Jesus Christ Blog

What follows is a film that perfectly portrays that point. We get to know, from their perspective, what four high school students on Saturday detention are going through, at the same time we find out how far away the adult authority — the teacher in charge of them — is from having even a clue. They are completely immune to his attempts to beat any sense into their thick skulls. There is a total disconnect between adult and child.

I was reminded of this quote again when I dug it up to use as an opening for a talk I gave this weekend at a Young Life fundraiser in Rochester, Minnesota (at the invitation of some of our Fischtank community, by the way). It turned out to be the perfect choice, because what transpired before my speech were personal testimonies from kids and parents who had learned this truth in the trenches of their lives. We heard from youth workers and parents who, instead of judging and condemning kids, came along side them and loved them, even when that meant bailing them out of jail or driving them home drunk from a party; and we heard from kids, what this kind of love did for them.

It occurs to me that this truth is not just for adults and kids; it’s universal. You really don’t have a right to speak into anybody’s life until you know what he or she is going through; and you don’t know what someone is going through unless you listen without passing judgment.

It was a great talk, I must say, but what made it hard was the realization of how much I had failed to do this with my own kids, because I made my reputation more important than knowing them. You see, I didn’t want to hear it if I wasn’t going to like it, and since my kids knew me and loved me so much, they just didn’t tell me. They spared me the truth over the fantasy I wanted to believe, and I lost track of them in the process. Fortunately for them, they had a mother who listened without passing judgment, and consequently they know of our love and acceptance through her. But I missed out big time.

I’ve got another shot at this with Chandler who is 8, but my other two are adults now at 28 and 26. Do you think I still have time?

The difference is a difference in perspective. To me, the audience came up, because that’s where I was. People came and joined me up on the stage. But to Mark, as part of the audience, it was the night the audience went down. He had gotten up with everyone else and gone down front.

So where am I going with this, you are wondering?

I believe it is a more humble and accurate telling of the story as the audience going down. To only one person, it came up. To everyone else, it came down, and if I am telling the story to anyone but myself, and I want to speak from his or her perspective, “down” is the right word.

Who cares about my perspective when 75 people saw it the other way? This is what I learned from revisiting this story and it confirms a bigger truth: The older we get, the more humble we will become.

I used to think that the really spiritual people who walked with God for years became spiritual giants — their extreme holiness putting them in a class apart from everyone else. I have come to see that the opposite is actually true. The more you walk with God, the more aware you become of your own sin and of your connection to a fallen humanity. This makes you more like others not more unlike them.

So don’t try and be like a spiritual giant, because one doesn’t exist. There are just all those for whom Christ died. That’s the audience we’re in; and when Christ shows up, believe me, we’re all going down front.

However, the fires are not the only reason this is short. What I had in my mind for today is a one sentence though, anyway, but it is packed with enough to keep you thinking for a while. The comment grew out of something I wrote in a reply to one of our reader’s comments from yesterday’s Catch about spiritual giants.

Personally I think the whole concept of a spiritual giant should be buried in the bottom of the sea. I don’t even know if there is such a thing as a spiritual giant, but one thing I do know, if you were one, you wouldn’t know it. And that’s all one needs to know.

When you think of us here on the left coast, or hear about the fires in the news, pray for all the people who are losing their homes. I can’t even imagine what that would be like.

“If someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.” (Galatians 6:1) (The closest thing I know in scripture to mentioning a spiritual giant, and look out, because they are just as susceptible as the next guy to a fall.)