Would you consider taking a class on bomb defusing interesting? It could teach you about red wires, blue wires, digital timers, ignition methods and the best way to assess what strategies to employ to defuse these bombs. Maybe some people would be interested in that for a few minutes, but most would probably tap out after an hour into it. Now, how would your interest in learning how to defuse bombs change if you knew that after the class you would actually have to defuse a bomb? If you are like me, you would record the whole thing, take notes, pictures and ask a billion questions to the teacher to make sure you were ready.
I bring up this unoriginal illustration (thank you Greg Stier) to show how our postures change when we actually intend to apply the truth to our lives. We can sit through sermons like “5 Ways to Increase your Prayer Ministry” or “How to Daily Depend on the Power of the Holy Spirit” with either a passive or active posture. Obviously, when we are required to use the knowledge in our own lives, we have to internalize it, process it and see if we can replicate with some accuracy what we’ve been taught.
I’ve taught lessons on apologetics and evangelism many times. “This is how you can start a conversation…” “These are some arguments for the existence of God…” “This is why the presence of evil and suffering in the world actually argue for a God rather than against a God…” Because the teens are human and hungry and anxious to play dodgeball, I’m usually met with differing responses ranging from mild interest to yawns. Usually, the retention is not high and so I settle for the thought that, “At least they can remember that there are answers to difficult questions.”
That is why I played a trick on the teen guys last night in Battalion. I told the guys that not only were they going to learn about the reasons for why we believe as Christians, but that they were going to have to defend themselves and persuade a guest atheist the following week. All of the sudden, guys were taking notes. They were committing themselves to watching debates online and learning as much as they could. (Not sure how the follow through of that played out, but at least the drive was there). Meanwhile, I welcomed a friend of mine to come in to the youth group who is actually a Christian, but would play the role of an atheist without the guys realizing this.
He presented his false views and made some hard cases against the existence of God, the problem of evil and suffering and shot down some of their more half-baked defenses. There were some victories on the part of the young guys and some crashes and burns, but they were trying their best to get this guy, who they believed to be an atheist, to at least reconsider Christ.
It makes me think of Jesus’ words in the book of Luke, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it! (Luke 11:28)” We can too often pat ourselves on the back for listening to a sermon, reading a book or article and then intellectually nodding in agreement. Jesus puts the emphasis on not just hearing it but obeying it. I realize more and more that obedience even starts in the listening. What is our posture in reading the Bible, listening to a sermon, receiving a criticism or rebuke from someone else? Are we immediately defensive, not allowing anything that would threaten to alter our status quo to enter? Or are we in a posture of expectation that God may want us to hear something and then obey it. Do we merely filter messages and statements through a true or false standard or do we also receive the truth and say, “Thank you God for showing me this. How should I respond?”
At the end of the exchange with my fake atheist and the teen guys, I revealed to them who he actually was. There was the expected, “I knew it!” and the “What?!?” but all of the guys had to ask themselves if they were truly ready to share their faith with someone next time. Some of them proved their heart and their willingness but demonstrated a lack of readiness. They would not realize this unless they actually had put their learning and beliefs into practice. May we live in a posture of divine expectation rather than passivity. The world is not a classroom and the truths of his word are not theoretical but monumental. May we be in a posture of humility and readiness to obey whatever God has for us to receive.