Loud, Childlike Faith

THIS WEEK I'm in Miami after a long day of traveling and preparation for the VBS we're about to do with Bridge Church of Miami. I'm very excited about this. I feel the Holy Spirit moving and uniting my team, and I know God is about to use this event to make an eternal difference in these kids' lives. We already have a motto that we keep praying: "We aren't coming to bring a program; we're coming to bring His Presence!"
This week for me is going to be about children. I get to watch over them and teach them. Our very important theme is quite simply "Trust God!" We have them say it with us many times every day, so that by the time they leave they'll know God is someone they can trust and who loves them. But I learn from these kids too. On the way down here I was reading the first few chapters of Paul E. Miller's A Praying Life, which discussed the way Jesus encouraged His own disciples to be like children.

Matthew 18:2-4 "And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, 'Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven.'"
It stood out to me that the point isn't to be childish, but to trust God like a child trusts his father. It's the unashamed acknowledgement of dependency on Him. For a lot of people, when we're small we think our dads can do anything. He's a man with no limits. The difference with God is that He is actually limitless, and we don't always look up to Him like that's the case.
I don't think I'll ever forget how Liana, the littlest girl on my first VBS team, related to her daddy. One day when he left her with me, she was desperate in tears because she just loves him so much, and she was scared to be away from him. Another day, when she saw him as he came to pick her up, she started jumping up and down in pure, sunny joy, shouting "Daddy!" over and over.
There's something about children that God finds very precious and admirable. They have something that we're in danger of losing as we get older and wiser. It was easy to see the first time we did this VBS. They have joy in the presence of their parents who love them. They have a certain loud, persistent faith that lets them keep asking until they gets what they need. A little girl named Rebeccah, who was on my team two weeks ago, often needed to go to the restroom. I'd usually tell her at first to wait a minute, because we were busy and I had so many kids to watch. We were in the middle of learning. But she would keep asking until she got to go. She doesn't know she has a secret to prayer: she trusted me as the person who was looking after her, and as a result she knew I was going to do my best to give her what she needed as soon as possible.
The funny thing is that when everybody else saw that she got what she asked, they wanted to go too. Everybody seemed to share a bladder. It showed me that when we openly ask until we receive, other people's faith in the Provider will be strengthened.
Children don't make long, flowery statements and beat around the bush. And they don't easily doubt. They see where their help comes from, and they aren't shy about saying what they need. And when they don't understand what's happening, they say so. Miller pointed out that Peter was always quick to say what he thought, to make declarations of loyalty or doubt or shame, to put the microphone to the bottom of his heart. A little boy on the team named Coran was that vocal. He wanted the extra bracelts on my arm. He wanted to be my extra special helper. He wanted the chance to do anything, to be in front, and to be a part of the game.
Children are meant to grow up and gain some sort of tact. But what God wants us to take from the loud, thoughtful voices of children is the ability to be straightforward with Him, to call Him Daddy, to say "I don't get it!" and "Why can't I have it now?!" but also to say "You're my Daddy! This is what I need, and I know you will take care of me, and I love you so much!" And more than anything, to jump up and down ecstatically when we see that He is near, because whatever He's up to, it's for our good.
I read this one day this week: Psalm 8:2, "Out of the mouths of babies and infants You have established strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger." He makes His praise come even from people with little understanding and experience, even from loud and trusting young ones, so all His enemies will be speechless.
That's what it looked like when a little hero named Natalie on my team got up from dinner tonight and started passing out VBS fliers to people at other tables. Faith combined with action make change.
This week we'll be promising a new group of kids that they can trust God, and training them to take their natural faith and run to Him with it. But I think every time we shout "Trust God!" it will be as much for me as for them, to tell me to look around and gain the same childlike gleam of trust that I see in the eyes of these kids who are discovering a faithful God. To remind me that His children are never grown up and independent of Him, and He always wants to hear us crying out to Him.