Every Sunday evening at 7 PM a group of us from St. James meet at the Vintage Coffee Bistro in Lambertville, MI. If you live in the area feel free to stop by and join us, the Bistro is located in the Kroger Plaza at Sterns and Secor. We call it Coffee Talk and it is a discussion on what God is doing in our lives. We discuss a variety of topics as they come up and there is no agenda, one thing just leads to another. The conversations are very interesting and enlightening. So in Coffee Talk Redux I will use this as an opportunity to share with you some further reflection on a particular topic that came up the previous night.
So last night I mentioned my experience from last week of teaching science and engineering to four classes of fifth graders. What a wonderful experience! These kids were truly amazing and this experience simply reinforced why I love to teach. Perhaps more college professors need to step out of their ivy halls and enter a classroom of fifth graders. These young people were polite, friendly, well-behaved, and thirsting for knowledge. I would venture to say that from this group of maybe one hundred fifth graders that I saw during the day that I was asked more questions than I have heard in my 23 years of teaching engineering to college students.
So how do we keep that fire alive that we see in fifth graders? Why does education seem boring as people get older? Why do people stop asking questions? Does life just become routine and repetitive as people get older? Think about your excitement for your faith, is it that of the fifth grader or has it become just another routine that you give in an hour on Sunday? Are you eager to ask questions and learn more and seek out all there is to know and to learn about God? Maybe if we approach our faith like a child these mysteries of our faith will be seen in a new light. In Matthew 11:25 Jesus says of this that “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” In some ways learning something requires a bit of humility, being able to accept the fact that perhaps you do not know everything and recognizing in the teacher someone who can take you to places that you cannot get to on your own. Being able to ask that question without any fear of embarassment knowing that everyone else is asking that same question in their own minds. We want to be saved but maybe there is more to being justified by just saying yes to God’s grace through faith. Maybe God wants us to keep learning and growing in our faith and to keep asking those questions and teaching others. Conversion is a process and not something that happens at the snap of a finger, we have to be like those fifth graders eager to learn. Again Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:3-4, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” and in Mark 10:15 Jesus says, ” I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
At times we may find ourselves in a state where perhaps we have seemed to have lost our prayer and devotional life. This can lead us into a spiritual sadness that is perhaps driven by the distractions and confusion of our wealth and worldly possessions that shifts our focus away from our amazing God. We begin to believe that everything we have is a result of our own efforts and that it has nothing to do with our relationship with God, hence prayer no longer seems necessary and as Jesus warns us in Matthew 6:21and 24, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. No one can serve two masters … You cannot serve both God and money.” All of this is known as acedia or sloth a laxity in our spiritual life wherein we no longer receive any joy from our relationship with God and the danger is that this is also one of the seven Capital Sins which can promote or lead one into a sinful lifestyle.
To correct this one needs a state of vigilance in their prayer and devotional life and a change of heart for as said in Psalms 27:8, “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, LORD, I will seek.” Like those fifth graders we have to keep questioning, and seeking, and thirsting to learn more about the mysteries of our faith and continue to talk to God so that in this way we may gain the knowledge about the Father and His Son and so obtain eternal life for as Jesus teaches us in John 17:3 and 26, “that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” This “priestly” prayer of Jesus given in John 17 before “his hour” is a prayer for all of us and for all time and this prayer embraces everything that was revealed by God through His Son Jesus Christ about our salvation. Christ is our high priest who prays for us and He is the one who also prays in us and He is the God who hears our prayer. And just like those fifth graders told me last week, “now that is amazing!”
© Ronald L. Fournier – 2008
