A Six-Year-Old's Deep Theological Questions

My oldest daughter has been in a phase lately where incidents in everyday life prompt her to ask questions about God and faith which, for a six-year-old, strike me as very deep indeed. As we were getting ready for church this morning, she again asked me about prayer - except this time, it was for herself, since she has been ill for the past two days.

MB: "Daddy, is it okay to pray for myself to get better?"

Me: "Sure it is. People pray for themselves all the time."

MB: "So it's okay to ask Miss C. [the children's priest at our church] to pray for me when she asks today?"

Me: "Sure."

MB: "What do people pray for?"

Me: "Well, they pray to get better if they've been sick, or they pray for a job if they don't have one, or they pray for a good friend or a member of their family. They pray for anything."

MB: "Did you pray to God when you went to Applebees and got sick [with food poisoning]?"

Me: [holding back laughter] "Oh, yes, I sure did."

This episode is a lesson on two fronts - one, children always ask great questions, and two, they never forget anything. Applebees was four years ago!!

Finding God in the Midst of Your Vacation

Ladies and gentlemen, it's the trip that keeps on giving -- except this time, I got big indications that God has been making the journey with us (as He does all the time on all of our journeys).

We pulled away from the Gulf of Mexico this morning at about 8:00 for the long drive back to Northern Virginia, and after a great breakfast at a diner that was one of A's family traditions when she was growing up we headed north. The first several hours were very uneventful -- a drive to Montgomery, an impromptu picnic lunch at a nice park in one of the city's historic sections, and a quick visit to pay our respects at the grave of Hank Williams. We then continued north towards Atlanta and our ultimate destination for the day, Greenville, South Carolina.

Things were going great until we got within a stone's throw of downtown Atlanta, and the engine overheated. Remarkably, I stayed very calm; this is normally something that would really have set me on edge, especially seeing as how it happened in the midst of a traffic jam in one of the busiest interstate highways in the southeastern United States. A. even managed to keep her humor; she handed me the camera and said, "Take a picture; it's part of our vacation!" So I now have a great shot of the hood of our car sitting up, with the beautiful skyline of downtown Atlanta in the background.

At this point, it was then that I started to see God in everything that happened from then on. In order:

- A member of the Georgia Department of Transportation emergency response unit pulled up literally three minutes after we pulled off the road and just as I was calling Triple-A to find out if we needed any help. Because Triple-A drivers cannot accept children in car seats (because of seatbelt laws) we were going to have to try and find a taxi that would come to the midst of a traffic tie-up on I-85 to drive A. and the girls to a hotel. The DOT driver pointed out that about 200 yards ahead of us, a cab driver was sitting on the side of the road out of gas -- and then he drove ahead to make a deal with him that he would provide gas for his cab if he would in turn take A. and the girls to a hotel.

- The cab driver was from the very area in Atlanta to which the car was going to be towed, and he knew exactly how to get there and which hotel to recommend for us -- and after panicking because we had no cash on hand to pay him, it turned out that he was one of the cabs that took credit and debit cards.

- The Goodyear shop that we selected for the repairs (since they're open on Sundays) was already closed when I called to advise them that we were going to be brining it in shortly. However, the manager on duty volunteered to not only wait until the car and I were both there safely (which took nearly two hours after first pulling off the road), but also to drive me to the hotel near the shop where A. and the kids had already registered.

- Numerous random folks, from sheriff's department officers to crews painting and repaving the interstate, kept stopping by to see how they could help (and to offer their own diagnosis of what was wrong).

- Most remarkably, when the Triple-A driver finally arrived, I was greeted with this large quote posted on the back window of his truck: "God will make a way somehow."

He did indeed; now we'll see if he can hang out with the mechanics for a while in the morning to get the car back on the highway.

And for my friends who are members of the clergy, there MUST be a sermon in here somewhere...

An Order of Good News With a Side of a Parable

Our family was thankfully the recipient of some really good news today, as A. received a job offer from a company with whom she had recently had a series of interviews. They were very impressed with her background and education, and she was equally impressed with the quality of the employees and management at the company -- and especially with the fact that it was the first company she had seen in a while (as either an employee or an applicant) where everyone genuinely seemed happy to be there and actually enjoyed their work. Obviously, we don't know what the future holds for us, particularly with my ongoing search, but this is great news and a great move in the right direction. Now she gets to enjoy just a few more weeks of vacation before she heads back to work -- and two more weeks before our youngest begins her foray into the world of daycare.
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I also had one of those parable moments today, where an incident that I witness suddenly hits me with a different, deeper meaning. MB has been going through an extremely trying phase lately -- trying for her parents. I'm convinced that she skipped over the terrible twos and held out until recently, and we've been feeling the full effect of her tantrums, mood swings, and preschool testiness. Sadly, one of the victims of her mood has been her little stuffed doggy, who has been her closest companion since she was old enough to grab a toy. In the past few days, every time she gets angry about something, doggy is the first one to feel her wrath -- usually being thrown to the floor while MB angrily shouts, "I don't want doggy!"

She did it again today, and not long afterwards her grandmother said, "Well, doggy will still be there when you need him." That was when the parable moment hit: how often do we ignore or throw God aside while we try to do things on our own, or in a way that we shouldn't be doing them, and yet when we get tired, frustrated, or realize that we can't do things on our own, God will still be there when we need Him?

