My daughter and I were talking the other day about following the rules and obeying authority, etc. She made an interesting comment. "I really try to stay in line, but I just can't!" Now she is 19, and I don't know a lot of 19 year olds that stand in line well. But I have been challenged by the fact, I have said the same thing most of my life. I really want to obey the rules! I like the sense of security you get when you obey the rules. The rules are also a way to make everyone around you more predictable. (Do you see where this is going?) Without rules, life is chaos. I know some of those families without rules and children need boundaries in order to feel safe, but when do you start to loosen the boundaries or even take down the fences? (Yes, this is a very metaphorical blog today.) Is it really a bad thing if we can't stand in line? As Christians is seems like a very bad thing, but I would challenge that. (You saw that coming didn't you?)
How do we look at much of anything the early church did in the book of Acts and not see a bunch of people who simply would not stand in line anymore? My oldest is in 3rd year Japanese and Chinese as a freshman in college. She got there by going into the professors and discussing in those languages why she was confident she could do it. My other daughter is stepping out of band at her school because she wants to do more with her music and feels too confined by the school politics she keeps experiencing. As a junior she is ready for private lessons with a college prof to take her piano to the next level. She started with him last year and wants to do even more with music in the community the same way my husband does. My oldest son is really going after his soccer dreams and doing the work to get better by joining an off season club and not spreading himself too thin. My youngest is taking online math classes because the accelerated math classes at school simply do not challenge him. He has asked us several times if he can take something online that he can do as fast as he wants. (I think we are going to start calling him Dash.) Based on his current plan, he will start high school next year in pre-calc. These kids are just terrible at standing in line!
But I could not be prouder. Please see that it's really not about their accomplishments, but rather their desire to go for it! They do not see the limitations of the systems around them, instead they believe there is more and they can do it and we will help them. I was an overachiever in school as a kid too, but I know it was motivated by a need for validation and attention. Life at home was broken and I found all my value in what I could accomplish. I know what that looks like and how it feels. I don't think that is what is happening here, but I suppose time will tell.
But in the meantime, I want to be their biggest cheerleader and allow them to inspire me to do the same. I am in grad school at a time when they are either in or going to college. That seems a little silly and not all together financially responsible. But I love it! I've wanted to do it for so many years and God finally allowed for it, even though the money is always hard. It's actually fun to study together!
Sadly in my experience of Christianity, there has been a fair amount of shaming associated with getting out of line. My kids do not see being a Christian as an automatic "I can trust this person" badge. That saddens me, but I think it's an honest reality. Being part of a church does not mean we are going to heaven. Trusting Jesus means we will be with Him in eternity. Our salvation is not in the systems of man, but rather in our relationship with Jesus and He may have been the worst person in history at standing in line. Amen!
