No! I won’t Shut Up!

This past weekend I was sharing with my junior high students about the importance of faith.  I was challenging them to justify their belief in Jesus.  I was pushing them to explain how they can believe.

During this process I was getting very excited and fired up to say the least.  I had students really buying in on the idea that they needed to defend what they believe.  I was pushing them to do just that.  I had students gasping and searching their Bibles trying to prove what they believe.

It was a beautiful sight to see what was happening.  These students were struggling with their own thoughts and doubts right there in our service.

One of our students in the back finally got it and said the only way any of this makes sense is because of Faith.  Faith allowed the story of Jesus make sense in a world that only wants to believe in things they can feel and touch.  It was amazing to see the light bulbs go off in our students minds.

Then it happened!

I asked the question, “What do you think?”  Then a boy in the second row raised his hand and said this, “I think you never Shut Up!”

Wow.  I had to respond quick on this one as this was in front of our entire group.  Here is how it went:

No I won’t shut up, and I don’t want you to shut up either.  We have a message that we need people to hear.  We need people to know about Jesus and have faith.  Matthew 28 tells us that we are to “Go and Make Disciples.”  We aren’t called to be quiet.  We must be bold and tell the world the story of Jesus.

I faced a crossroads there.  I could respond to the individual student or I could push on for the rest of the group.

Students left this weekend service excited and talking about ways they could tell others about Jesus.  If I had responded differently all they would have remembered was the kid who said that I never shut up.

I would encourage you not to get distracted by all the ways the devil tries to slow us down.  We especially need to not loose focus when he uses the mouth of one of our students to distract us.  Our message is too important to loose focus.

I must tell you that my wife, who was running sound, was very quick on her feet new the perfect song to play as we finished up our service.  We moved on from our lesson and she played “We can’t shut up” by Anthem Lights.  Thanks Molly!  You are the best!