Easy as riding a bike.

Teenagers are an enigma. Their responses can range from mind-numbing ignorance to the immensely profound in a matter of seconds. Yet the ignorance that I see in the kids is complicated by my own ironic ignorance.

In the youth group at my church, we asked the kids to write down questions about life....anything they could think of. 98% of them were so deep they pulled at my soul. Did I think this deep when I was this age?

I'd like to think I did as a teen, but I remember being consumed with girls, video games and the fact that my facial hair looked awesome most of the time.



The urgency for an answer these kid's questions demanded were painful. Questions about God, interfaith relationships, the modern interpretation of the Book of Revelation and even the deceptively simple "Is Obama a Christian?". In each of their questions, I felt their urgency for an answer. Yet, at this age there is so much they haven't experienced. Our answers would mostly be a lot of pat answers and what seems like dodging the 'tough' answer.

Teens thinking is not fully concrete yet. They struggle with the dichotomy that being a teen presents. You are stuck in this No Man's Land between child's play and adulthood. How do you give a teen a sufficient answer without sacrificing the integrity of what you know?

Life is not cut and dry. Nor are answers to these questions got with any measure of ease.

The vehicle that my words are traveling is in need of gas.