our five senses.  The second (implied by Solomon’s continued adherence to his Jewish monotheistic beliefs) is that there is, nevertheless, much we can know through God’s revelation, personal faith, and a form of empiricism that is rooted in and answerable to Scripture (i.e. a Christian science – not to be confused with the cult, of course).  Solomon’s twofold principle is exactly the opposite of what our students’ public school science classes are conveying to them, namely, that the only way they can know anything is through evidence derived from experiments using their five senses.  To this I will return.

Science, in many ways, is a wonderful thing. There are good reasons to value science as its various forms (chemistry, biology, physics, computer science, etc.) have culminated in a major improvement in the quality of life we enjoy.  So, for example, thanks to science we have awesome medications that can heal us of sicknesses we might otherwise have died from (strep throat, flu, small pox); we enjoy everyday luxuries like refrigerators, cars, video games (can’t forget those!); and so on.  In many ways, life is substantially more enjoyable for us thanks to the discoveries of science. 

At the same time, the science classes taught in our students’ (public) schools are, for the most part, operating from assumptions that are contrary to Christian beliefs; assumptions that significantly downplay, if not deny altogether, the role and place of the spiritual world in relation to the natural one.  Along with these assumptions has come a very bad thing: religious (particularly Christian) skepticism.  Public school science classes have caused many students to doubt their ability to know things that were once taken for granted, such as the existence of God (and other spiritual beings), the creation of the world, the truthfulness of the Bible, and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  Often, Christian students come away from their public school science classes feeling like they are naïve, unreasonable, out of touch, and brainless to actually believe the kinds of things they do.  

The reason for this anti-Christian (and anti-spiritual) stance is the (often) unspoken assumption that the only way someone can know something is true is if it can be proven through observations and tests using the five senses.  Anything that is not “proveable” in this sense – such as the existence of souls, angels, or even God – is looked down upon as merely opinion, belief, or preference, rather than something that can be respectfully called knowledge. 

The kind of sentiment of which I am speaking is embodied in the following California instructions (issued in 1989) for dealing with problems relating to public school science classes.  If a student approached a teacher with reservations about the theory of evolution, the teacher was advised to respond as follows: “I understand that you may have personal reservations about accepting this scientific evidence, but it is scientific knowledge about which there is no reasonable doubt among scientists in their field, and it is my responsibility to teach it because it is part of our common intellectual heritage.”  Notice how the theory of evolution is presented as if it were unquestionably true, using words such as, “evidence,” “knowledge,” “no reasonable doubt,” “responsibility,” and “common intellectual heritage.”  If a student’s Christian convictions are at odds with this particular scientific hypothesis, those beliefs are denigrated as “personal reservations” – that is, mere opinions that are, supposedly, not born out of the “rock solid” methods of science.

Our students must realize how false such statements are, and, conversely, how true Solomon’s twofold principle really is.  That is to say, they must learn that they are not limited in their knowledge to what they can prove through observations and tests using their five senses; they can (and should) reasonably embrace God’s revelation (i.e. the Bible) and personal faith, along with the contributions of Christian scientists.  They must gain confidence in their Christianity and be convinced that, although they may believe things that they cannot “prove” according to the rules of (non-Christian) science, they are, nonetheless, very rational to believe such things.  Moreover, they must see that these (non-Christian) science adherers – that is, their science teachers, textbooks, and fellow classmates – require just as much faith (indeed, more so) as Christians to believe the things they do.  

Jarrett Van Tine is the Youth Director at Faith Evangleical Presbyterian Church in Kingstowne, Virginia.

Tough Stuff: Hell

Jeremy Zach, the editor of the blog REyouthpastor, joins us as a guest contributor on the Rooted Blog. Jeremy works at Orange in the XP3 Student Ministry department. He holds a Masters in Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary. As part of our series on tough stuff, Jeremy answers our questions about why Hell is such a difficult and important topic for students to know.

How do you define and describe the concept of Hell to students?

God finds no pleasure in punishment (Ezk 18.23). Youth pastors need to make sure that the student knows: God is passionately pursuing each human being. When defining HELL youth pastors must combat the myth God is not for us, when in reality He is completely for us.

