A Letter to My Younger Christian Self
Dear Eric,
at 12 years of age you’re going to be presented with the idea that you have a father in heaven that loves you, and you’re going to be given the opportunity to “ask this person into your heart”. You won’t do it, because you aren’t really sure what any of this means, and that’s okay right now. Some of your friends are responding to this “alter call” by walking to the front of this church at this really fun camp and you aren’t sure why. People are praying for them and for some reason you’re sitting in a pew and thinking about life’s meaning in a way that you never have before. Pretty soon your buddy Jordan is about to tap you on the arm and ask, “hey man, you want to just go back to the cabin and hang out for a while?” It will be like the breath of fresh air you need, because you aren’t ready to figure all of this out right now. You aren’t even sure what any of this means.
Fast forward 2 years…
You’re 14 and you invited your friend Marcus to come to Soccer Camp this year. “Commitment night” came again. You felt these same feelings but now it’s different. You understand what you’re getting into. Marcus does too. You both have a discussion that changes the path of your life and significantly influences the very critical years to come. You both ask a counselor to pray for you. You leave camp this year feeling whole. You have a friend that you can count on when you go back home. You have set goals and you’ve essentially decided how exactly you want to live your life.
Eric, this is where I need your attention. You will do a lot of learning in the next few years. You’re going to continue to develop physically and mentally and your faith in Christ will continue to grow. You need to be careful of false teachings and you need to be careful of common trends that could catch you steering things in the wrong direction and halt any progress you’ve made in your faith.
When you’re 16 you will start considering what the heck you want to do with your life. This is supposed to be exciting but for some reason, it’s a little overwhelming. You’ve gone to camps, youth group, church, and now you’ve gone to Florida with “Youth For Christ” for their annual spring break trip. You’re confused. You think you need to go on mission trips or be a pastor to satisfy this “calling” that everybody keeps talking about. You don’t feel right if you do anything that isn’t involved with the church directly. Remember what I said earlier about hearing a false message?
Listen carefully….
You aren’t a useless Christian if you don’t become a pastor. You aren’t a useless Christian if you don’t give away everything you own, and you certainly aren’t useless if you don’t move to Africa and save starving children. It’s okay to go to a community college. Do you really think that you’re favored in God’s eyes if instead you go to a Christian institution to further your education? Don’t forget that the 12 men Jesus specifically chose to follow him were men of ordinary means. The disciples were fisherman and laborers with a tax collector thrown in there. Did they go to some prestigious school to earn credit towards their education that ultimately gave them a greater standing with God? No, they did not. Remember Eric, the people that Jesus chose to be his personal followers while here on Earth were hard-working and courageous men that sometimes had doubts, impulsive issues, and lacked patience and faith in tough circumstances.
They were people just like you. I know you’re going to hear more speeches and sermons on why you should give up what you’re doing to pursue something more meaningful. You will come across a young man that tells you he was on a path to take over his dad’s business but he quit school and became a missionary. He will use his story as an example for “stepping out of your comfort zone” as a Christian. In the same message he will rile you up by exclaiming that you need to be uncomfortable and you need to re-evaluate your life course. What he doesn’t know is what God is telling you. He doesn’t know that God is telling you to be present where you are. He’s refusing to recognize that God’s plan for everyone is different, and he obviously doesn’t know God’s own desires for your life.
Eric, what you will come to realize is that a lot of young Christ-followers will speak to you as if you need to match the energy that they present about a specific passion they have. They’ll often do so without regard to the passion that maybe God has planted within you. They might even make you feel like what you are accomplishing is insignificant compared to this “calling” that has been placed on their life. Respond gracefully to these individuals and know that they are simply expressing the passions that they feel they’ve been chosen for. Often times these interactions can (and will) lead to great discussions.
And when you’re feeling discouraged and you reach those moments that have you drawing comparisons to your fellow believers, remind yourself that the feet and the hands were created to do different things but they must remain attached to the same body in order to be utilized to their potential.
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