Rediscovering a Childlike Faith

Repeated processes shape the soul; this has been core to discipleship for millennia.

It was inevitable that years of Internet life would shape our souls whether we wanted it to or not. As a friend said, “It’s not that we’ve done something wrong; something wrong has been done to us.”

Discipleship to the Internet has shaped your soul to expect immediate answers to your questions; given you a deep suspicion to all forms of mystery; fueled your addiction that the “practical” is the real stuff of life; while eroding your confidence that you can know anything for certain because yesterday’s facts are savagely overturned. We are all worn out from this way of operating in the world because there is no life in it.

There is no life in it.

No wonder people have a hard time experiencing Jesus.

If you tell a child, “We’re going to the beach tomorrow!” their immediate response is not, “Yeah ... maybe. We’ll see. Did you even check the weather?” That’s the adult response. “Maybe we shouldn’t—did you see online that there is a sewage issue on the coast this year?” A child simply receives the promise of adventure, and they will have the joy of both a day full of anticipation of going to the beach as well as going to the beach itself! Double the joy! Because children don’t operate from a posture of weary skepticism, cynicism, and “I’ll believe it when you show me the science.”

Maybe remembering this will help us grasp what Jesus was trying to address when he said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).

Never enter are pretty strong words. Never?

Jesus often acts like a firefighter rescuing victims trapped in a burning building. He says extremely serious things because the situation is extremely serious.

Here he is trying to rescue us from the barrier to experiencing God and his Kingdom that has been formed within us by the time we reach adulthood—the weary, skeptical cynicism ... the guardedness. Jesus says, “I have so much to show you, so much to offer you. But you’re going to have to let go the cynicism, skepticism, and pragmatism. Open yourself up to belief again. Simply trust, like a child does.”

You can do this, friends; you really can.

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