The Common Sense

I was super fortunate this weekend to travel with the Grace Bible Fellowship Youth group to West Edmonton Mall.  The difficulty I had was that I have not been involved in youth ministry since March, so one kind of forgets the way teenagers think.

For instance, we stopped off at Whitecout for McDonalds supper on our way.  McDonalds was across the street kiddy corner so, this meant we had to cross the street twice to reach our destination.  Simple, right?  Not with kids who have not developed the common-sense portion of their brain.  And me, being the mature responsible one of course, used common sense.  So, crossing the street started off quite routinely, we waited for the little white man to appear signaling we were to cross, and we did with no incident.  However, when we reached the other side, the group proceeded to begin crossing the street in the next direction walking directly into oncoming traffic that had a green light.  A couple of horns later, the group made it across safely, laughed and continued on their way walking on the street instead of the sidewalk.

It brought to mind an incident I remember when I was young.  We were waiting to go to an Eskimos game and the crosswalk signal switched from white to a red hand, the light turned yellow and then I decided that it would be a great time to run across the street in the middle of rush-hour Edmonton.  The engines revved, the horns honked, you youth leaders yelled and lets just say that I am still alive today despite my "need" to disregard what I knew was the smart choice to make.

Now that the trip is over and my memory is jogged, I am reminded the great desire God has placed in my heart to see youth grow in their faith.  I will be the first to admit that I am old and am not as crazy as I used to be, but there is a thankfulness that God still brings my days of yore back to mind.  Young Christians, do not have the same growth and maturity us who have grown in the faith, yet it is important we remember the time when our relationship with the Holy One was fresh and new.  We were much more "reckless" for Jesus and I think it would be a benefit if we could harness that passion with the maturity that comes with knowing Christ.

I guess the meat of what I am writing about is that we often write off teens and new Christians as naïve and lacking wisdom, but forget passion in our Christian walk.  We need each other, the old to lead the young and the inexperienced to remind the experienced that there is more than one way to skin a cat (why one would want to skin one is beyond me).  So, next time you are challenged, instead of taking offence, step back and wonder how this can teach you the lesson God has in store for you!