Last Sunday evening I went to our junior and senior high youth group. The first 10 years I was a pastor, I had the privilege of leading various youth groups. I have missed hanging out with the youth in the past 10 years! Youth always have different ways of seeing and thinking about the world and God.
We tackled a big question on Sunday evening. Our youth leader, Taliltha Given Phillips, drew two continuums on the white board. One continuum had “God has total control” at one end and “God has no control” at the other end. Just above that she drew another continuum with “God is good” at one end and “God is not good” at the other end. She asked the youth where they were on the continuum. We talked about some situations where people ended up being harmed in some way and then looked at whether we believe God was involved or not involved. The youth almost instantly brought up the holocaust. Why waste time on more minor examples?? One of the suggestions raised in general was that God is in total control but we just don’t understand why things happen and we can’t always see what things might be necessary in the bigger picture. There were others who thought God’s control has to do with trying to get us to do certain things and sometimes we listen and sometimes we don’t so bad things happen. What became evident in the course of the discussion is that it’s tough to be in the middle of the continuum of God’s involvement. In some ways it would be easier if God controlled everything or nothing. If you take the position that God controls some things, it raises questions about which things and why. If God can intervene now and then, why doesn’t God intervene in the most horrific things? Is there rhyme or reason to why/when God intervenes or is it random? If God does not intervene in something like the holocaust or genocide in Darfur, does that mean God is not good? How do we ever really know when God is intervening if we cannot see God? I am not sure what the youth were thinking by the time they left on Sunday night. They probably left with more questions than they had before they arrived! The church’s job is not so much to fill them with dogma as it is to teach them how to think about God and the world and humans and the relationship between them. All in all, I think the evening was a success.