“Don’t have sex, you will get pregnant.”
“Don’t drink, you’ll get drunk, and knock your teeth out.”
When I was a teenager, that was the last thing I wanted to hear, but I thank the Lord for my mother’s advice.
And I think she thanks the Lord because I wasn’t too terribly rebellious.
Love you, mom! 😉
Dear Christian teenager…
Life is hard.
Life is beautiful.
The world is much bigger than you think it is.
If you’re an American teenager… you have endless possibilities and opportunities to do and be whatever you want.
You have freedom.
I had a conversation with a teenage boy in Honduras…
“What do you want to do when you get older?” –Me
“Well, it’s not that easy to have dreams here.” –Boy
That’s when I first realized that being American, I have this innate freedom to do whatever I want. Because I was born in the United States, I get to do a lot of things the rest of the world doesn't.
I mean, as Americans, we talk about freedom a lot.
But I’m not sure we understand, how privileged we are to have this freedom.
Being on the Race, I’ve been able to really examine the freedom I have as an American.
Everything is spiritual, so that translates into me discovering the freedom there is in Christ.
You see, I grew up in the church and I’ve heard “God sets the captives free.” “Those who are set free are free indeed.” “There is freedom in Jesus.”
Blah blah blah.
Going to church as a teenager, I didn’t see much freedom in Christianity.
Looked more like a list of do nots to me…
There ain’t no freedom to be had in being dragged to church every Sunday.
I saw others discovering their “freedom.”
I thought other kids parents gave them more freedom.
Monday morning would roll around and the latest gossip about who hooked up with who at so and so’s party was the first thing off everyone’s lips.
I remember being a senior in high school in physics class and the girls going around the table asking what type of birth control each girl used.
My thought process, “Wow, they are so cool!”
Only now am I discovering that the things my classmates were doing which made them think they were cool and badass, as expressions of their freedom, wasn’t actually freedom at all.
Scripture says,
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” Colossians 2:8
The things I was jealous of them being able to do,
Were more like chains and bondage.
You know under the badass façade, they were girls covered in insecurity.
They were guys drowning in inadequacy.
High school is a feeding ground for comparison.
freedom in Christ is not a list of do nots, man,
it’s a list of GO-FOR-ITS!
I’M SERIOUS MAN!
This is the part where I get really amped and start typing really fast…
Jesus wants us to go for it!
He wants us to show up for our lives daily!
To love and to be loved!
Love boldly, courageously, and unconditionally.
He did it for us.
You are free from chains.
THAT’S THE GOOD NEWS!
How can you fully be who God wants you to be or fully live your life to the max when you’re tied down with chains of insecurity, inadequacy, comparison, or fear of man?!?!
Answer- YOU CAN’T!
Man, my team asked me how I was doing when we first got to Thailand, and all I felt was light.
I’M FEELING LIGHT!
I’M LOVING THIS FREEDOM.
I’M CLAIMING THIS INHERITANCE!
I feel like a pig rolling around in mud.
A cat laying in sunshine.
A 5 year old in a McDonald’s ball pit.
The Christmas polar bears after they drink a coke.
ARE YOU PICKING UP WHAT I’M PUTTING DOWN?
FREEDOM!
You gotta have freedom to share freedom.
What a crucial element to the Christian faith.
And blindly I missed it for so long.
Not no mo’.
Now I can boldly and confidently scream,
