Childlike Faith

Song of the Week: God is Bigger by VeggieTales

God is bigger than the boogieman

He's bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on TV

Oh, God is bigger than the boogieman

And he's watching out for you and me

Have you ever met a baby Christian? And not in the literal sense of a baby but someone who is new to Christianity? I honestly love it. While there are some people that are judgemental towards Christianity, I love to feel the curiosity of those who are just interested in learning more. Last week I had talked about community and fellowship and I discussed how I was going to start a small group. This was a result of me realizing that I really don’t focus on my friendships and that I haven’t made a whole lot of friends on campus. But I thought to myself, what if I just focus on the friends I have and try to integrate our faith into the mix? My friend group is pretty diverse. In our opinions, body types, the way we grew up, and definitely in our faith. When I texted my friends bringing up the idea of starting a small group, I was expecting maybe one or two people to be interested. What I didn’t expect was that all of them would not only say yes but also be excited for it! One of my friends in particular has told me in the past that she has never considered Christianity and she wasn’t sure what she believed. I left it like that because I know that Jesus is calling me to love her, not push my beliefs on her.

When she said that she was going to come to a small group I was so excited! The night of the small group I made sure to find an extra Bible just in case and as my friends arrived, I found out that she had gotten one of those mini Bibles that are passed out at fairs from another friend. Offering my study Bible that is much bigger than the tiny handheld one, she took it excitedly. As the small group went on, we discussed what we wanted to study, read a passage, and talked about what stood out to us. Being someone who is experienced with the Bible, when I read the passage it was something that I had already known. But for my friend, this was the first time ever reading the Bible. Immediately, she was asking questions about authorship, the root behind Jesus, what it meant for Jesus’ sacrifice, why should we listen to the words of Paul when it wasn’t directly written from God, and so many more. I was blown away. I explained everything I knew about her questions and even gave context to the authorship and time period and she soaked it up. She wasn’t even faking her interest, she really wanted to know.

I think as Christians we forget to evangelize and we try to just focus on our own relationship with the Lord. But what we don’t realize is that when we do evangelize, we are actually learning too. I thought about what Jesus would be thinking about what was going on. My friend reminded me of the childlike faith that Jesus talked about. As Jesus was teaching “He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

After that small group, I thought about how much I have grown in my knowledge as a Theology student. I have spent so much time focusing on being wise and learning everything I could, I forgot that it was important to still have a childlike faith. My focus on being knowledgeable has taken me down a road of thinking of redemption as something that is an equation that needs to be studied. In a sense, I was thinking more about my actions as a Christian than my relationship with God and my faith. But going to heaven isn’t based on works, it's about believing in God. But my studying and knowledge isn’t for nothing. As I was learning and studying, I knew it wasn’t for nothing. God was preparing me. I knew that as I was growing in my knowledge it was for more than my own comfort or curiosity. Witnessing my friend’s childlike faith taught me that I know so much more than I thought and that I was worthy of leading someone to Christ. Something that the enemy attacks me with is that I am not worthy to be a leader in the church but I know now that that is false.

I know that God is calling me to evangelize and while I still have more to be revealed to me, knowing that I can start with one friend, one person, I am so much more confident in my faith and leadership as a Christian. Having my friend as a baby Christian has taught me that I am worthy of teaching but it also is reminding me to be childlike too. And not in an immature way but to be curious and innocent in my faith. So I challenge you to not only talk about your faith to your Christian friends but talk about faith to those who haven’t experienced it yet. Whether it's someone who is in your class, working where you shop or maybe someone who you see on the street. I truly believe that God will point you to the people that need your help the most. Now, you are probably wondering why I chose a VeggieTales song for this week. If you were raised on the show, you know how fun it was to watch it. I think that listening to VeggieTales is actually an awesome way to remind you to be childlike in your faith. The songs are simple but they are honest. God is bigger than everything and we should trust Him. So maybe this weekend listen to some VeggieTales and remind yourself of your relationship with God when you were a kid.

Also if you're wondering about the picture, its from a parade that my church had been in where our float was a train that was "on track for Glory", so that's just something fun to look at haha