Where the Rubber Meets the Road

A kid took his life yesterday.

And our kids knew him. So into the mixture of cultural affection, peer relationships and their on again off again relationship with God they throw this - death.

For some, narcissim demands that they wail about how this is going to affect their world. "Who am I going to prom with? How will I ever make it through 5th period?" Then there are those who hold back, wondering. "Is this what it comes to? You are here and then... gone?"

A kid took his life yesterday.

The picture I saw was of him in his ROTC uniform. It looked good on him, and someone said he was looking to go to Annapolis someday. But that affirmation - that goal didn't provide a reason to stay and see how life would work its self out.

A kid took his life yesterday.

Apparently he was involved in a church to some extent. No doubt the folks there are trying to see what could have possibly gone so wrong in his life without their notice. Someone's probably beating themselves up over it right now. Should they?

I don't know. Suicide is a personal act. We do a lot of stupid things in our lives, make poor choices, bad decisions, but almost every one don't irreparably harm. But suicide ends any do-overs.

He might not have been able to stop. But our kids should know how to cope with the hard times that befall us all. They should be able to see Jesus working in them through hardship - through pain. Gathering a bunch of people and telling them about Jesus is great. Seeing them make decisions to trust Him is awesome.

But if that's all you do - if you never spend the time in relationship to disciple them - then what you might call evangelism, I call spiritual abuse. You wouldn't send a toddler to play in traffic. But sending kids out into a hard world without training them the truth of how all things work together for good...

isn't good.

A kid killed himself yesterday. I pray for his family. I pray for his friends. I pray that people like me will do a better job training and modeling others in discipling babes in Christ.

Grace!

David