God allows humans to keep making destructive and evil decisions and choices because God is patient and continually forgiving and longing all of us to come to life! God will not stop us from going to hell if we insist on it. Hell is a real place where everyone admits: God—I do not want your love.

Why is it difficult or unpopular to teach?

Who wants to talk about eternal death? I think teaching about Hell is like cleaning the bathroom. Yes no one likes to do it but it has to be done.

Why do you think it is important to teach about Hell?

Youth pastors need to steer the student away from ONLY what they think and feel about the doctrine of Hell, but what the Bible says about Hell. Youth pastors need to appropriately deal with what scripture tells us. Scripture tells us Jesus is the only way, truth, and life and no one comes to the Father except through Jesus.

How does the concept help a student better understand the Gospel and grace of Jesus?

Students are wanting guidance on how to ask deeper questions theological questions while learning to live in the paradoxes of the Christian faith. So youth pastors who clearly communicate the both the popular and unpopular attributes of God will give their students a fuller and broader understanding of who God is and how He operated in the Scriptures.

127 Hours, Part 2: Sovereignty and Suffering

Why should a living man complain,

a man, about the punishment of his sins? Lamentations 3:39

As hours turn into days, it begins to dawn on Aron Ralston that no one is going to come to save him and he will most likely expire in this canyon.  Why did no one come look for him, after he had been missing for three days?  Because, he sarcastically boasts, “(I am) something of a big (choice word) hard hero.  I can do everything on my own.“  And because of his heroic estimate of himself, how many people did he tell where he was going?  None.  Surprisingly, Ralston does what so few of us are willing to do: he takes responsibility for the dire circumstances he is in.  He lives a life of self-sufficiency, and when his self-sufficiency reaps its natural consequence of helplessness, he points the finger at himself, rather than God, family, government, or whatever scapegoat seems most culpable. 

In Part 1 of this series, we fleshed out how important it is to let students wrestle with questions. We also looked briefly at a couple of the questions likely to be asked.  To enter deeper into our student’s questions of the Sovereignty of God, we must change the paradigm of the way they see their notion of freedom and their liability in sin.  Our perceived ‘freedom’ is actually slavery, slavery to our desires.  When it comes to our choices, we always choose our self-deification over the divinity of God.  And our efforts at self-deification have led to the state of the world in which we live.  Romans 1 has a profound definition of God’s wrath: God’s handing of us over to our desires. God’s wrath means He lets us have what we want, the natural outcome of our desires.  Hosea puts it beautifully; we “sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.”  Therefore, the cause of the suffering in this world rests on man’s choice to rebel.  In current events, such as Bin Laden’s recent death, one can nod their head and say, “I understand that his choices led to his consequences.”  But the issue of liability becomes more muddled when it comes to natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, or car accidents.  How are these people responsible for this disaster?  Again, our objections come from a place of perceived innocence.  As Christ taught about the tower of Siloam (Luke 13), a tower that fell on eighteen in Jerusalem, we all deserve to perish, if not for the mercy of God.  Due to the prevalence of God’s mercy, similar to the prevalence of oxygen, we easily begin to treat it as a right.  But mercy is not a right we should expect, rather a choice left up to God’s foreordained plan.  And sometimes, for reasons we cannot understand, God chooses to not have mercy (Romans 9:15) (this is something I have personally wrestled with so feel free to email me if  there is something you want to discuss or you object).  So, the hole we find ourselves in, whether by direct or indirect consequences, is one that we have chosen, as Aron Ralston chose.  We are helpless to escape, with no faculties within ourselves to save us.

For the Lord will not cast off forever,

but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion

according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not willingly afflict

or grieve the children of men. Lamentations 3:31-33

But our story, as Ralston’s story, does not end in a crevasse or a tomb, victims of our own self-sufficiency.  Although there is suffering that comes from our sin, we have a sovereign and merciful God who is constantly at work redeeming this world, even redeeming us through suffering.  Behind the scenes of this destructive world, we have a God that, although He has not caused the destruction, is ordaining events such that they work together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28), those He has called to Himself.  Although we cannot always see His movements of mercy at work in every circumstance, the Christ of Golgotha is our picture of how God can use suffering to bring about his plan.  Because of Golgotha, we know that suffering is not in vain, without hope.  Although God does not ultimately ‘willingly afflict the children of men,’ He uses even the result of our rebellion as a way to draw us back to Him and to teach us how to follow Him.  Similar to a windmill, he takes our whirlwind and uses it to bring life and redemption to us.  Similar to a guardrail on the Big Sur (a road along the cliffs of the Pacific), he allows us to crash so that we will not run headlong into an ultimate destruction.  He is, in His perfect sovereign plan, working even the destruction of the world into His plan, not disposing of our swords but beating them into plowshares.  In the Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky hints at the ultimate working out of God’s sovereign plan,

“…in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all of the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they have shed; that it will not only make it possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.”

