February 15

Paul in Athens

                While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols…Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.  For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things…Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Acts 17:16-31

            Paul went to Athens to lay low.  He had just been smuggled out of a couple of other communities where people were trying to kill him.  He was sent to Athens and told to wait, quietly, until his friends could join him.  Paul’s idea of waiting quietly was to engage in public debate with the greatest minds in the city as he sought to spread the gospel.  Paul looked around the great city and was compelled to speak, to try and share the good news with people who had not heard.   I can just see his friends arriving into Athens and shaking their heads.  They had just wanted Paul to blend in for a little while, to make his life easier.

            Many days I just want my son to be able to blend in.  Laugh at the right time and at the right volume so that you don’t get those sideways looks.  Don’t plug your ears and run out of the room when movies or songs are referenced.  Don’t make clicking and chirping sounds and stop twitching…just lay low for a little while so that people can see that you are safe and you are fun to be around.  Just fit in and be normal for a while and you might make some friends.

            I find myself torn.  On the one hand I really want for my son to have friends and I see how some of his mannerisms push peers away.  Teenagers are not especially good at thinking of outside-the-box relationships and it would be easier to be around other teens if my son just worked really hard at pretending to be someone else.  On the other hand, this is who he is and he should not have to recreate himself.  Every adult who encounters the boy adores him.  Maybe we just need to wait for his peer group to age and mature before we are able to find community.  So at the moment we work on some of his socially-awkward idiosyncrasies and look for opportunities to have positive interactions with the world.  Some go well.  Some go poorly.

            Fitting in is overrated.  Paul became a central figure of Church History because he refused to fit in.  He lived his live fully engaged with who God had created him to be.  It won him friends and followers.  It won him vehement and cruel opponents.  It allowed him to change the world and enter eternal life with confidence and integrity.

            We can give our kids tools and resources to better engage with the world, but our final goal should never be that they just blend in and be like everyone else.  They are better than that. 

           

A moment to reflect:

What tools or resources does your child need in order to better engage with the world without losing their individuality?