Who's That?

I made a rookie mistake on Sunday, I made a reference that I thought my youth would get, and they responded with blank stares and a resounding, "Who's that?" I forgot one of the main rules of public speaking and teaching, "know your audience." It was an innocent blunder, one that actually got its origins from another mishap, as all good blunders do. I had written a multiple choice question on the white board and one of the options was "other," however thanks to my stellar handwriting, it looked more like "otner." Because of this, I decided that "Otner" was my bff, however, since I wasn't creative enough to give him a last name, I said he was simply Otner, no last name, like Cher. Their response, "Who's Cher?" Now, one of the older youth was at least able to say that Cher was in the movie Burlesque, which cleared up the matter much quicker than my explanation of Cher from "Sonny and Cher" of "You've Got Me, Babe" fame. I really was on a roll, and not a good one.
As I was recounting the event over lunch, I asked, "Why didn't you say 'Madonna,' or 'Pink,' or 'Adele'?" Good question. My response, "Cher was the first person that came to mind." Oops. Probably should work on being more current. To make matters worse, it was my dad who was providing more current examples of famous people that go by one name than I was able to provide for my youth. Bigger "oops."
What can we take from this? An important truth when working with teenagers, stay current. Stay up to date with what's popular. You don't have to love it, but pay enough attention to know that "Pink" is a much better reference to make than "Cher." Now how does one stay current? Simple, really, listen. Let them talk from time to time. Sometimes it can be a bit annoying when teenagers are too busy talking amongst themselves to pay attention to what you are trying to say, but from time to time, its good to just let them talk and you listen. You might learn something. For example, you might learn what their favorite tv show is, who that teacher is that they can't stand at school or what movie they stayed up late last night to watch. But, please, don't stop there. Turn on the radio from time to time, or take a look at the top singles downloaded on iTunes or the top videos watched on YouTube. Check out an episode or two of popular teen tv shows, you don't have to become fans of them, just check them out to somewhat know what's going on. Go to the movies or Redbox and watch popular movies from time to time. But more than anything else, care enough to know these things. These are the things that your youth are watching and listening to, these are the things they're imitating, and if you want to be effective and current enough to make a difference, you should know them as well. Care. Pay attention. Make references that they'll get and avoid that awkward, "Who's that?" moment

The Universal Language

On Sunday before last, during our Sunday morning Bible study time, we began our study of the life of Abraham. Which begins with God asking Abram to do one simple thing: Move from his home. That's it. Move. Nothing more, nothing less. His destination? The place God would show him. He knew nothing more than that, and yet he went.
So, I posed the following question: What would be the most difficult part for you if God asked you to leave your home and go to a far away country? Their overwhelming response was not one I immediately expected. Their number one concern was learning a new language. I thought that they might be concerned about leaving family or friends behind. I thought they might be fearful of going somewhere they had never been. But none of this concerned them nearly as much as not knowing the language of where ever it is they would be going. We discussed all that would be involved in going somewhere new and the amount of faith it would take to have the kind of obedience of Abram. Later that day, I began to contemplate the implications of the number one concern the youth expressed: not knowing the language. After all, communication is important. Its how we relate to each other as human beings. It how we let others not what we want or need or how we feel. Its how we build relationships, and without relationships, we wouldn't really be humans. After all, God created us for relationships. And without language, we can not effectively communicate, and without communication, having relationships is next impossible, its a slippery slope. And all of a sudden, the number one concern of my youth made sense. However, my musings didn't end there. I began to ponder what it would be like if we all spoke the same language, and I found myself reminded of something I learned in school about there being an universal language: math. No matter where you go, math is always the same. 2+2= 4 no matter where you go. Now, I must confess I have never been much of  a fan of math, but I did understand the concept and understood my teacher's point, yet I have to disagree somewhat with them. Yes, there certainly is a universality to math, but I believe there is an universal language that goes much deeper than that. And that language? Love. People everywhere speak it, whether they realize it or not. We all love someone or something. And we all show it. We show it by how we act, how we respond to others and how we spend our time. It is natural for us to spend our time and energies with the people (or animals or things) we love or doing the activities we love.  Love is also the most powerful way we communicate, even stronger  than the words or language we use. Therefore, while it would be certainly hard to go to a country where we don't know the language, I think we can manage to get by, if we remember the most important language of all, love. Yes, it would be wise for us to learn the spoken language of where ever it is one goes, but I think you can accomplish a whole lot just by loving people and showing them you care, and more importantly, that they are loved infinitely by a God, by His very nature is love. Love, not math or English or anything else is the universal language and it should be spoken often and to everyone, everywhere.