My heart weighs heavy today as I reflect. I have no specific idea where I am going with this post, so I will just write and see what happens. I guess that at times, we must think inward and pray how we might grow outward. No growth comes without a struggle.
I remember an old story that was a great picture of Christ. It was spring of 2006 and I took my little in Big Brothers Big Sisters to a local fish hatchery / fishing location. He was not very interested in fishing that day but rather, he wanted to hike up the hill. This boy was very scared of most things, but he was so focused on climbing up that hill. He ran so fast up the hill that I had a very hard time keeping up with him. Finally he got way up the hill and then stopped. Once he turned around, he saw how high up the hill he was and he became instantly paralyzed by fear. he had no idea how he got into the situation that he was in. He even started to tear up about it.
Here in America we are too comfortable. Of course, we as a country have pressed hard for the American Dream, which was loosely defined as having money, at least enough to not have to worry about it, having cars, a house, and 2.5 kids (usually two kids and a dog). When the World War II veterans returned from the war, the young generation of men who were fighting and women who were keeping the country together seemed to click that life is too short to fight. That was a correct conclusion to a degree. The problem was they gave and gave their kids to the point where the kids did not learn much on the maturity and responsibility front.
I do a lot of work in the tech field. I can fix computers, build home networks, write webpages, and do graphic design. My current day job consists of many of these elements. I am also expanding my skills (a concept that I think everyone should do), so I was doing a few internet searches for tutorials on doing some specific work on Adobe Illustrator when I encountered a tutorial on how to draw an emo kid.
I love working with youth, I have done it for many years, I have worked with over 200 kids by name, seventeen weeks of summer camps, four years of club programs for boys, four weeks of Vacation Bible School, three years of weekly Sunday School, and five years of mentoring in Big Brothers, Big Sisters, plus a few other scattered programs here and there. I know the hearts of kids, and I seem to have an incredible gift of interacting with kids. I am afraid for the children of the world. I would like to explain a little bit about why and how I came to write this article.
This article has been on my heart for a long time, and I hope that it is as good as it sounds in my head. For I fear that my time away from daily writing has deeply impacted my ability to clearly convey a point as poignant as this. So what does the term ‘Democratized Faith’ mean?
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