Wake Me Up Before I Die

So if Jesus was not talking about childish faith, nor about suspending adult questions and struggles, then what exactly was he saying? What does it mean to “receive the kingdom of God like a little child”?

Tony Campolo tells the story of once being challenged by a Buddhist monk: “You Christians teach your children to pray all wrong. You teach them to pray, ‘if I should die before I wake.’ It would be better if you taught them to pray, ‘if I should wake before I die.’”

His point was how often people seemed to live life only half awake, and not fully aware of the wealth of God-filled possibilities surrounding us everyday. With this in mind, Campolo goes on to say how he once similarly challenged a student of his with the words, “How long have you lived?”

The student responded: “23 years.”

Campolo replied, “No that’s how long your heart has pumped. How long have you lived?” He then went on to explain to the student exactly what he was talking about.

The student’s reply was very interesting: “When you say it that way, maybe an hour, maybe less than that. Maybe a minute, maybe two. Most of my life seems to have been the meaningless passage of time between all too few moments when I was genuinely alive.”

Wake me up before I die! My 9 month old daughter teaches me this lesson every day. Hers is a sense of wonder at life. Her eyes open wide as if trying not to miss a single moment, her hands eagerly reach out to grasp what seems to me to be very ordinary things. Childlike faith is about having our eyes open to the miracle of everyday life again. It is about learning to see how the divine can shimmer and dance even in quite ordinary things.

The movie, “Finding Neverland,” tells the story of how James Barrie, (played by Johnny Depp) wrote the play, “Peter Pan.” At the premiere of this play, Barrie knew that there was a very real danger adults would just not ‘get’ the magic of the story. So he arranged for 25 children from a local orphanage to be present, seated randomly around the theatre. The children arrived late, and as they took their seats, disapproving patrons raised their eyebrows. When the curtains rose, the children let out squeals of delight and laughter. Tuxedoed adults, not yet quite grasping the wonder of the play, looked askance at these ragamuffin children who had caught on immediately. And then the adults began to look again, more carefully this time at what was happening onstage. Slowly their eyes started to brighten, and they began joining in the chuckles. Infected by the children, the adult patrons soon got caught up in the wonder of the play.

They were awakened to wonder and majesty. They were made alive to beauty in everyday, ordinary things. This is what children will teach us, if we take the time to listen. God is wondrously beautiful, and his presence and miracles surround us everyday. If only we would awake before we die, if only we would learn to see this, if only we would receive that truth like a little child.

'Glorious' Self-Indulgence!

So what exactly did Jesus mean when he spoke of “receiving the kingdom of God like a little child”? In helping us to understand this, perhaps it would prove helpful to first understand what Jesus was NOT saying.

Let’s face it: childhood can be a time of glorious self-indulgence. It is a time when the world seemingly revolves around you, when grown-ups rush to meet your needs at the slightest cry. Childhood can be a time of foot-stomping, ground-pounding, high-pitched screaming tantrums. Over the last few months, since my daughter was born, childish tantrums have become part of the daily reality of our house. However they are soon to stop, because my wife has told me that I am really not setting a good example for my daughter!

Let’s be clear that Jesus was NOT talking about childish and inappropriate behaviour here. The author, Philip Yancey, when writing on these verses, helpfully differentiates between childish faith and childlike faith. One example of childish faith might be a faith that is continually weak and unhealthily dependant on God, a faith that never grows us beyond ourselves. As Eugene Peterson says: “Christian faith is not neurotic dependency but childlike trust.” Of course there are times in our lives when we rely upon God to help us through difficult moments, but we are not meant to be eternally naïve spiritual infants who have no identity apart from a feeling of being comforted, protected, and catered to.

My daughter is 9 months old now, and as her parents, we make all her life decisions. What she will eat, what she will wear, when she will sleep. If we are still making all those decisions for her at age 19, if she is still unhealthily dependant on us, then quite frankly we have failed her as parents. The goal of parenthood is to produce healthy adults, not eternally dependant children. In the same way, the Bible makes it clear that God wants us to grow spiritually from infants to adults. A spiritual adult will have a healthy, vibrant, mature and yet childlike trust in God and will not continually live with a fearfully neurotic and insecure clinging to God. That is the difference between childish faith and childlike faith.

Finally, nor does having childlike faith mean that we have to suspend all our adult questions and struggles. Anyone who has spent time with a toddler will tell you that questions form a huge part of their make-up! A wise person once said: “The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.” Doubt is not necessarily an obstacle to faith, but potentially can be a seed of faith, a means of growth. Asking questions and struggling through issues, can set us on the road to deeper faith. What we learn from children however, is that they ask their questions without cynicism. Their questions come out of a genuine desire to learn and grow. We need to learn that despite any fears or questions we may have, we can still love and trust our sometimes mysterious God. It is ok to have questions, or to struggle with doubts, just so long as you don’t let them stop you from having a relationship with God. A relationship with God, like any relationship, can only be plunged into without knowing exactly where it may take you.

