YES

I've been trying to figure out how to write this for a while and it might not have the best flow in the world but I'm sure God won't mind. 

In September I gave a sermon on poverty and how God calls the Church to react to it. I used the children's sermon to launch a sock collection outreach project for the Lehigh County Conference of Churches. One of the kids tried to give me their shoes, because "they [the homeless people] need shoes to go over the socks." There is just something awe inspiring and full of grace when it comes to the faith of a child. 

But what does it mean to have the faith of a child? Maybe this is just me but I feel that the Bible can be very contradictory when it comes to children. 

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways." I Corinthians 13:11

"Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults." I Corinthians 14:20

"but Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs'." Matthew 19:14

"But Jesus called for them and said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you. whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it'." Luke 18:16-17

I'm sticking with Jesus on this one. Children have an amazing ability to love everyone they meet and they don't judge based on what someone looks like, their socio-economic status, and their sexuality. Children, like Jesus love everyone. Children, like Jesus do not put conditions on their love for others. Children, unlike many adults put feet on the Gospel. They get it. They don't care about who serves communion, the color of the carpet, what doxology is used, and who is preaching. Children, more often than not ask the questions that we as adults are afraid to ask. After I explained to kids that we were only collecting socks they just couldn't understand why we weren't collecting shoes to go with the socks. Looking back I think they were onto something every adult in that building missed that day. When I led Vacation Bible School at the church that I grew up in two summers ago, I did a mission project with the kids. The adults did not think that it was going to work. The kids colored back-backs to send to children in the developing nations. All of the adults thought that the kids were going to want to keep them, because they had to color them, which apparently according to this logic if you color something it is automatically yours. Not one of them asked to keep them. In fact, they wanted to know why we couldn't color more of them. These kids had nothing. I'm pretty sure that some of them didn't have their own back-packs and there they were asking me if they could color more of them. 

What if we had faith as a child. I think to often we put away our childish things and think like adults. I know that I always find myself asking, "What happens if this doesn't go as planned?", "What happens if too many people show up?", "What happens if not enough people show up?", "What happens if we don't raise enough money?" Kids on the other hand don't think about those things. They come up with a plan and they just go with it. I taught kindergarten over the summer and my kids ended up writing a letter to their State. Rep. I did not plan on this happening. They wanted to "write a letter to the person who makes the rules." So my ten kindergarten kids wrote about saving trees and protecting animals. They did not stop to think about things like, "What if we don't have enough paper?", "What if we can't spell a word?", and "What if they don't agree with us?" They just did it. 

Would the world be a better place if we all had the faith of a child? Is it possible to challenge the status-quo and ask the tough questions while at the same time maintaining the faith of a child? 

I say yes! I say yes to having the faith of a child. I say yes to donating both socks and shoes, I say yes to coloring back-packs, I say yes for environmental justice.  I say yes to love. 

The question that I leave you with is: Will you join me in saying "yes"? 

go in PEACE. live PEACE. be PEACE.