It's a simple message, but one which we often forget. Once again, a little child shall lead them -- even if the "them" is nothing more than our thoughts and our comprehension of the deeper things going on in our lives.

Wondering About the Theology of Children

Following my recent post about five things I "dig" about Jesus, Sandie posted her own list of five on her blog. All were good, but of the five the last one jumped out at me the most: "The way Jesus called the children to him. I think he knew they would understand before the adults did." This really got me to thinking a bit about a child's awareness of God in his/her life, and some random things came to mind.

As we go through life, many of us often try and find where God is active in/influencing the course of our lives. I've talked about it several times, but during the past several months I've had multiple opportunities to discover that I'm really not in charge of things (despite my best efforts to the contrary); I've also had the chance to see some wonderful things with my daughters during this time as well -- things that I wouldn't have been able to experience with them had I been sitting behind a desk. The further along I go, the more I see God at work in my life.

But after reading Sandie's post, I started wondering about how children -- especially my daughters, even at their very young ages -- see God/Jesus in their lives; do they understand on some level the amazing things that are going on? MB is at an age where she can go to Sunday school and come home with stories of Jesus, but I really don't think that she has a strong comprehension at this age of what she's being taught from the Bible. But does she in fact have a rudimentary understanding of how God works in her life through the things she experiences every day? When she sees a butterfly or lightning bug flying through our backyard and expresses joy at that, I wonder if she realizes at some level that she is expressing joy at God? When she runs up to her mother and me for a hug at the end of her day at preschool, does she recognize somehow that the Jesus she talks about on Sundays is also around to give her hugs? When her sister coos and giggles at the funny faces and sounds we make to entertain her, is there a part of her somewhere that knows she is cooing and giggling with God?

Out of everything, though, I think there is one thing that children do better than anyone else on Earth: they love unconditionally. Isn't that unconditional love at the very heart of everything we've read, studied, and learned about God, Jesus, and the Bible? For me, the answer after typing this is yes -- and, as Sandie said in her post, perhaps Jesus called the children because he knew that they do understand earlier than adults, and the hugs, coos, giggles, and laughter they are sharing with us are signs of their knowing.

Rite of Passage

One of the first e-mails that I saw when checking my messages this morning was from my father, and it was about the rite of passage for a young Cherokee boy. I wanted to share it here -- it has a great message indeed.
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Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage?

His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone.

He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.

He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own.

The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man.

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, our Heavenly Father is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.

Playing the Odds on God

While channel surfing today, I ran across a program which included a reference to Blaise Pascal's "Wager" -- his attempt to utilize game theory (a type of applied mathematics) in an effort to influence people to choose whether or not they believe in God. The "Wager," which was included in a collection of notes published posthumously, was at its most basic an exercise by which a person could choose their belief based on their desire to achieve a maximum return on that belief. According to Pascal:

God is, or He is not. But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up… Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose. This is one point settled. But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.

In short: if you believe in God, and He exists, you've won everything; if you believe, and He doesn't exist, you've lost nothing; if you don't belive and He exists, you've lost everything; if you don't believe and he doesn't exist, you've lost nothing.

In the context of modern theology, I can't see how this sort of playing the odds could be taken seriously -- pinning your hope on a next life on the spin of a roulette wheel (I'll put my hopes for Heaven on black 23), or hitting on a 16 in blackjack (thus hoping the dealer busts, you win, and God does in fact exist). However, if I remember correctly from my post-graduate theology courses, Pascal's thesis in some ways follows up on a major theological debate which was taking place in Europe at that time, beginning with Luther: does one get to Heaven through faith, or through good works? Pascal seemingly argues that, regardless of whether there is a God and a Heaven, you should bet your money on good works (just so you don't take any chances with the outcome).

So what do most Christians today believe, or what do they hold as the most important part of their religion? I went into thinking about this question with one thing in mind: naturally, faith in God and a belief in Jesus and the Resurrection must be the most important thing to Christians. However, the more I read, the more that I found that many Christians surveyed practice what has become known as "Golden Rule Christianity." In a survey published in 1997 in Congregations: The Alban Journal, Nancy Ammerman wrote, "...they [the survey respondents] said the most important attributes of a Christian are caring for the needy and living one's Christian values every day. The most important task of the church, they said, is service to people in need." One of my favorite Christian writers, William Stringfellow, lived his life by putting his faith into action and working as a social activist. My own church shares and spreads its Christian faith by being extremely involved in numerous community outreach and global mission projects. Bonhoeffer acted out his faith by opposing the brutal Nazi regime in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.

Looking at the countless examples of good works performed every day -- Habitat for Humanity projects, medical mission trips, homeless shelters, employment assistance services, job retraining services, food banks, the Bread for the World and ONE Campaigns, Amnesty International, Episcopal Relief and Development, etc. etc. -- hasn't the old, Reformation-era argument become moot? Do a majority of Christians today instead believe that you reach Heaven through faith and good works, instead of either/or? And when was this shift?

I look forward to your thoughts on this. I certainly don't feel I've adequately posed the question, but I know the answers I get will more than make up for this....