PRAY AS YOU GO
Holy and mysterious God, we pray that you would help us to learn the difference between childish and childlike faith. Pray grow us into spiritually mature adults who would always retain an incredible trust in you as our Father. Help us to work through any doubts and questions we may have in way that grows us closer to you. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE
Psalm 131 (NIV)
My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; 
       I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
 But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, 
       like a weaned child is my soul within me.
 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.

Childlike Faith

The story is told of a man breaking free from prison. It took him years to painstakingly dig a tunnel, which he carefully hid behind a poster on his cell wall. Unbeknown to him, a miscalculation on the angle of his tunnel would ensure that he would finally dig out into a nearby children’s playground. The day eventually arrived when he broke through the last metre of soil. He lifted himself out onto the surface, jumped to his feet and started shouting: “I’m free. Thank God Almighty, that at last I am FREE”! His celebrations were interrupted however, by a tug from a little hand on his pants. He looked down to see a little toddler standing there with a defiant face and hands on hips. “That’s nothing”, the tyke retorted, “I’m already FOUR”!

This week we will be looking at the concept of childlike faith. We will be focussing our attention mainly on Mark 10.13-16, although other verses will be used as well.

Now it was common practice for ancient Jews to bring their children to a respected Rabbi for a blessing. This is obviously what happened here, with local parents attempting to bring their children to Jesus. However, they were prevented from doing so by the disciples. The Greek word used to describe how the disciples ‘rebuked’ them, is the same as elsewhere used by Mark to describe Jesus rebuking a storm into calmness. In other words, the disciples quite aggressively chased the children away. Perhaps they thought Jesus was tired after an exhausting day of ministry, but after so long in his company, they really should have known better. Mark’s Gospel clearly says that Jesus was indignant with the disciples for doing this. It describes Jesus as having a kind of embarrassed anger that his disciples would so misrepresent him. Time after time he had taught them about God’s love and care for those considered the ‘least’ in society. The powerless, and the marginalised had always been central to Jesus’ ministry, and now he overheard the disciples trying to drive some of them away.

This prompted him to tell them: “Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very centre of life in the kingdom,” (Mark 10. 14 MSG). Jesus then went onto say: “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it,” (Mark 10. 15 NIV).

Jesus is saying that we can only receive the kingdom of God, if we learn to receive it as little children. It strikes me that there is a powerful lesson to learn here and that these are very important words for us to hear and understand. This is why we will spend the whole of next week attempting to do exactly that.

Spend some time today thinking about what Jesus may have meant in this passage. Write your thoughts down and pray over them.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O’ Lord our God, we pray that you would open up our hearts and minds to this Scripture in a wonderful way. Help us to learn from you in this, and so deepen our faith and enlarge our hearts. This we pray in the name of our Teacher and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Mark 10:13-16 (NIV)
 13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 16And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

Billy Graham pays tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Monday, January 16, was Martin Luther King Jnr day in the United States - a time of remembering a quite remarkable religious and civil rights leader who led an inspirational non-violent resistance to legalised racial prejudice.

Another world renowned Christian leader, Billy Graham, who is now well into his 90's, paid tribute to King, who he counted as a good friend.

"One night civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whom I was pleased to count a friend, gave an eloquent opening prayer at the service; he also came at my invitation to one of our Team retreats during the Crusade to help us understand the racial situation in America more fully," Graham wrote in his autobiography.

King himself credited Graham for using his fame as America’s most famous Christian figure of the 60’s and 70’s to assist in giving momentum to his civil rights protests.

King once said, "Had it not been for the ministry of my good friend Dr. Billy Graham, my work in the civil rights movement would not have been as successful as it has been."

During the civil rights movement, Dr. Graham preached: "Jesus was not a white man; He was not a black man. He came from that part of the world that touches Africa and Asia and Europe. Christianity is not a white man’s religion, and don’t let anybody ever tell you that it’s white or black. Christ belongs to all people; He belongs to the whole world."

Graham also recounted the moment he learned of King’s tragic death. Graham was touring Australia when he was told that King had been assassinated.

"I was almost in a state of shock,” said Graham. “Not only was I losing a friend through a vicious and senseless killing, but America was losing a social leader and a prophet, and I felt his death would be one of the greatest tragedies in our history."

Graham also shared how his thinking on racial equality changed very early on.

"I cannot point to any single event or intellectual crisis that changed my mind on racial equality. At Wheaton College, I made friends with black students, and I recall vividly one of them coming to my room one day and talking with deep conviction about America’s need for racial justice.

"Most influential, however, was my study of the Bible, leading me eventually to the conclusion that not only was racial inequality wrong but Christians especially should demonstrate love toward all peoples."

