lessons from the littles

In backwards mirror of loving people I made a start on my thoughts around Loving God:Loving people. I wasn't planning to revisit this topic again, preferring to share some thoughts (as suggested in my last post) on 'magnify'. Whilst those thoughts are fine, maybe even good, they have been dwarfed by my reflections during the past 24 hours.

I had the privilege of being in with the Christian Centre (CCN) 'Elevators' yesterday morning (11-13's). In preparing, given they have been experiencing more of God's presence the last few weeks, I felt to talk with them about the absolute necessity of loving people if we are to & truly do love God. The core scripture was...

The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both - 1 John 4:21 (Message)

 ...& we had a few thoughts to guide a conversation rather than have a teaching time. I thought I'd ceased to be surprised when kids show a level of knowledge & understanding they're 'not supposed to' but when one of them started talking about 'knowing' during the first service I was truly gob-smacked. The reality is that at that point the leaders & kids were all on the same page!!

I had spent time the previous evening with an Elevate leader & we'd gotten to talking - during this time we'd discussed the need for us to know & be known (to love & be loved), I think I'd even gone as far as to say that when I looked round CCN staff at those I didn't yet love, it tended to be those I didn't yet know.

Q - is there anybody you need to get to know better?

The other outstanding point that came out yesterday was that we all have defaults. Kids of 11 & 12 don't know or use that word, but they are there for sure. In both of our morning's conversations, on multiple occasions, we heard... I'm not used to, people will think I'm strange...

Q - got any lousy defaults that need resetting?

Towards the end of our (first service) time, we were treated to another gem. To ensure we all understood what we were getting into, we made a series of statements that got progressively more 'uncomfortable' to embrace. As we were getting to the meat of it, one boy raised his hand. The way we'd set things up, this was supposed to mean he disagreed with the statement. He, however, had a question - am I raising my hand if I disagree or can I do it if I dislike what that statement means!

Within a John Piper tweet recently was this phrase "Come on the lookout for God, leave on the lookout for people". To be fair, he was talking in the context of Sunday church hospitality, I'm pretty sure it extends beyond those front doors when we leave.

I made a commitment along with the kids yesterday that this week, for a defined person, in a defined way, I was going to change my defaults & love them better. That rubber's about to hit the road & I suspect before the week's out I'll have some 'dislike' moments. The cause is worth the cost - care to join us?

Jonathan

PS to the Dad of the boy who rocked me to my core yesterday (you know who you are). You should be extremely proud of yourself as a Dad & your son as an emerging young man of God - love you man