Forward Progress

Last week I argued that there’s a difference in childish faith and childlike faith. And that we, as Christ-followers are supposed to move away from childish faith and toward childlike faith. Childish faith is immature; childlike faith is mature. Childish faith is shallow; childlike faith is deep.

In trying to come up with some characteristics of childish faith, I said that childish faith is selfish, unexamined, unfocused, and easy. So you could very easily say that childlike faith must be the opposite of those. But I’m wondering - what specifically is about kids that God likes so much that Jesus would say we need to emulate? Here’s an attempt at a list.

A childlike faith is…

1. Curious. How? Why? What? When? That’s what I hear from my own kids. And though it sometimes gets to be a little too much, the simple curiosity of a child is great. It shows that they’re using they’re imagination. They want to know and experience, and they’re not boxed in by they’re previous experiences. When we come to God asking questions out of sheer wonder, I think He smiles.

2. Unself-conscious. As we grow into adults, we become more and more self-conscious. Soon we don’t sing in public any more. We don’t laugh too loud. We don’t do anything that might make us look silly. But kids don’t have that problem. They live their lives in moments, soaking up the joy, pain, or excitement of the now, and not worrying so much about what everybody around them is thinking. We would do well to be a little more caught up in the “God-moments” instead of worrying if our reactions make us look stupid or not.

3. Honest. This is kind of broad, but kids are uncomfortably honest. If you have a zit on your face, a kid will tell you. They’ll make the statement. They’ll ask the question. They’ll point out the obvious. They don’t skip around the issue but come straight to the point. My prayers are often characterized by me trying to find the right words, or the right formula, instead of just talking to God.

4. Teachable. Jana (my wife) left this as a comment yesterday, saying that being un-teachable was childish. The opposite is also true. Kids, especially when really young, want to try everything. They are willing to learn and are excited about it. In my relationship with Jesus, it seems like He has to tell me or show me the same thing for 17 years before I’m ready to listen.

5. Simple. I love Psalm 116:5 that says, “The Lord protects the simple-hearted.” Kids are simple-hearted. I hope that my kids know - know - that I love them. That’s simple. The world might get complex, but in the end, they can return to that truth. And so can we.

Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells us so. Simple.

Now what would you add?

You may have seen the Bible studies I’ve written for Threads. I’ve been incredibly honored by the response the resources have gotten, and it’s really cool to think God might be using these resources to challenge people in their walks with Him. If you haven’t seen them, I’d love for you to check them out.

They’re called The Tough Sayings of Jesus and The Tough Sayings of Jesus II. Each Bible study is 4 sessions long, and each session deals with a “tough” saying of Jesus.

Volume 1 includes the rich young ruler, the unpardonable sin, the divisive nature of Christ, and the encounter with the Canaanite woman.

Volume 2 includes the cursing of the fig tree, the death of Lazarus, Jesus’ demand for righteousness, and the parable of the dishonest steward.

Each volume has a member book, which you can work through as an individual, and a leader kit that you can use to lead a small group or Sunday school class. The leader kits both have audio, video, and music components to help you facilitate the group.

I’d be honored if you wanted to get one of the books to work through yourself, and thrilled if you wanted to ask your church to begin a small group or start one yourself.

You can click here to find out more about volume I, including read a sample session.

For volume 2 you can click here.

(For what it’s worth, I think volume 2 is better.)

Knowing my love for processed meats, my kiddos got me the traditional, and seasonal, gift of Hickory Farms. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

This week, we found out that Andi inherited my love of meat. Joshua is a cheese man. During the Rose Bowl we destroyed the beef and cheese. Here’s some pictures of the experience.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…

The Snuggie. I can’t wait to wear this to my favorite sporting events.

I love Leviticus. I’m not claiming to understand it all, but it’s so rich in imagery and principle. Jana and I discussed the other day the principle that comes from Leviticus 19:9-10 and how it relates to our lives:

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.”

We’re not farmers. We don’t have fields. I don’t know how to turn on a plow. But it seems to me this verse is about creating margin. The Lord was specific with His people. When it came time for harvesting, they weren’t supposed to plow to the end of the rows. They were to leave margin, and they were to leave it “just in case.”

Just in case there is someone traveling who needs food.

Just in case you have the chance to share with someone who is in need.

Just in case someone else needs to feed their family.

Just in case the leftovers can be useful after all for something other than giving you more.

We live in a margin-less world. Our calendars are booked with meetings and appointments end to end. So are our pocketbooks. In fact, everything from our time to our money is pretty much spoken for. We are plowing to the end of the fields. We are going back over the fields of our lives a second and third time, looking for any spare cent or second that has not been accounted for.

But we need to leave room for margin. So in the new year, I want to leave room in my schedule, my time, and my wallet for the “just in case” scenarios. I want to have a few minutes when the phone call comes. I want to have a few bucks when the need arises. I want to have a little energy when some lifting needs to be done.

I want some margin, you know, just in case…

There’s an interesting paradox in the Bible that I’ve been wondering about for a while. Have you noticed that the Bible combines faith and children in both a positive and a negative way? Here’s what I mean:

“Then Jesus said, ‘Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to Me, because the kingdom of heaven is made up of people like this’” (Matthew 19:14).

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me” (1 Corinthians 13:11).

It seems like the Bible is speaking out of both sides of its mouth, or at least that Jesus and Paul disagree. Jesus was teaching that entering the kingdom of heaven is about having faith like a child. But Paul seems to say that growing in Christ is about putting away childish ways.

