Last week, I met up with a high school friend that I hadn’t seen since 1997. She moved to the east coast for college, met a boy, got married, had kids, and settled in the east coast. It took awhile for us to remember the last time we had seen each other, and it was at her wedding in 1997. We were close friends in high school… in fact, during our first few years in college, we had weekly phone appointments (this was before internet, email days).
This reunion was so sweet… not just because we got to meet up and catch up after so many years… but all the more because we were able to share about how God had been working in our lives. We were definitely in different places in our lives, but no doubt that God was super active in both of our lives. Part of what had kept us from staying in touch over 10 years ago (besides our busy personal lives) was our involvement in our churches. Her in her Southern Baptist Church, and me in my Reformed Presbyterian Church (back then). We were both super involved in our churches which had consumed a lot of our times. Although we were in two very different churches, we both had something in common. Our spiritual lives were so dependent on our intellectual knowledge of the Word and serving, serving, and serving. There is nothing wrong with knowing the Word of God nor serving… However, that had taken precedence in our spiritual lives…
As we both shared, I realized that her faith experience strangely had paralleled mine. She had experienced the Holy Spirit in a whole new way, and realized that her heart was so far behind her mind and body. I also have come to realize in the last six years or so that intellect without heart is unhealthy and unbalanced. In the past couple years, I have strongly emphasized the importance of moving kids from information to transformation in my workshops at kidmin conferences. This is very dear to my heart because I was that kid that grew up with a lot of biblical knowledge… my assurance in my salvation lied on what I knew rather than what I believed with my heart. It took a long time for my heart to catch up and for that transformation to take place. My friend shared this quote that she heard: “With just the Word, the church dries up. With just the Spirit, the church blows up. But with the Word and the Spirit, the church grows up.”
This is why I’m passionate about teaching kids heart matters, not just the biblical truths. Today I came across Dale Hudson’s blog that talked about this very subject… and he said it way better than I possibly can… and it’s very practical for kidmin folks… so here it is:
gloria s. lee 