127 Hours and Sovereignty, Part 1: Questions

Our next piece in the series, Tough Stuff, comes to us from our newest contributor, Dan Wolf, youth director at Anglican congregation, Church of the Apostles, in Columbia, SC. Dan takes a look at three critical questions and issues when discussing the sovereignty of God with students. He uses the movie '127 Hours' as a vehicle to unpack this heavy topic. 


Recently, my wife and I watched Danny Boyle’s newest film, ‘127 Hours.’ If you have not watched the movie, I am sure that you are familiar with the true-to-life backstory: A mountain climber named Aron Ralston (played by James Franco) becomes trapped by a boulder crushing his hand in a narrow canyon in Utah. After realizing no one is going to rescue him, he brutally severs his own hand. In the movie, he internally dialogues before commencing on the unthinkable:

“You know, I've been thinking, everything is...just comes together. It's me. I chose this. I chose all of this. This rock...this rock has been waiting for me my entire life. It's entire life. Ever since it was a bit of meteorite a million, billion years ago. There in space. It's been waiting, to come here. Right, right here. I've been moving towards it my whole life. The minute I was born, every breath I've taken, every action has been leading me to this crack on the out surface.”

This quote illustrates one of the major tensions of the faith, who is in control of this world we live in? Is it our own choices? Is it the random unfolding of a world devoid of God? Or is it an all-knowing, all-loving God? The Gospel claims the latter, that God is in fact sovereign over all life. To give a full definition, God has ownership, authority, and control over all things. In short, this means that God is in control of the whole universe and nothing happens that is a surprise to Him. Recently, I taught on this crucial doctrine of the sovereignty of God. And, as I am sure you can imagine (or have experienced yourself), the questions immediately begin to bubble up. And the questions were not uniform, but custom fit to each of the different lives of young people whom I serve. Some questions were more intellectual, while some were very poignant and personal.

I think most of us steer clear of ‘tough stuff’ like sovereignty because we don’t want to throw sticks into the spokes of our students’ young faiths. After all, they are still wobbling all over the place and falling down all of the time anyways. Let them wrestle with the hard stuff in college. If they crash and burn, the blood is on some campus minister’s hands (tinge of sarcasm intended). So, I know I have personally tried to stick to the uncontroversial, like God’s love for us (which is controversial in its own way) and our need to reach out to those in need. But, I have come to believe that doubts and questions are a cornerstone of a healthy believing community. If our students don’t feel free to struggle with these issues, then we are building nothing but straw-man beliefs that will be swiftly dismantled by their first philosophy class. Therefore, as Tim Keller aptly puts it in his book The Reason for God, "Faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection."

So the issue remains: What of the questions relating to sovereignty? The inquiries are many, so I will just share a few of the more common ones that arose in our study. First of all, there is the more circumstantial questions of, “If a good God is in control of this world, how can it be so screwed up?” As songwriter Patty Griffin succinctly notes, “I must confess, there appears to be a whole lot more darkness than light.” I tend to agree with her. So, how can God be in control and let all of these things happen? The Japan earthquakes are an obvious case-in-point. How about my friend who ‘left’ the faith? Or my cousin who committed suicide? Or how could God let my parents get divorced. These are the questions that arise, and must be handled with both truth and grace. With these more delicate questions, we must first make sure that the person is aware of God’s love for all people and His desire for all people (1 Tim 2:4), before we can talk about the more intellectual answers to their questions(below). How we communicate becomes of the utmost important when addressing the more personal questions. As Eugene Peterson quotes, “We cannot skip the way of Jesus in our hurry to get to the truth of Jesus….Only when the Jesus way is organically joined with the Jesus truth do we get the Jesus life."

