This morning I read 1 Thessalonians 4 to a class of thirty-six supposed Christian youth average age of about twenty-one. I don’t know what I expected. I know I didn’t expect Hallelujahs and Amens but what I did get startled and bewildered me. Basically what I got was nothing. No changes in facial expressions. They looked bored when I started and they looked bored when I finished. I had to jar myself to remember that I teach in a “Christian” school. Have we become so jaded by pop culture that unless text is accompanied by a carefully scripted soundtrack of music it makes no impact? Or worse, have we become so used to the spectacular promises of God’s Word that they have become ho-hum? Does the joy of the Word regarding resurrection and eternal life only mean something to those of us who are running out of years? When one is twenty-something with decades of career and family ahead perhaps they are overwhelmed with thoughts of “that’s not important for me now”? I will not even suggest that perhaps they just don’t care or believe.
Once again let me say I don’t actually know what I was looking for, but what I got left me with a feeling of desperation. When we open the Word we are handling the Bread of Life. We are reminding ourselves of the greatest promises in the universe. Surely angels must long to have the opportunity I have each day to share the finest and the best of God with young people. Maybe my wife got it right. She said, “It is the beginning of the semester. Those students don’t really know you. Perhaps it’s them that don’t know what to expect.” I do hope she is right.
Written by Roger Bothwell on September 8, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St.Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell org