With our first two Surge classes under our belt, I am pleased as can be to say that we have doubled our numbers from Surge last year. I cannot tell you how excited I am about that. We also started our study yesterday in a large-group setting as we begin to examine "God's Enemies". Our first discussion was all about the devil and why he opposes God and messes with us. We read through and discussed Jesus' temptation in the desert in Matthew 4 and how Satan used all sorts of tactics to trick Jesus, even quoting scripture and mixing truth in with lies. This gave us a great opportunity to talk about how important scripture memory is and why it is a part of our weekly work in Surge. We also looked at a few more references to the devil being tricky, boldly lying, twisting truth and basically all the other sneaky ways that he distracts us from our relationship with God. We ended by looking at 1 Peter 5:8-9 and the depiction that he gives us of Satan moving about like a hungry lion.
A really good conversation bloomed out of this last section as we talked about the devil. Someone mentioned "the guy down there" which led to a great discussion of God and Satan. So often we hear the phrases "the Guy up there" or "Someone up there must like me". While we associate God with being in heaven and also with heaven being above us, neither of those things are true. Or course, they aren't really untrue either. God is in heaven, but God is also everywhere else. That might not seem like a big distinction, but His omnipresence is part of what makes God, "God". And being that we don't really know the location of heaven (though the kids are pretty sure it's not in the clouds), it being "above" us is probably not exactly accurate though probably not completely false.
In much the same way, there is no reason, other than a very Greek idea of Hades and the underworld, to think that hell is in the center of the Earth. After all, the Earth will be gone one day and yet we know that hell is a place of eternal separation. But by far, one of the biggest misconception that kids (and some adults even) have is that the devil lives in hell and even rules there, popping up from time-to-time to stir up trouble. So, he is "the guy down there" rather than a roaring lion, walking around looking for lunch. The reality is that hell was created as a final punishment for the devil and the third of the angels cast out of heaven with him. He doesn't hang out there, doesn't want to go there and certainly will not rule there. He will be imprisoned there, separated for eternity from God, suffering and desolate just as much as everyone else there that rebelled against God. But right now, he is on the earth and he and the demons are doing there best to disrupt, distract and distort the relationship between God and man. And when we move him from roaming around up here to hanging out down there, like some sort of director of evil, we take the realness of his danger away.
In an interesting turn, brought on by the comment from a student, we looked at the imagery that Peter uses of a lion, knowing what we know about them. Lions are lazy. They sleep a lot, but when they're hungry and get up to stalk and chase prey, they never pick the strongest or fastest animals in the group. Instead, they pick out the lame, weak and ones off wandering by themselves. The kids immediately drew the correlation between being strong in your faith and reliant on God's strength to keep you away from the jaws of the roaming lion. It was a very impressive moment having them form that realization and then own it. Obviously all metaphors break down at a point, but it was great seeing their minds working some of these details out.
We ask a lot of questions in Surge and don't always give all the answers. Part of that is because we want the kids to form their own views as they wrap their minds around their faith, rather than just us teaching facts for them to parrot. Part of it is because we want those conversations to be carried home and for parents and siblings to be involved in that process. And part of it is because we simply don't have all the answers. And since that is the way God planned it, we're okay with not knowing the whole mystery. But even here at the beginning of the year, I am very encouraged by what I see with these kids. I know we're going to have an amazing year growing together.
Next week we'll be looking at other world religions as being enemies of the one, true God.
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