The Hunger Games

I have a good friend who went to Kenya with me a few years ago - she was so dedicated that she learned to speak Swahili. We went to Kenya and she could communicate with the locals - I stood there feeling mostly foolish, asking for someone to communicate for me!
How do you reach the lost and the dying if you can't even speak their language?

She could sing their songs,she understood when they said they were happy, or sad, or hurting.  She is such a good communicator that she was able to get beyond the words they were saying and understand the meaning - the cries of the heart, so to speak. 

She pointed out to me when the lady we were staying with was upset about something, but Toni had heard not only what she said, but how she said it.  She was able to communicate so much more that I could. I wished I could go back in time and force myself, push myself beyond what was comfortable and learn Swahili, but it was too late. 

Now I see a similar thing happening all around me, I don't know when so many of my brothers and sisters began chanting, "Close yourself off from the world"  but this isn't what the Bible teaches. 
Paul said he became all things to all men so that he might win a few.  On a roof top, the Lord told Paul to eat what was 'unclean' because God was able to redeem it - God cleansed it so that Paul could do his job, winning others to Christ!

I recently read the Hunger Games books, and my breath was literally taken away by the depth of hopelessness experienced by the characters.  The torment of war is one thing, but the hopelessness of the plight of the people was so terrible that I could not imagine living in a world like that.  But when I read, I read with my filter in place, I don't shut off my brain and ingest entertainment.  And so as I read those pages, something occurred to me,  I don't live in a world like that, and I never will.  I don't mean that my family will never be destroyed by war, or that my life will always be happy and easy and comfortable - in fact I mean just the opposite.  I expect life to not be comfortable, I expect life to be difficult to deal with and I struggle to understand the haves and have nots - but I am never hopeless.  I have Christ - He is my eternal hope.

Here is my filter:
 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Romans 8:38-39 NIV

A friend commented that his daughter read these same books in the public school at 15 or 16 - and I thought to myself - I wonder what kind of weirdo spin they put on these, because they certainly didn't teach a Christian world view.  How do public school educators teach hope in a hopeless world?

I started looking online and here are some 'teaching tips' that I found:
Explore humane vs inhumane treatment.  Evolution leads to globalization and interdependence,  in order for our species to survive. Any group that thinks they should be free from a global system is the cause of division, strife.  Close minded teachings and 'propoganda' of religious groups and specifically the Bible, are what leads to hate.

Talk about needing a filter! I pray that his daughter has a good one and that he read these books with her and explained them from a different perspective. 

 Several other friends said that Christians should limit the books they read, and that they should not read this book. Personally, for my family, I think this is a good thing to 'expose' my children to these kinds of books so that they will learn the differences between them and the world (and why those are important).  I also want them to learn how to be all things to all men, while they is still at home and can bounce those new ideas off mom and dad, and without losing sight of who they are and who they are in Christ. 

Does this mean that I think I should expose my children to all sorts of things?  Should I take them to a club and tell them to saddle up the bar so that they can be all things to all men?  Absolutely not!  Reading about depravity, and acting depraved are two completely different things!  It would be absurd to suggest that I take my children to a bar, or a strip club, or a war zone, for them to have a more complete understanding of the world.  Reading a book, with their parent, after the parent has screened the book, about these topics is a very safe and controllable way to educate my children, without exposing them.  Because they understand this is a book we are going to be discussing together, they tend to bring up the topics in this book for discussion, on their own.

 My oldest began talking to me about love  (he was literally holding the book in his hand when he brings this up) and how the characters in the book don't even understand it, much less have it. This is one of those mom moments when you hold your breath and pray!!  His heart was broken for them and he starts to talk about why they act so hopeless, why they don't care about other people.  This opened the door to conversations about what love really looks like, and why lots of people don't understand love as anything more than a physical attraction.  This leads to me being able to point out why he would want to marry a Christian girl because she will understand love the way he does, and not the way this book does (ie - love for self and survivalism)

This well written book also allows for a peek into the minds of the very lost.  Hopelessness in the face of everyday life - I can tell him, churches can preach it to him, but seeing this understanding bloom in him, on his own, through reading a fictional book - is an amazing thing. 

Some day someone will start talking about these books (or some other pop culture reference) and my children will have something substantive and relevant to add to that conversation.  They have the knowledge to share that allows the hope of Jesus Christ to bloom in someone's mind.
I am reminded that we are to be Be in the world and not of the world.  

And right here is where I and a lot of other Christian homeschooling families differ, I believe that you teach the same curriculum with a Christian world view.  My children can and will be able to explain evolution with the best of them - because how can they debunk it, if they don't understand it?

When we shelter our kids, and teach them the christianese that comes so easily to those who isolate themselves from the world, in direct conflict and disobedience to the Bible, and to the detriment of the image of Christianity all over the world, we raise a generation of children that can not speak their cultural language. 
 
So, how do you reach the lost and the dying if you can't even speak their language?
You don't.