But let’s frame it another way - maybe there is a difference between “child-like” faith and “childish” faith. That is to say, a childish faith is a mark of immaturity as a Christ-follower. But child-like faith is a mark of depth. But that’s a pretty fine line to draw, and it causes me to ask: What are the characteristics of a childish faith, and how are those characteristics different than a child-like faith?

So today, I wanted to make a couple of observations about childish faith. Tomorrow we’ll do child-like faith. See if you agree.

Childish faith is …

1. Selfish. 1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most famous chapters in the Bible, and in it Paul talks about the giving, self-sacrificial nature of love. But children have to be taught that kind of love. So a childish faith is one that is only in it for what it can get, thinking of its relationship with God exclusively about what it can receive but not give. It’s a “get out of hell” faith, and that’s pretty much it.

2. Unexamined. Paul mentions in this verse both thinking and reasoning, and those aren’t necessarily things that kids do alot of. They accept things strictly at face value, and don’t often try to probe much deeper. Such is a childish faith, one content with never asking questions or spending time dwelling on the mysteries of God.

3. Unfocused. I see in my own kids that their attention ebbs and flows with whatever is in front of them in the moment. So in a childish faith, a person only focuses on matters of faith when they’re convenient or they happened to be at a church service. The result is a book-end relationship with God, where you might go to church but your life is only book ended by that relationship.

4. Easy. Kids don’t seem to like to do alot of hard things. They have to learn to appreciate difficulty. And in a faith that is childish, a person might so closely tie their faith with their circumstances that when the day of difficulty comes, and they have the choice about whether their faith will stop being childish, they might decide believing is just too hard.

That’s just four. And they’re a little dangerous to write because I’m seeing all of these tendencies in my own life. But at the risk of being judgmental but with the potential of us all moving toward child-like faith and away from childish faith, I would ask:

What other characteristics of childish faith would you add?

Remember me? Probably not, since I’m sure there were thousands of guys driving across your state yesterday. Let me help.

Red Honda CRV? 78 mph? No?

I was the guy with the 4-year-old in the back seat saying I was going to jail. Still no?

My wife was there too - we were the ones trying to suspend the DVD player in mid-air because we bought the “TruTech” brand instead of the “Sony.” It evidently skips whenever you breathe on it. Remember us? Good.

I want to thank you for looking at our car, packed so full that it needed a pair of pants with an elastic waistband, noticing our Tennessee license plate, seeing our 2 kids under 5, and cutting us a break. Thanks for the warning; I know you could have given us (er, me) a ticket. 

Maybe you had mercy because of the kids. Or the car. Or the DVD player showing a fragmented version of “Wall-E.” Maybe you knew we were driving a thousand miles. Or maybe, since you drive across your state everyday, you know that it is a barren wasteland of nothing except potholes and rumble strips right in the middle of the lane (my apologies to the Okie readers). But whatever the reason, thanks.

Thanks also for the great teaching moment where my boy had the pleasure of seeing that “… Daddy gets disciplined, too.”

And one more thing - you made the day of an insecure former fat kid when you estimated my weight on the warning to be 170. Little did you know that you had the power in your hands to crush my self-esteem. 

So go get ‘em, HYPO - I’ll always think kindly of you.

Michael “170″ Kelley

Now that Christmas is almost over (we still have Christmas to go in Nashville), here’s a list of some top Christmas moments:

1. Joshua made friends with all dogs everywhere. Jana’s greatest fear is slowly coming into reality, as he will soon ask for his own puppy.

2. Andi does not, evidently, share Joshua’s affinity for dogs. She likes the idea of dogs, but not the reality.

3. Andi learned how to say “Jesus.” Of course, she does look for a slice of cheese after she says it… she might think it’s “cheese us.”

4. Joshua went with us to the Christmas Eve service. We took communion. He failed to grasp the theological significance, and wondered instead why Jesus didn’t want him to have a snack.

5. Since we leave tomorrow for the 1000 mile trip home on the road, I’m leaving number 5 open in faith of a great moment on the drive…

Inspired by Z, I’ve taken up my copy of DA Carson’s How Long, O Lord? In a brief opening section concerning the suffering that is particular to the people of God, Carson writes about the nature of persecution and draws some conclusions. But on the opposite side, he tells this story:

In one church I know, a medical doctor, formerly a missionary, was appointed to the board of elders. Some time later he had an affair, divorced his wife, abandoned his children, and separated himself from any form of biblical Christianity…

The most thoughtful assessment of the mess came three years later from one of the leaders in the church. He suggested that this doctor, who came from a Christian home and had done all the ‘right’ things, had never had to make a decision that cost him anything. Everything was too easy; at every point he had been supported and praised.

Now that’s interesting. His life had been too easy. How ironic, especially since the focus of so many of our prayers is that sense of ease - ease of finances, ease of lifestyle, ease of health, and ease of relationships.

But what kind of person does a “cost-less” faith make? I have been trying to count this week the number of decisions I’ve ever had to make that have cost me anything at all. And disturbingly, almost everything I’ve ever decided has ultimately been out of self-interest. Sure, some of it was masked self-interest, but that’s self-interest all the same.

Perhaps instead of praying for ease in this coming year, we might first pray for the courage to pray for enough difficulty to make us real, enough hardship to make us authentic.

Who wants to pray that first?

I’ll be back on the blog on the 26th. Merry Christmas, friends.