It is so easy in our world to look around see sin. When the lifestyle of a person is counter to what we expect or what we value we will label a person a non-Christian. In some ways it makes us feel better about ourselves – perhaps even superior. The line is not always so clear.
In 2001 a young woman, 16 years old, named Katy Hudson splashed onto the Christian music scene with her first album. With songs such as “Trust in Me” and “Faith Won’t Fail” the messages were clear and reflective of the truth we proclaim. She was lauded by some as gifted and talented. It was exciting to have another young Christian artist.
You may not have heard of Katy Hudson. She only released that one album before she switched, while still 16, to the mainstream pop music. Isn’t that great? A chance for Christ to be shone into the mainstream media in the same way artists like Jars of Clay and Michael W. Smith have. It didn’t quite work that way.
You may not have heard of Katy Hudson because her name was changed when she went secular. Our culture knows about her as Katy Perry. An artist you is immensely popular and influential with teens. Some of her new songs are ‘I kissed a Girl’, ‘Waking up in Vegas’, and ‘UR so Gay’.
What is my point with this? Our culture is not ‘us’ versus ‘them’. It’s not Christian versus Non-Christian. It’s not somebody else’s child who goes astray – it is a child. It could be your child, or my child, or someone else’s child. It is a child.
No matter how hard we try we cannot fully protect our children from media or hide them from it. We cannot prevent a child from going astray. We can be intentional in realizing we only have a finite amount of time to influence our children. We can realize that teaching discernment is just as (more?) important as teaching strict rules. We can realize that faith is not inherited, it is a choice made by each person and we can’t force it on our children, but can lead them towards it and nurture it. We can realize that the story of the prodigal son is not hypothetical, but one lived out each day in our culture by someone, and it could be you or me.
We can also realize that God’s grace is not seperated from the rest of the world, but there for each person to freely receive and God loves each person in this world – after all He created them. He desires to lead each person back to Him. For God there is no Christian or Non-Christian distinction – there are only His children and within that there are those who choose to follow and those who stray. Our goal is to help each child realize the love of God for them, and help them to focus and receive the love and grace offered in Christ – no matter who they are, or what they do, or what they become in life.