Any book, film, or song is necessarily edited into its final form. Movies sometimes follow their credits by showing outtakes that didn’t make the final cut. A few short months ago this blog was a zygote, an edited outtake still being formed by the writing of, Grit & Joy: Help for Bewildered Families of Teens. If it bears any fruit among readers, please know that it began as a seed planted by the Lord. Since everything God begins ends at a joyful finish line, my face is beaming right now.
A few days ago, I posed this question to my adult son and a former student: “When someone fails to do what God wants of them, is that more likely because they can’t or they simply won’t?” We’ve been tugging on this thread so much that it’s no wonder that I’m up at 5:30 AM eager to capture what the Lord seemed to say during my Night School sleep.
Sound spooky? I hope not. Ebonie and I were captivated by understanding how brain-mapping discoveries fed our focus. Ask a neuroscientist friend to simply explain why our minds can solve problems while sleeping. It’s fascinating. As someone qualified for AARP, I’ve also enjoyed musing on this verse: “‘In the last days,’ God says, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams”’ (Acts 2:17, NLT; quoting from Joel 2:28).
Hungry to help floundering young people experience the resilient joy Scripture speaks of (e.g., Philippians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:16; James 1:2), we concluded that mere advice won’t cut it. This is consequential. If we adults don’t, can’t, or won’t show the way, there will be more and more faith carnage among teens. The metaphor we use calls everyone from aimless surface splash-parties beyond shallow snorkeling and into scuba-diving depths with Jesus. We can promise joy only to those who know Jesus. Bravely join him in life’s deep waters. As we hush our souls in moments both murky and mysterious, “deep calls to deep” (Psalm 42:7, ESV). There’s something about being surrounded by stillness that amplifies our ability to hear from God (Psalm 46:10). And Jesus identifies his own as those who recognize his voice enough to follow him (John 10:3-4, 16).
I plug tiny aids into my ears daily, so this question is familiar territory for me. How many of us can’t hear the Lord or simply won’t listen? This might be a chicken vs. egg dilemma. Jesus’ explanation to his disciples about why he uses parables suggests that the Kingdom truths he’s teaching aren’t going to be understood by the Won’t Crowd (Matthew 13:10-17). In the parable of the four soils, we learn the seed of God’s Word can land in hearts too hard, too shallow, or too distracted to bear fruit (Matthew 13:1-9). We take special aim at the common soil condition of being too busy (distracted) to hear and obey Jesus. If we linger among those who won’t very long, we’ll soon find ourselves among those who can’t.
The risen Christ commissioned his lone surviving apostle to write words aimed at seven Asian churches. They were brief letters, custom fit for correction and encouragement. Each one concluded with the EXACT same caution: “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22, NLT.) While Jesus walked the earth, he especially warned those whose inability to hear what God really wanted of them was because they were so certain what they knew was true. They had excused themselves from listening while defending their comfortable practices. The religious elite had cultivated grit that was misdirected and made them vulnerably deaf to Jesus’ teachings.
Jesus used parables to provoke. So, what’s His intent when He chose to give a specific name to a fictional character on only one story-telling occasion? In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus described the afterlife journey of “a rich man” and a nearby beggar he named “Lazarus.” His audience, full of Jewish religious leaders, would have appreciated that the end state of a good man’s death was to be carried into shared glory with Abraham, the father of their faith heritage. But don’t let the back-and-forth dialogue about Heaven and Hell distract from the point Jesus puts in Abraham’s mouth. This was a thunderclap response to the rich man’s request for an extra sign to open the ears of his still-living relatives: “Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead’” (v. 31, NLT).
Fast-forward to the weeks surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection. As they replayed their history with Jesus, it’s hard to imagine that a few of the apostles didn’t recall this parable. The proximity of their friend, Lazarus, being dramatically raised from the dead must have seemed more than coincidental to some. If they connected the dots, either in bemusement or wonderous admiration, they may have realized the religious powerbrokers did far worse than embody Jesus’ “won’t listen” characterization from the parable; they contrived for His execution.
The Jews’ hard-hearted response starkly contrasts with someone whose posture is ready to hear from and do what the Holy Spirit says. Jesus fine-tuned the ears of His closest followers for this responsiveness. We read about their exploits of obedience in Acts. Unschooled and ordinary people, they enjoyed listen-to-obey companionship with Jesus and were observably different (Acts 4:13). When adults model such rightly-aimed grit, our young people reckon more often—and more directly—with Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews characterized the Word of God as “…alive and powerful… sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires” (Hebrews 4:12, NLT). He makes this assertion on the heels of a passage decrying the possibility of not entering into God’s rest (where resilient joy is possible) because we do what the Israelites did in the wilderness, citing these words three times: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Hebrews 3:7, 15; 4:7, ESV) Far too often we can’t because we won’t.
Grit & Joy: Help for Bewildered Families of Teens commends four different habits to acquire so we can enjoy the nonstop presence of Jesus. They aim to upgrade friendships, engage Scripture, practice rest, and testify daily – all so that we adults can cultivate and model joyful faith with ears to hear Jesus always. We pray for adults everywhere to adopt this grit that won’t quit until faith bears fruit. Waves of joy can flow over teens, sweeping them up and into the deep with Jesus and us. Order your copy here.
Source: Splink
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