The above questions lead to the more theological question of, “If God is in control of the world, isn’t He ultimately responsible for the way things are?” This is a very good and important question; it is vital to give the young people an understanding of sovereignty. In Romans 9, Paul deals with this issue from a number of different directions, revealing that God is not responsible for sin. Another helpful way I have found to process this tough question is distinguishing between foreordination (God’s ordaining of all things) and causality (God did not cause sin, we did). God ordains all things according to His will (Eph 1:11) and God works all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). But God’s foreordination does not override or violate the will of His creatures. So, the cause of sin therefore rests solely with man. In God’s sovereign world our choices do matter. The sin in this world, both actions (murder, genocide, slander, etc) and consequences of our sin (death, natural disasters, accidents, etc), are due to our rebellion against God. But, we have the promise that God, who is not abstract or impersonal but is of the same heart as Jesus of Nazareth, is weaving all things, even our sin, into an unspeakably beautiful plan of redemption and restoration. And, in the midst of the struggles of our youth’s lives, whether it be divorce, death, or sin, they can know that God is ultimately in control and working all things according to His perfect will. In this truth, no matter if one finds themselves stranded in a lonely canyon, one can rest in the peace of the Gospel offered to us in Christ Jesus, that it is God who is in control.

In the movie, as Aron Ralston finally detaches his hand and frees himself for the first time in 127 hours, he looks out of his would-be tomb to the heavens and shouts, “Thank you.”


This is the first of three articles from Dan Wolf on this topic.  Check back later this week to read more.

Tough Stuff: Chewin' on the Leathery & Unpalatable but Realizing it's the Sweetest Thing.

Radical Grace.  Unfettered, life-changing, paradigm-shifting, gift-love. 

How do we even begin to define and describe this reality to our students?  I’ve found that people who have come to know the grace of God in and through Jesus have had their understanding of the Christian faith drastically altered.  Often, what was once an intellectual understanding of Christianity or a works-based operation out of Christianity becomes a need- and gratitude-based relationship to a Living God which hinges on His provision.  There is a shift that happens here, from a self-dependence (e.g. relying on the self’s capability to understand/obey) to a God-dependence (which is inextricably linked to and based upon the atoning death of Jesus which offers us utterly undeserved and full, real, life-giving love).

Most basically, we’ve got to realize that this is an offensive message, and it goes against everything the Western World tells us.  “You can’t do it” isn’t exactly what anyone wants to hear.  And really, apart from the intervention of the Holy Spirit and the proclamation that “But, He has done it- and for you!” we can’t expect anyone to readily accept God’s offer of grace.  It should actually fall into the category of ‘too good to be true.’  We are used to earning our merit, working for success, and performing for points; there is very little that’s freely offered us.  Therefore, the free offering of eternal life and of present, hope-offering, life-transforming relationship with Jesus doesn’t make sense.  That just isn’t the way we’re used to relating to the world or others.  Granted, God’s gift of grace doesn’t come freely- it came with the greatest cost of all: the sacrifice of His own Son.  But the point is: He paid that price, we didn’t.  We couldn’t.  We can’t. 

But we are offered that gift.  And although we’re not very inclined to open our hands and receive, it’s still always there for us.  In ministering to students, one of the most important things we can do is share with them the ways we experience our need for Jesus, for His grace.  We can offer them stories where people have been met where they are by love (which reflects the great Love, Himself) and have had an undeserved, unmerited, transformational experience.  We can help kids to expose the hamster-in-a-wheel-based paradigms of the world and hold Scripture up to them, pointing to the redeemed grace-paradigm of Christianity.

“But what about the seeming free-license to sin that may offer?” you ask.  “Won’t this understanding of unmerited and unconditional gift-love lead our kids to act recklessly and irresponsibly?

Chances are, if you’ve come to really believe in and understand the grace of God, it came through knowing His gifts of forgiveness, love, and redemption in the midst of your sin and/or failure (aka ‘reckless or irresponsible’ behaviors or thoughts).  This is not to say we want our kids to go out and sin, causing themselves (and those around them) pain and suffering.  But it is to say that we are sometimes more interested in trying to protect our kids from the consequences of sin than sharing with them the God of Grace who meets them right in the middle of it and loves them, helps them, and forgives them.  Those of us in leadership positions are especially prone to controlling or attempting to control things.  We fall into a trap of believing (sometimes unconsciously) that we can protect these kids from Satan and sin, we can tell them just the advice which will prevent suffering, or we can have such tight relationships with them that they surely will not make bad decisions.  I mean, really?  Really?  We live this way, and sometimes we minister this way.  We need Jesus!  We need His grace just as much as our kids do- and this pattern of thinking we can save them is just as sinful as the acts we are trying to save them from.

