So, What Are We Doing?

I had an interesting experience the other day. I'd been feeling my way through some disappointments at work in the children's department, and as someone who (I know this will shock many of you) prays, I chatted with God about my down-ness. Okay, "chatted" is probably a little generous. Venting is probably more accurate. Once done with said venting, I sat there for a little while. My sense was God said something like, "Don't worry about it; I've got your back." Well, within about an hour of that, I had two people contact me: one in person and one over the Internet, who both encouraged me in scarily specific ways. Just out of the blue. And it was exactly what I needed. It was like this huge weight sort of floated away, and I picked myself up and continued on. Hmm.

I recently wrote a post on postmodernism. To add to the fun, I had a great conversation with a friend about this stuff. His thought was that postmodernism is, indeed, a slippery slope because of the "everyone's experience counts for something" approach to faith. In other words, if everyone's life story (or at least parts of it) becomes the standard by which we judge what is or is not Truth, it would be tough to make a case for absolute Truth. Which my friend would argue -- if I'm tracking -- is God.

As someone who oversees a children's department, the stakes of this conversation just feel larger and larger to me. It seems to me that how we reckon with this is central to how we do life, friendships, church, and faith because in addition to how we do those things ourselves, it determines how and what we are inviting others into. Are we inviting others into a system of morals? A particular worldview? Political preferences? Maybe... it's just that I'm not profoundly helped by any of those things. My deepest longings to have a life that's better than I could imagine, to know a God that's alive and seems to care about who I am and what I do, who actually adds something to my life (not abstractly), that invites me to play a part in a cosmic story of redemption that's bigger and harder and better than I could possibly hope for... well that gets me up in the morning.

I can't help but feel like from my collection of stories and the stories of many, many others, that God wants to do great things for me, as if I didn't do anything particularly worthy of such attention and benefit; that God does it simply because it's who he is. Yet to my friend's point, it would seem misguided to say that everyone's personal life story encompasses all things Truth. So my question for you great thinkers: how can we invite kids into this sort of experiential (again: NOT abstract!) faith while still maintaining this sense of "this God thing that we're talking about here, kids, is Truth"? Or is that even the right goal to begin with? Do share with us, and leave a comment!