Meeting Marilyn

I never thought I’d listen to Marilyn Manson.

Last night I did.

It happened while I was driving my friend Lena to her house. Lena is a high school senior and 10 years younger than me, but we’re still friends.

I didn’t set out to disciple someone, but when I met Lena five years ago something clicked. God put her on my heart. We get together once a week and go to Starbucks. Over white chocolate mochas, we talk about school, friends, family — and God.

Lena believes in God. But she’s not ready to follow Him completely. She’s afraid doing that would be the end of her fun and exciting life. We can talk about youth group and God’s love, but when we start talking about obedience, Lena squirms and says she has to use the bathroom.

I am a classic goody-goody. Christian family. More than one Bible. Home schooled. As a teen, my worst sins consisted of lying to my parents, lashing out at siblings and sneaking ice cream from the outside freezer. Of course, I was always very repentant.

Lena, on the other hand, does things I never would have even thought about doing — things discouraged by youth leaders everywhere. Lena was adopted into a Christian family when she was 7. Her parents divorced several years later and her dad remarried. She’s a survivor — independent and stubborn.

At first I thought Lena just needed to grow in her faith, so we did a Bible study on the basics of the Christian life: reading the Bible, praying, witnessing. I soon realized it wasn’t that she was uneducated in the basics, she just didn’t want to do them.

Now we just talk about God. Lena asks me questions, and I answer them the best I can, using my pocket Bible when I get stuck.

Sometimes I get discouraged. I don’t know how I can help someone so different from me. How can I be relevant to her life when I never experienced what she’s going through?

Satan wants me to feel inadequate and give up.

God wants me to feel inadequate and run to Him for power. When I do, I think He smiles, rolls up his sleeves and goes straight to work. Who’s to say that He didn’t choose me, in my relative wholeness, to model for Lena a life she’s never known but desperately wants — a life only found in Jesus Christ.

This is an exerpt from "Daring Discipleship." Read the rest at Boundless.