Focus Phrase

Sunday night youth meeting during a three-day weekend is a particularly frenetic occasion. Even while trying to conduct some business, planning a service project to stock flood buckets for the gulf area victims, things were always on the verge of becoming a tad too "exuberated." It was time for the Focus Phrase.

"GOD IS GOOD!" I shouted into the din.
"ALL THE TIME!" came the prompt response.
"ALL THE TIME!" I echoed.
"GOD IS GOOD!" they concluded.

I received their quiet focus and opened my mouth to continue the business at hand. Into the moment of silence came a muttered statement:

"Yeah…tell THAT to the people in New Orleans."

I am not surprised that the issues of theodicy and providence were raised by a teen. My experience has been that young people will often voice concerns that their elders will dance warily around. Sometimes, youth counselors will respond to a statement like that in such a way as to put the youth on the defensive and make it seem inappropriate that such a question would be asked. "What makes you say something like that?" is a response I’ve heard too many times directed towards youth. Not asked in an accusatory tone, nevertheless, the question is designed to shut down that line of inquiry. It’s condescending and cowardly and, I think, designed to reassert the authority of competence by implying that the youth has none.

I determined that this discussion was as important to the youth and to the church as was discussing assembling flood buckets. So I asked them:

"Can we say that to the people of New Orleans, or to anyone who has been overwhelmed by something like this?" Some silence, then some responses.

"Well, you can’t blame the hurricane on God. That’s like saying that God controls the weather." "Yeah, but isn’t God present in everything? I’m not saying that God caused the hurricane, but couldn’t He have stopped the hurricane?" "That’s like asking why didn’t He stop the car crash last week that killed two kids from ****** High. Do you want God to control everything?"

"I think we CAN say that God is good, because God IS good. Its this world and the people in it that suck." "I don’t think we can say that to them because we aren’t them. Only they can know if God is good to them." "Either God is good or God isn’t good. How could God be good to one person and not good to others?" "I know that, retard! I’m just saying that going up to someone who’s just lost everything and telling him that ‘God is good’ is stupid and cruel."

"Look…it’s like this. God is good. Bad things happen. Life goes on. Are there any more cupcakes left?"

They are the Church in microcosm. When the questions get too uncomfortable, they seek out cupcakes and bumper sticker wisdom. I let them finish the cupcakes, but I couldn’t let the bumper sticker wisdom stand. They were getting close to something very important.

"We say ‘God is good; all the time,’ but what does that really mean?" I asked.

Silence. The silence stretched out and spread until it encompassed the entire sanctuary. I just let it sit there, to see what would be born...

"Maybe it means that we know we’re not good all the time…you know, we sin and stuff…but that God is because He isn’t us….so God is good all the time…."

"Or because we wouldn’t know what good was without God….because good comes from God, and even when we’re good, its because of God."

"Yeah! Sometimes I do good things without even thinking about it or wanting to, so that must be God." "It sure isn’t you." "Shut up!"

"Maybe we say that God is good because we need God to be good….because things like accidents and disasters and shootings in school could, like, happen to anybody, and we need to know that these things aren’t how its supposed to be." "Yeah, but these things are how things are. How does that make God good?" "They don’t make God good. Why do you think that God needs anything to make Him good? I’m just saying that these things are not the way things are supposed to be. Because God is good, you know, when these bad kind of things happen, we know that isn’t what He wants for us. So….I guess that means we know there’s something better for us."

"Can’t we just say that God is good because he loves us even when we’re not good? I mean, it would take some incredible level of good to love some of us…."

Oh, we could have gone on for quite some time. I nod and press them a little deeper in the ellipses. But all youth meetings eventually come to an end. The kids are picked up and go back home to homework or plans for the holiday. And all the issues that they raised but didn’t have the technical words for-grace, providence, the human condition, first person theology, theodicy, even eschatology-go with them. We ended, as usual, with joys and concerns, followed by prayer together that lifted them each up to a God they seem to know as good, all the time, even if they are only beginning to articulate why. We dismiss with the traditional benediction:

May the Lord bless you and keep you,
the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you,
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and grant you peace. Amen.

And they leave, perhaps less at peace than usual. As it should be. For if these young people are to know God is good, it must be through more than repeating a catch phrase as if saying it makes it so. There will be many opportunities in the near future for these youth be in ministry to people who may be seeking the goodness of God from a depth of sorrow and despair that rivals the Marinas Trench. Their complacency will be challenged and shocked, as the comment that sparked our discussion indicates has already been done. These youth, their congregation, and the Church as a whole cannot offer bumper stickers to stave off the bleeding of deep spiritual wounds. We must acknowledge that, in this journey together, we seek the goodness of God, even as we offer it. A Focus Phrase simply gets us to the place where we may begin.