Discernment-- Insights

I will start with a thought that did not originate with me but seems so profound. I think the first time I heard it was from a Rob Bell teaching at a Youth Specialties conference in Nov. 2004. He spoke about an old rabbi saying that said, "in the beginning of Genesis God created light and dark, and then the rest of the Bible is teaching people how to discern between the two." Pretty profound, don't you think? I suggest you go to the Youth Specialties archives and see if you could get rob Bell's whole teaching from YWC Atlanta 2004. If you are a youth leader or parent it is one of those lessons that makes you go, "hhhmmmm?" Then you can discern for yourselves whether you agree with his teaching or not. Of course you can read Rob Bell's book, "Velvet Elvis" for a really thorough teaching. This is not a commercial for Rob Bell, but sometimes good men should get props for writing profound thoughts. Of course, if you heard Rob Bell's teaching in Atlanta then he wouldn't of even minded if I plagiarized his teaching as my own.

Discernment... there seems to be such a fine line between discernment and being judgemental in so many Christian circles. Using Brent's experience with his son Ethan watching "Dora the Explorer." What a cool bonding time between father and son, and pure fun in their situation and I don't find anything wrong in what they did, but I think discernment go far deeper than making a judgement for the sake of laughs. Judging the differences between good and evil and then walking away unchanged is foolish. Of course I am talking about meatier decisions than the redundant antics of Dora.

What's the next Question?:
Let's use Brent and Ethan's Dora example, but we will add more mature reasoning skills than a 6 or 7 year old can handle. We have an experience where we have a teachable moment where we see discernment being used we must then as the next question. "Ethan, now that you see how brainless this show is, what do you think you should do about watching it?" Remember, we are not really talking about Dora." But replace Ethan with a 17 year old and replace Dora with "One Tree Hill", or The Pussy Cat Dolls, or some H, blow, weed, Superbad...... Once we can get someone to admit that something is light or dark we then must ask the next question of what they want or need to do with that information.

I probably don't need to say it, but I will say it anyway: My response is not about Brent and Ethan, but using a familiar story to help make a point. Truthfully I cannot wait until the day I am sitting on the couch with a son joking around about a cartoon; but in the same breath, when a vital teachable moment comes up 10 years later with the same son I hope I ask the right questions.