Apparently not.
Life is full of tough decisions. The longer I am in ministry the more I respect the will of people. If they decide within themselves that they will sin, not even God can stop them. It is a mystery to me that God can create individual DNA stamps for every living thing, can build a mountain and arrange the universe, but He cannot [rather chooses not] to prevent a person from making the wrong decision.
Last summer, when looking at a vision for Light Force for 2004-2005 it became clear that we were not being intentional enough with what we wanted our students to know. We want them to chose Christ but we also want to help them chose a path that is honoring to God. From my own perspective, I am not satisfied in having a bunch of students who know Christ as Savior but live each day like complete heathens.
So we set out this fall to be more intentional. The thought was, we don’t want to instruct our students how to live accidentally so let’s do it intentionally. We soon discovered that it was very hard to be intentional intentionally. It takes a lot of forethought and anticipation. In order to lead these emerging leaders, we have to be a step ahead of them.
As I enter into the Winter portion of the calendar I am aware that we need to turn the heat up a bit on being intentional. Our best students are making some poor decision for their lives. They are chasing skirts. They want what the world wants. Popularity, fame, and to be liked.
I aim to help them see for themselves that those things are pure vanity. They can still be liked, but they don’t need to pay that price to be “liked.” They can be popular, but unwilling to pay the price of admission to the elite.
This will be an unpopular study. It is tough meat to digest. But it is my desire and deep hope that these lessons on Christian virtues called, “Salty Students” are received and implemented.
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