Prep Talk

So today, I was at our church fellowship, where our adviser gave me a one on one prep talk. It starts out with me pwning him in Connect Five, but it develops into something meaningful. I thought it was pretty cool, so I'd thought I'd paraphrase it here to the best of my ability.

My adviser starts out as always with: "Where are you in your spiritual walk?" This is always a tough question for me; personal questions are always tough cause they are always loaded with semantic traps, lol (you'll see later what I mean). But, I answer, "I could do better". Fair enough. But, obviously, this is a rather generic answer, and he sees that right away, and then proceeds to ask the question, "Are you really a Christian...Do you really trust in Jesus?"

This is where the fun part starts. He starts off with a figure. A rectangle. A foundation, rooted in God. Then, later, alongside this, he adds a different foundation. A generic church answer is well, "the world". But no. My adviser puts it blatantly: Satan. Now I get pretty surprised here. He goes on to say that materialism, worldly idolatry, greed, etc. are all products of this Satanic foundation, which contrasts with the joy, love, peace, fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)., products of God. So he asks me, "where's your foundation?" Many people become Christians, but still have Satan as their foundation. He made an example of a disciple, who once worked with Sony, who basically gave had to move himself away, piece by piece, from this Satanic foundation.

But how to know what is the foundation? He says: look at their checkbooks. Look at how they use their time. Actions reveal character, which is rooted in either a God or Satan foundation. Does the person just use the money on him/herself or save it? Donate it to charities? And so comes the topic of decision making. He brings up this Student Leadership thing he's starting come January/February. Can't be one half Satan foundation and one half God foundation. Do or not do, it is a commitment to make. Well, I think, hmmm, this is pretty strong stuff now.

It continues. He brings up stats... and these stats are appalling. From his experience, only 50% of strong Christian junior highers remain strong in High school. Out of those who remain strong, only 25% will remain strong through college. And out of those who remain strong through college, only 10-15% will remain strong as they begin their careers. Again, the decision making process. He brings up an example of a strong Christian who, after having a baby, decided to take a break from serving God, but after a couple of years, his faith had weakened drastically. It's hard to go back up after going down. He subsequently talks about himself: his faith was wishy washy until the end of high school, but then, "by the grace of God", he changed at the end of his HS years. He remained a strong Christian, choosing his wife over other, prettier girls who were chasing him, because his wife had a strong faith.

Then he talks about the big picture. Who has the big picture? The "world" talks about planning for the future. The Christian faith looks to eternity. It's easy to make money; no need for a college education to become a millionaire. But in the end, it's all temporary. He used to watch movies every week; no longer. The pretty girls who were chasing after him; developing wrinkles and losing their figure after giving birth. The only thing that is eternal: is God. So, he asks again, who has the big picture in mind?

As always, he brings it back to how that applies to me. First thing: God created everything, so why worry about little things? Why not ask people to come to Friday night Fellowship? Second thing: what decisions am I to make? Will I be in the very large percentage of people who drop out of their faith after high school, or will I remain steadfast in what I believe in? What will be my foundation? Will I be committed to my faith? Will my faith become a Non-negotiable part of my life (i.e. regardless of how I feel or what happens, will I keep strong in my faith)? He was talking about student leaders, who say they are committed, but can't come during some weeks because "they are busy". But he himself, has all the work he does for church (talks and caring for two/three campuses of our church, CBCSD [Chinese Bible Church of San Diego]), his children, and his work, adding on to his commitment in the Student Leadership program. Who, in fact, is the busy one?

He asks again, am I really a Christian? Do I really trust in Jesus? Obviously, I couldn't answer. Those who have reached the actualization of being committed to Christ, would be able to. Three parables in the book of Matthew exist. The one he explained to me: a man goes through this piece of land, and finds a pearl. He subsequently sells all that he has to get this piece of land with the Pearl in it. Likewise, we have to give up everything we have (not literally, but more specifically our worshiping of the World), and we must trust in Jesus. [This relates to the paradigm shift found in Ephesians 4:22-24.]

Food for thought. This was a talk I believe that I needed. I've been depressed this week and all this stuff - and I've been stressing out on tests and girls too much. I need to go back down to the basics - my foundation, and go from there. This is one talk I'll need to remember in my heart, and I hope this post can serve to remind me from time to time.