A Thought Inspired By A Devoted Mom

We have in our church a young man that had a tumor appear suddenly on his brain a few years ago.  It has caused him to be handicapped in a way that I must be careful describing so as not to offend or make light of the situation, given that I don’t know enough to give accurate information.  Suffice it to say that he is completely and totally dependent on his family to take care of him.  He is now 12 years old.

During a short conversation with his mother today, she described to me the process that she had to go through to learn to take care of him.  Apparently, she had to go to Atlanta for serious training for her son’s special needs.  If I understood correctly, this was not a short ordeal.  It took possibly a few weeks (I’m a little sketchy on the details, as my wife can attest I have terrible short-term memory).

However, while describing her experience, she began to explain how the nurses and the doctors WOULD NOT let her take her son home until they were convinced that she was completely capable of taking care of him all by herself, with no medical supervision on a daily basis.  And this, of course, makes sense: because of his special needs, he requires a high level of attention.

And that’s when it occurred to me that, as a church body, we are divinely charged with the responsibility of teaching the next generation of believers.  And the attention to detail that requires is remarkably high, considering the stakes: eternity.  So why is it that the church doesn’t meet the same level of performance in discipling the next generation of believers?  Why is it OK that almost 70% of Christian teenagers lose their faith by the end of their first year outside of high school?

It’s not OK.  And it really bothers me that the church, and even I myself, have not even come close to giving the care and attention to the next generation of believers as this devoted mother gives her son day-in and day-out.

To the devoted mother, and her entire family for that matter (and you know who you are), you have my deepest respect and admiration for what you do every single day, because I don’t think I could do it.  But I’m inspired to step-up the level of commitment and effort that I give in caring for those in my charge as a Youth Pastor.  Lord give me the strength.