Trinity College Ministry

I am a dad of two of the craziest, awesomest, smartest and coolest kids out there! Okay, enough of the cheesy parental bragging. On a more serious note most of my lessons regarding faith come from these two kids. I see how the innocence of a child can really come in handy when dealing with issues of faith.

In regards to the most controversial topic of the Bible my boys have the upper hand. This topic is not abortion, same-sex marriage or anything in regards to the deity of Christ. The topic is of the miraculous gifts of God. I argue, if we as Christians took all the “knowledge” we self-profess to have about and infinite eternal God, put it aside to activate the innocence of child-like faith there would be less disagreements and more life change. The following story illustrates this point.

The other day my two year old was shutting the car door. We try to give him freedom to explore his world so he was doing this all by his lonesome. He is a professional door closer he rarely makes a mistake This is because he has qualities of a perfectionist. However, this particular time the unthinkable happened…he shut his finger in the door.

I was across the house in his room; mom was standing right by him when the tragedy happened. From across the house I heard the heart stopping billowing cry from my son. I stopped what I was doing and made record time across the house and into the garage. Mom swooped him up in her arms and held him close; crocodile tears flooded the shoulder of her shirt. I watched in disbelief as my child suffered this immense amount of pain on his little finger. I felt helpless.

We did what any parent in this situation would do, we tried to distract him with food. The pain was too much, the food made no impact on the severity of the wound. I took him into my arms and held him. He was saying something to me. Amongst the sobbing it was hard to determine what he was saying. I listened closer. The words coming out of my 2 year olds mouth were, “pray?.”

I thought to myself, “ya, sure we can do that.” I began a prayer, “Dear Jesus, take the pain out and heal my finger.” He repeated every word after me and at the end shouted his favorite word, “AMEN!” The heavens did not open, a dove did not descend but the crying stopped he looked me in the eye and with all certainty and beautiful faith he said, “all better.”

WHAT? That was it? No big deal? No progressive healing? He was just done with the pain, because of a little prayer? I was convicted immediately on how I handle pain, prayer and healing. How much more can we do when we activate our child-like faith and stop walking in self professed head “knowledge?”

I remember a ride growing up called, The Vortex. This ride as an elementary student was the highlight of going to our local amusement park (if you call it that) in Lubbock Texas. I remember as a 5th grader racing into the park and running directly to the black slide, because it was of course the fastest slide.

I recently went back to this amusement park, with our Children's Ministry in the 2009 summer season for a Family Fun Day. As I walked around the park so many memories flooded my mind. As we made our journey through the massivley small park I came face to face with the coolest ride ever...The Vortex! I laughed as my memory had built The Vortex up as this huge accomplishment in my life when in reality it was nothing more than a small water slide. My adult mind had no room for child like imagination.

I am convicted by this thought. What else has my adult mind choked out due to the child like qualities of it. As I pondered this I began to realize that my passionate persuit for God was a lot like my experience with The Vortex. I had allowed my adult mind to hinder and even stunt my passionate pursuit after my Loving God.

The irony in this is- whenever I allow my adult mind to view God with child like imagination my picture of Him so "much more bigger." In my child like imagination the image of God became "The Vortex" of my soul. My pursuit and passion for God became more fervent and meaningful.

Lord allow m to have child like imagination in my adult mind!