robsingleton.net

27 June 2007

Xtreme Spirituality – Part 6?

Guest Blogger: Art TerKeurst

A few years back I got a real wake up call from two boys with a third world country faith. Lysa and I (Art) were introduced to a group of Liberian orphans here in the states singing together in a boy’s choir. These boy’s were traveling and singing for primarily two reasons. They were singing to educate their audience on the needs of the other 5000 orphaned boys and girls within their orphanage, and because they too were orphans and needed a mom and dad. Well two of those boy’s are now TerKeursts. We adopted them. Early on I looked at their adoption as a way in which I could teach the “boy I never had” with all of the life lessons welled up inside. Yeah right! It was the two orphans from Liberia teaching me about life. One of the greatest lessons I have learned from these two young men is a whole new perspective on what often makes the rest of us spiritually passive.

You see Mark and Jackson weren’t anything close to passive in the way they viewed life. I would have never entertained the thought of their faith as passive or apathetic, or even the least bit neutral had I really known them in the orphanage (or even in the first months within our home). It wasn’t long; however, before the spiritually passive American way began to creep its way into the boy’s everyday life.

You see we do things a little different here in the states when compared to your typical orphanage. A day in the life of a Liberian orphan consisted of two things. First and foremost, ‘survive another day,’ and second, somewhere along the line ‘get your one bowl of rice with a half dollar sized piece of chicken on top.’ Faith and a daily walk with God was “real”, so real that it was all you knew. On the contrary here in Anywhere U.S.A., we introduced a pantry full of food, sturdy brick homes with security systems, fast food on every corner for the times you aren’t standing near the pantry, restaurants with the all you can eat concept and, like a bucket of ice cold water, it hit them, we aren’t in Kansas anymore! My boy’s began to set back and all of a sudden “Life is good!”

The honeymoon period, as they say, has ended …

and now, my wife and I spent the first couple years helping them readjust (read here, believe) that all of this is for real and not going to come to an end at any moment. But we’re also battling an entirely unexpected opponent, apathy. That’s right, can you believe it? How in the world could these kids ever become apathetic. They’ve basically died and gone to heaven. What could be better?

Well, here’s the incredible lesson God taught us and I hope you, the reader will see it as well. The reason my boys started battling indifference about nearly everything, even spiritual matters was because they slowly began to realize that nothing here in the states is truly a matter of life and death. Here in the

US, one could almost believe we’ll live forever. We’re probably just a few easy inventions away from becoming our own gods. For those of us who have grown up in this country we can’t even recall when the apathy set in, for my two boys, on the other hand, it happened so fast you could almost see it! To help you understand how much easier they were as victims to this plague of indifference than you and I, let me relate a short story to help you see their world a little more clearly. Around that same time (a couple years ago) I took the boys the other day to see Spiderman II. They sat there awestruck¾hardly said two words throughout the entire movie. On the way home it was pretty quite in the car until

Jackson spoke. ‘Da?’ this is their word for ‘dad’¾ they talk fast, and putting that extra ‘d’ on the end of the word just takes far too much time. ‘Where does he live?’

Jackson asked. ‘Yeah, where does he live,’ Mark chimed in. ‘Where does who live,’ I asked. ‘Spider Man? Where does Spiderman live? I’ve never seen him, so it must not be

Charlotte.’ ASIDE: Incase you’re wondering, the answer is ‘YES,’ of course I asked them if they were serious, but the truth is, I really didn’t have to. I knew my boys well enough to understand from the tone in their voices that they were very serious. The movie seemed real to them, the special affects were real affects as far as they were concerned, and now (as I could see now where this all was headed) they were looking into the possibility of meeting their web spinning hero. Well, we got past this (although, in the end they may have simply been trying to pacify me) and they no longer seem to believe that Spiderman is actually real. But again, I realized through this that these 14 and 15 year old boys are coming from a culture where their innocence and wide-eyed way of viewing the world is the equivalent of an average 6 year old. So, when they run head on into a culture of pessimism, sarcasm, high tech, make believe, their common sense does not take years to short circuit.

It takes months!

Now they realize that they truly have not died and gone to heaven, but rather they have arrived in a post Christian, low morality, ethics absent, me first culture that very quickly comes up short as the ultimate utopia it purports to be. And, as the old saying goes, you certainly can’t beat them, so they’ve decided to join them.

Starting to see it?

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6 Comments currently posted.

calculatorgames says:

Wow, it does show how us Americans take things for granted…thank you for your input and eye opening experience sharing!

Mark Cianciosa says:

Rob/Art; How right you are … as I have so often said … the adoption has blessed us and opened our eyes to the LORD … and we have blessed our son with stuff! I know who got the better deal …

Christopher Wall says:

Art, thanks for your “Guest Appearance” here on Pastor Rob’s blog, what a great post.

I sent an e-mail with a link to this Blog Post to a lot of folks this AM encouraging them to take a few minutes out of their self imposed busy lives to take a look.

This is such a great example of how as a culture we have just “settled” into our daily routines or have regular expectations that for so many in this world they can not even comprehend these things as even a possible dream because they do not even know some of the things we take for granted even exist.

What we take for granted in this Country and expect are mostly material things and those material things distract from and compete for our time and our relationship with God……

Dee Langley says:

You know as a mom I raise my children to be polite, loving, caring, generous, studious, etc . . .etc. But as we have been thinking of adoption we of course thought how great it would be to better the life of that child. What an eye opening experience to “see” even if through words how sedintary we are in our faith! Even myself! Seeing the “GIMME GIMME GIMME” mentality. As I have watched our kids this week at VBS to know that we have to do all this just to get their attention! How we must seem to God! I think of the Chinese pastor that came to SB just two years ago. He cried thinking of how all of our stuff gets in our way with God! How do I teach ACTIVE faith not only to my kids but to me as well??? I am striving for it but will I ever feel like I am active in my faith?

Kelly says:

What a great insight to how Americanized we truly are. We are so desensitized to our way of life. It reminds me of when you place a frog in water and then slowly turn up the heat. As you know the frog will eventually boil to death. This reminds me how important it is to continually PRAY for the Lord’s perspective for our lives …not our own. How we must be purposeful about actively persuing HIM and looking for HIS best for our lives. Wow, we live in a world FULL of distractions! In many ways it is a privledge to live in this country, however we have to be so careful to not let all the good distract us fromGod’s best for us and truly why we are here….to have a relationship with the Almighty and glorify Him with our lives. This post reminds me of Rob’s series on Good to Great. Loved that series! Thanks Art for the insight!

Kate says:

Thank you Art. I still get amazed at myself how apathetic I can get spritiualy. Even right after times when God makes himself so very real to me. Right now I am in Guatemala visiting with my sisters family and the ministry they have down here. (they minister to people in the hospital and have a house where long term patients and their familes can stay, since the only other option usually is the street). and yeah, this is one of those time where God is making himself very clear to me. Seeing the family work every day with heartbreak all around them… there is no apathy here, they care and they are living out their faith in an effective way. And I am so glad to be able to be a part of it for this short time.