That shift from reliance on self to reliance on Jesus, the lavish Grace-Giver - for us and for the kids we minister to- is one of the most (if not the most) important things we can talk over/think about/ponder/share in/teach on in our positions as youth leaders.  We’ve got to highlight grace in our ministries; it separates Christianity from everything else.  Instead of man reaching out to God (and reaching, reaching, reaching for everything else in life), God reaches out to man through Jesus.  Hallelujah!

The Comfort of Absolute Truth

This post comes to us from a new Rooted contributor, Sandra Hagood. Sandra is an attorney, parent, and outstanding youth Sunday school teacher in San Diego, CA. She leads off our series, Tough Stuff, with this excellent piece about teaching absolute truth.

Recently, I was talking with a college-aged friend who was expressing intense anxiety that a cherished career goal of his may never come to pass. I asked him which he would choose between obtaining this goal and following Jesus. I only asked him the question because I thought he would easily answer that he would rather follow Jesus, and I was intending to suggest that we all have to choose what we want the most, pursue it, and pray that the rest will follow.

He hesitated, and then looked at me horror stricken and said he wasn’t sure. He clearly expected me to chew him out or tell him what a fool he was. But I told him that every once in awhile, I feel like, if I could, I would walk away, and that apparently, I’m not alone in that sentiment. Then we talked about one of my favorite Bible passages:

After this [Jesus’ explaining that to have eternal life, one must feed on Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood], many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."                           - John 6:66-69

There’s more than one way to read Peter’s answer, but I think it’s important that Peter did not say, “But Lord, why would we want to go anywhere else when this is so much fun?” It seems to me that it’s implied in Peter’s answer that Peter would go away if he could, or at least that he’d been tempted to consider it.

Close to thirty years ago, when I was in high school and had been a Christian about two years, I was struggling to keep up with the demands of my performance-based understanding of the Gospel. Even though I was madly in love with Jesus, I remember thinking that I was going to have to give up Christianity because it was just too hard and I couldn’t do it. I felt like I was looking into a terrible abyss. But I realized almost the next instant that the reason that I could not walk away from Christianity was that it was true.

I have returned to that moment several times in the last thirty years. Thanks be to God, I understand much better now what it means that His yoke is easy and His burden is light, but I still sometimes think for a moment that I would prefer to have no one to answer to. (Of course, in my right mind, I absolutely cannot imagine the unbearable wasteland that life without Jesus would be.)

I take great comfort in two things. First, the above passage in John shows me that Jesus understands that we are human and He does not expect us to be spiritual robots. He realizes that, no matter how much we love Him, serving Him is costly (Luke 14:28), and that, even though it’s really a “no brainer,” it seems like a hard decision to us. But even more, I am greatly encouraged that even when I cannot hold onto the Truth, the Truth holds on to me. As Peter said, Jesus has the words of eternal life. I think once you have tasted those words, you cannot walk away anymore than a thirsty man could walk away from water in the desert.

In the present climate of moral relativity, many students are conditioned to label those claiming the absolute truth of Christianity- or any worldview- as intolerant, immoral, and close-minded. The absolute value of the postmodern world is tolerance. However, knowing that the “words of eternal life” are, in fact, True yields an amazing comfort to students in the long run.

Tough Stuff

In the coming weeks, the Rooted blog will provide a series, called Tough Stuff. Certainly, every student minister, Sunday school teacher, and parent knows the cringing sensation that comes when students ask tough question. At the same time, a gap in a student's belief system on all of the pieces that comprise their knowledge detracts from their full appreciation and grounding in the Gospel.

This series aims to identify tough issues and why they are important to discuss in the name of a more fully understanding the Gospel. Also, included are ideas on best approaches to discussion of these sticky topics. Get ready to cringe; these topics just are not easy.