Living In Fear Of
Part 1:
I just read a blog post suggesting that if we put the word “teenage” before any term, the second word automatically becomes negative. For example: “Teenage Driver.”
Also, teenage drama. Teenage hormones. Teenage choices.
This negative association, according to the blogger, is everywhere. We seem to be living in fear of teenagers. Then the writer of this post said, “I think there is something fundamentally wrong with how we think about teenagers.”
I agree.
And I wonder, if we spent time with teenagers, would that make us less fearful? I wonder, if we imagined the potential of teenagers as 1 Timothy 4:12 does – “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” – would we have less fear? I wonder, if we invested in helping the next generation succeed, would we have less fear of teenagers?
Familiarity overcomes fear. What are we living in fear of? Teenagers? Maybe we need some exposure therapy to help us confront this fear.
Part 2
I met with my small group last night. It was the meeting that saved my week. After an exhausting series of meetings, I did not want to meet again with my small group. I actually was afraid that I might not have enough energy.
We met anyway.
We are doing the Walk Like Jesus study and the group blew me away. We all want to be more like Jesus. We want this even though this desire kind of scares us. What will Jesus want from us? What changes can we expect to make? What happens when Jesus calls us to obey and we are not ready to obey?
Our group said, “Full steam ahead. We want to walk like Jesus and we will not live in fear.”
“Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6).
Kent Landhuis
Pastor of Teaching & Leadership
