I spent the day yesterday substitute teaching at the junior high. I've done this numerous times, and I always leave at the end of the day with the same question on my lips, "What is with kids?" Maybe it's because I've been out of school for so long, but I can't remember being as bad as some of these kids. I'm sure I had many of the "fine" qualities that these students now have, but I was never disrespectful. I was so afraid of being sent to the principal's office that I always sort of "towed the line" in order to stay out of trouble. Not only are most of these students not afraid of getting in trouble, some of them streak toward it like it's the gold at the end of the rainbow or something. They delight in it and revel in it. One kid actually said to me (after I told him many times to be quiet and stop jacking around), "I'm sure you've heard about me, I have a pretty bad reputation." My first thought was (as he laughed about it), "You're actually proud of that?" I was sitting there watching a lot of these kids and, this is awful, but I was thinking, "That one won't graduate, neither will that one..." And what about their souls? If they don't care about their grades, and their reputation, they certainly aren't going to care about the state of their souls. They're dead and they don't even know or care.
I sit and observe the students while they're working and as I do that, I sit and pray. I pray for God to show me a way to reach kids like these. I want them to live. I want them to realize that the universe is bigger than them, and that there is a big God who cares about them so much. I want them to learn to live for someone other than themselves.
I understand that the Bible says, "with God all things are possible" but I'm also starting to think that maybe John Calvin's doctrine of predestination has some validity to it. Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us.
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3 comments:
Part of me wants to do something about helping them, but part of me wants to say, "Screw'em," and go work with the kids who show some interest in what God is about. Even if it's a negative reaction towards God that's something better than apathy towards themselves and life. You can't work with apathy. You can't convince a person, much less a self-absorbed student, that life is not just about them, when all they hear all day long is that it is about them.
Lord have mercy on them.
shalom, walter
The "friendship" we usually talk about in churches has nothing to do with love but a manipulative union where our friendship is commensurate on them "coming to Christ." If they don't come to Christ within a certain time frame, they're ditched and are replaced with another target. I'm sure that's what Jesus had in mind. I actually had a guy tell (with a straight face) that Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners in order to convert them. That's pretty funny.
As an adendum to my previous comment I would like to add that I would much rather work with kids who hated God than one who feels nothing towards Him or anyone else. Apathy is a killer disease running unchecked through the lives of teens.
shalom, walter
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