I have a fourteen year old son and somewhere between thirteen and fourteen my sweet little boy turned into a teenager. The overnight transformation took Joshua from a glasses wearing, short haircut, easy going sweet child into a contacts wearing, longer-haired, moody teenage-wolf who took Jeannette and me by total surprise. As a former youth pastor I had read the books and worked with all types of youth across a variety of ethnicities and backgrounds; but, when it came to my son, I found myself scrambling for answers, approaches and Advil. Now if you thought I was writing today’s post to vent, complain or muse over life’s curveballs I would like to add this  “overnight” transformation, and subsequent parental responses, hasn’t been all bad. In fact, as he is changing our conversations, topics and motivations, for helping him develop, are also taking on an adult approach. Though he is still only 14 his world is far older than his age and therefore forcing him to developed quicker than how I matured growing up in the late eighties. Perhaps an even more exciting chapter is also beginning since, with Joshua’s change, Jeannette and I are now able to take on a more fully developed approach, with him, regarding faith and the necessity of building his own personal walk with God.

Let’s face it! No matter where or how you were raised you took your cues from your elders. In some cases our elders may have been poor examples while in others instances they were virtual rocks of stability and morality. Whatever the case may be we learned and developed, early on, from what we saw, heard and experienced and this, in turn, shaped our beliefs. But what happens when your world-view changes? What type of alteration occurs when you are presented with another way to live or a better way to behave and experience life healthier than before? Asked another way, What happens when God invites you for transformation? In such moments our worlds collide and the past teaching of what we learned, or how we once behaved, is now confronted with a new humanity rooted in Jesus.

I clearly remember the day I was faced with such changes. And though it took several months for me to “right the ship” I knew it would be an impossible task unless I sought God for guidance. Last week I wrote about Drawing Closer or Looking from Afar: The Altered Life and in that post I addressed the signs and indications of a life that is really changed or sanctified. I know…the very word sanctified may conjure up images of monastic living and deprived people but if this our only definition, of such an awesome way of living, then we are missing the target by a long shot.

Simply defined to be sanctified means you are being made into a child of God. Isn’t that amazing? Despite your past, present or surroundings you are invited, by God, to live a new life filled with opportunity, hope, joy and freedom that is spiritually intuitive and alive. But there is a catch! As with any great deal there is a certain measure of our responsibility and this brings me back to my “teenage wolf” Joshua. When my son was younger he took life’s cues from me and his mother.  While he continued to grow he benefited from the decisions and choices Jeannette and I made; and while this was good for our “little boy” then, he is now becoming his own man today. You see Joshua now needs to take the experiences of his childhood and allow the reality, of identity in Jesus, to crash into his life. Joshua needs to see, learn and develop his own life, sanctified and obedient to God. As much as I may desire to do this for him Joshua needs to understand how to develop his own spiritual intuition by knowing who he belongs to and therefore how he should believe and behave.

WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUAL INTUITION  Every person has a flesh body and a spirit within. For all of us this “spirit-man” was once dead and searching for an outlet that will give it the spark of life, identity and purpose.  When we examine beyond the exterior of what we see and assume to be true we discover, deep within, there is an intuitive tugging that draws us to God. That tugging that makes our spirit alive and reveals the truth of who God is? The Holy Spirit. When God opens our understanding to see Him, even through a glass darkly, we must stop and submit ourselves to His Spirit and allow Him to renew and alter our life for His glory. Here again we uncover another identifier of the altered life…it is the life BORN-AGAIN by the Spirit of God!

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Grace and Peace

JOSHUA

My “Teenage Wolf” Before & After…