Sitting Next to My Belief

Even though teenagers are relationally driven, sometimes getting them to understand God in terms of relationship can be a challenge. This is one of the reasons I like to use imaginitive prayer exercises when I get a chance--to move teens from an understanding of faith as rules to faith as relationship.

This evening I had an interesting experience. We did an imaginitive prayer exercise in youth group, and Emily said, "sitting next to Jesus was like sitting next to my belief(s)".

I am still pondering what exactly that means. It can be taken a number of different ways. I asked her, but when she tried to explain it she lost steam.

Maybe what it means is that sitting next to your beliefs means that your "beliefs" are vested more in a person than they are in abstract concepts. That I don't have "beliefs", that what I have is a relationship with Jesus.

It could be that her beliefs are not "inside" of her, but "outside" of her. Thus, her beliefs are something that influence her and act on her, but they do not come from the core of her being. They give her comfort, peace and guidance, but somehow her beliefs are outside of the core of who she is.

Personally, I think both things are probably true in this particular persons life right now, and that is fairly typical of adolescents. Most adolescents have core beliefs and/or spiritual commitments, and they see them as something that is acting upon them and in relationship with them. They do not, however, see their beliefs quite yet as something emerging from within them. Maybe that is more of an adult faith.