Last night as I was tucking Jeremy in bed he asked me some questions that really threw me off. He said, “Daddy I want to ask you some questions and I want you to answer them with the truth.” Now you’ve got to realize that my boy is six years old and has got his dad’s spaz gene. His propensity toward seriousness is about the same as my propensity toward silence.
Here was his first question: “God tells you to choose either stay preaching with Dare 2 Share or give up your family, which do you choose?” Without thinking twice I told him, “I give up Dare 2 Share.” He looked straight up and said, “Hmmmmm. That’s a good choice daddy.”
He then went on to give me four or five more scenarios to choose from “losing all my possessions or losing my family” “Giving up serving God or having my house burned down” etc. A few minutes later he asked the same kind of moral dilemma questions to my wife when it was her turn to tuck him in.
To be honest it was all a bit weird. Some may conjecture that he was asking those questions because of my travel schedule. But he asked the same kind of questions to my wife and I’ve been home more this summer than in the last five summers.
Maybe the Spirit of the Lord is mighty in my little boy and stirring him up for something bigger in life. It seemed as though he was struggling with deeper questions of God stuff, earthly stuff and life priorities. Or maybe God is using my little boy’s words to remind me and my wife of what is most important. Or maybe my boy was just asking some weird questions for no apparent reason. Either way it freaked me and my wife out a bit.
In many ways it jolted me to an either/or situation Jesus gave to his followers in Luke 14:25-35, “If you’re not willing to give up everything you cannot be my disciple.” Another way of saying what Jesus was asking his disciples was this, “Choose everything you own on this planet or choose me. Which do you pick?”
Hmmmm….