Scientists show how internet addiction alters the human brain

In a groundbreaking study using MRI scanners, a team of scientists have shown how Internet dependency will effect the same brain abnormalities that people addicted to alcohol, cocaine and cannabis have. It is hoped that the findings will throw light on other behavioural problems and lead to the development of new approaches to treatment.

There are an estimated 5 to 10 per cent of Internet users thought to be addicted. By addicted it is meant that they are unable to control their use. The majority of these are games players who play for so long they will go without food or drink for long periods, while their education, work and relationships will suffer as a result.

The team of Chinese researchers scanned the brains of 17 adolescents diagnosed with "Internet addiction disorder" and compared them with scans from 16 of their peers. The results displayed impairment of white matter fibres in the brain connecting regions involved in emotional processing, attention, decision making and cognitive control. This is very similar to the changes in white matter that have been observed in other forms of addiction to substances such as alcohol and cocaine.

"The findings suggest that white matter integrity may serve as a potential new treatment target in Internet addiction disorder," the scientists wrote in the online journal Public Library of Science One.

Henrietta Bowden Jones, a consultant psychiatrist at Imperial College, London, who is in charge of Britain's only NHS clinic for Internet addicts and problem gamblers, told The Independent that: "The majority of people we see with serious Internet addiction are gamers – people who spend long hours in roles in various games that cause them to disregard their obligations. I have seen people who stopped attending university lectures, failed their degrees or their marriages broke down because they were unable to emotionally connect with anything outside the game."

Bowden Jones added that while most people spend more time online than they did ten years, this is not evidence of addiction.

"It is different. We are doing it because modern life requires us to link up over the net in regard to jobs, professional and social connections – but not in an obsessive way. When someone comes to you and says they did not sleep last night because they spent 14 hours playing games, and it was the same the previous night, and they tried to stop but they couldn't – you know they have a problem. It does tend to be the gaming that catches people out."

However, Professor Michael Farrell, director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia, warned that the study did have its limitations.

"The limitations [of this study] are that it is not controlled, and it's possible that illicit drugs, alcohol or other caffeine-based stimulants might account for the changes. The specificity of 'Internet addiction disorder' is also questionable."

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day marked across the world

The 5th annual National Human Trafficking Awareness Day was marked across the globe on Wednesday by organisations keen to bring this massive problem to the general public’s attention.

There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today, with three out of four being women. Based on last year’s figures, it is believed that in 2012, 800,000 people will be sex-trafficked; with 80 percent of those being women while 50 percent will be children.

One group in particular were so passionate about bringing attention to the problem of human trafficking, they even climbed a mountain together. As part of an Operation Mobilization initiative, 46 women from all over the world tackled Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya.

Known as the Freedom Climbers, none of these women were professional climbers but participated because some of them had been victims of sex trafficking and other human injustices and were keen to become a voice for the voiceless. Their climb was symbolic of the long and harsh journey that trafficking victim’s face.

"I talk to friends here in the States, and they say, ‘What can we do with such a huge problem?’" said Cathey Anderson, leader of The Freedom Climb. "I tell them, ‘We can all make a difference for one woman or child at a time! We can see freedom for them!’"

"Freedom for one woman will not only change her future but all the generations after her!," Anderson insisted. "We know we will not end slavery and human trafficking with this climb. We can, however, bring hope and an opportunity for freedom to women and children who currently have none."

The Bible, Justin Bieber and Facebook

Pop music star Justin Bieber recently leapfrogged the Bible in popularity on Facebook. Bieber’s page was rated by AllFacebook.com as the third most engaged Facebook page, just head of The Bible in fourth place.

The list of “Facebook's Most Engaging Pages” is released ever week, and is determined by totaling the number of interactions – or the “likes” and comments – that fans post to each page over the course of seven days.

Bieber’s page garnered around 1.3 million interactions, just slightly ahead of The Bible, but he has some way to catch up to the page in the number one spot, Jesus Daily, which attracted nearly 4.7 million interactions in the last week. Second place belongs “Dios Es Bueno,” which means “God Is Good,” with about 2.1 million interactions.

While Bieber's Christian faith is well known, the teenage pop sensation recently created controversy when he informed V Magazine that he feels no need to attend church.

“I don’t think I’m religious. I am spiritual. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I believe that he put me in this position, and that I have to always give him the glory he deserves for putting me here. But I don’t consider myself religious,” Bieber said to V Magazine in an interview.

“A lot of people who are religious, I feel like they get lost. They go to church just to go to church. I am not trying to disrespect them at all, you know, whatever works for you; but for me, I focus more on praying and talking to Him. I don’t have to go to church. I haven’t been to church in a long time, but I know I have a relationship with Him. People can be like, 'If you don’t go to church, what do you mean, how are you a Christian?' But I am. I talk to Him, and that’s all.”

Bieber posted the link to the V Magazine interview on his Facebook account on Monday, and since then nearly 37,000 people “liked” it, while approximately 7,000 have commented on the post.

(Image from Online News Resource).