Many Christian young people leave home for college and return with a shattered faith. The Christian bank card we handed them as they walked out the door quickly became overdrawn as they tried to pay off the rapidly accumulating intellectual debt brought on by the demands of friends, professors, and course material. Did we make them religiously secure by putting a substantial down payment into their deposit of faith, or did we unwittingly facilitate overdraft angst by allowing the world to drain their account? Did we encourage them to invest in heavenly treasure or the fluctuating market of cultural mammon?

Our young people’s faith is being deconstructed by our increasingly postmodern culture. The problem with this deconstruction is that instead of being encouraged to rebuild, they are emboldened to dance around in the wreckage. Instead of sifting through the rubble to find the Stone the builders rejected they are sold pet rocks. Instead of gathering up the boulders and building a temple of truth, they are encouraged to bash each other over the head with them. While deconstruction can be a very painful process, it can also be valuable if it exposes weaknesses in our thinking.  Our faith can become stronger if we periodically conduct a thorough inspection of our foundation. However, as we proceed, we need to be emotionally prepared to discover that one our cherished Christian walls is not load-bearing and must be reengineered.

Before our children venture out into the cultural deconstruction zone, we should begin inspections of their faith in the safety of our homes and churches. It may be uncomfortable for them to have a home inspector walk through their basement and attic and make structural suggestions, but it is a much better option than having to drive out of town late at night to pick up the pieces of their shattered faith.

My faith was initially quite simple. It consisted of about five pieces. However, as I was confronted by accumulating doubts and questions, it was smashed into a thousand pieces. I realized that putting it back together would take some effort, but the Good News was I had Biblical box top that showed me what the final product should look like. While I now have many more pieces, each one better prepares me to give an answer to everyone who asks the reasons for the hope that I have. I am still putting it together, but it is revealing a far more beautiful picture than I could have ever imagined. The power of a thousand-piece puzzle is that it makes it much more likely that we have already wrestled with one of the many questions that our young people bring to us.

Life can be quite puzzling, but if we take the time to properly piece it together, we will be rewarded with a coherent picture of reality that can eloquently be shared with others.

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash