Our youth groups (both senior and junior high) began GJM last night. Not many friends came. Try moderating a discussion on the existence of a higher power between a group of Christians. I didn't think it would riveting, anyway. But some intriguing things came to light for me as a leader of four ninth and tenth grade girls.
The first discussion question of the evening was "Which cast character did you identify the most?" Well, my girls didn't exactly answer my question. But what they did say was that they found what a girl named A-Rae said to be the most interesting. A-Rae could best be described as a new ager. She created her own religion because she wasn't satisfied with what she saw or learned at church. Her god is a voluptuous female who bakes cookies. A-Rae does not believe in hell. In her words, "this world is hell enough." If you don't believe while you're alive, you are reincarnated and come back to earth until you finally believe and get to go to heaven.
I know my girls didn't say they identified most strongly with A-Rae. But she was their takeaway. She intrigued them, in a positive way. They did not condemn her or think her beliefs were offensive or even odd. She struck a chord with them. And I can understand why.
Here is what I saw in A-Rae: I saw a girl who desperately wants to reconcile despair and pain with redemption. For many, many people, this life seems more like a mini hell than anything else. How can we compound their pain by telling them that their eternities will be even worse if they don't conform to one way of belief? Doesn't it seem unfair? Isn't that cruel? I think my girls intuitively understood the reason behind A-Rae's belief system and, perhaps without even meaning to, revealed their own questions about this part of Christianity.
The Holy Spirit has a way of bringing specific parts of Scripture in very timely ways. For weeks and weeks now I have been rereading the book of 1 John. This is what came to mind during our discussion about A-Rae at GJM: "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God...God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment..." (1 John 4:15-18)
And by this I realized that we have some fears to confront amongst my girls. Because when the Bible says there is one way to Heaven, and that is through Christ, and someone you know dies who did not belief in Jesus, you're left in a bit of a conundrum. Do I still believe that there is one way to Heaven and accept the pain that that knowledge is bringing me right now? Or am I going to create my own religion of infinite chances? Fear. Reconciling a God of love with justice. Seeing the beauty and majesty of those two characteristics meeting, instead of fearing their collision. I really think that GJM is going to be a good journey for our kids.
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