My son was getting excited for his senior prom. The theme
was Great Gatsby and he was going to dress to fit the part. He described the
suit as an “inverted” suit and could not wait to find one. I inquired about
what “inverted” meant to him and he said, “A fully white suit. The twenties was
all about rebellion. The men wore inverted suits to show their blatant disregard
for what was considered ‘acceptable’ to their parents. The woman cut their hair
short and wore low cut, short dresses that accentuated their figures. The whole
purpose of the Roaring Twenties was to rebel against a culture that had
otherwise suffocated them.”
It made me think, ponder and delight in the concept,
especially coming from my son, who was my most rebellious child. As a young
boy, he constantly disregarded our rules and boundaries. He was aggressive and
intense and bold. He always spoke his mind, and as early as 5, told me I was
dumb and he was smarter. No amount of punishment curbed his appetite for
rebellion. The more we spanked, grounded, and punished him the more defiant he
became.
His behavior was triggered by bullying from peers and
adults, who I trusted to affirm and encourage him. Coaches, teachers, pastors
and friends spoke death over him and pushed and prodded at him as if he were a
bull and they were matadors. My husband and I became desperate to save his
soul. We began fasting every Friday for him, praying and homeschooling him to
give him a safe place to grow and learn and fall and get back up again. My
heart was ravished by the notion that I was failing my son and did not know how
to reach him.
One day as I was crying out to the Lord, I pointed my finger
at Him and said, “You made my son, he has been rebellious since he came out of
my womb!!! Why Lord? Why? You need to fix him, change him and make him an
obedient child. I don’t know what else to do!” The silence lingered, as I
waited for the Lord to respond to my desperate cry. “Teresa,” the Lord
responded, “I made him rebellious for a reason.”
“What!” I shouted back to God! My tears drowned out His
words and He stopped talking until I was ready to listen. “I made Elijah
rebellious for a reason. Rebellion is not a sin.” I was shocked at the notion
that rebellion was not a sin. OF COURSE IT IS A SIN!!! And then my God, the one
who created my son, the one who knows the beginning from the end said something
that changed my whole life, and my sons, “I made your son to REBEL against the
kingdom of darkness. He needs to learn how to be rebellious in this age, so
that he does not conform to this world. You need to embrace his rebellion and
teach him who to rebel against. Do not punish him for his natural makeup, guide
and direct him on how to rebel against those things that are not pleasing to
Me.”
I was dumbfounded, relieved, confused and joyful all at the
same time. How do I that? How do I take this rebellious child and make him
rebel against Satan, which is pleasing to God and not against us, his parents
or God, which is displeasing to God. “I will show you how.” The Lord affirmed
in my heart.
And so my husband and I began a journey to take his rebellion
and affirm him in it, and teach him that it was a gift from God. To rebel
against Satan and wickedness and not against us or God. My son delighted in it.
He began to feel valued and appreciated. When he would act in rebellion against
us, I would say, “Who did God make you to rebel against? Me or Satan?” He would
quickly say, “Satan.” And then follow up with, “Sorry mama, I am still trying
to learn.” I would continue to affirm him in his act of rebellion and I watched
as this bullied, broken, cursed little boy turned into a confident, whole,
blessed young man. Standing in the face of wickedness, he does not back down.
He meets it head on and stands in the place of others, who cannot stand for
themselves. He advocates for those who are bullied or devalued and does so with
such a fierce intention, that even some of the most intimidating people he has
come into contact with, have backed down. He continues to fight an uphill
battle. Being overlooked, mistreated and bullied; but he rebels against the wicked
intentions of others against him and continues to fight the good fight for his
Savior.
This is the inverted gospel. When we are programmed to
believe that life is a certain way, that religion is supposed to look a certain
way, when we buy into lies that have been told as truth, people like my son,
invert the mindset to give a different perspective. What is perceived as
rebellion by the church, may in fact be EXACTLY what God intended.
The youth today who follow Christ are not much different
than the youth in the Roaring Twenties. They are rebelling against the way
their parents did church, the way America views church, the way they have been
taught to revere church. Instead they are rebelling against the American Church
Corporate Machine and pushing for a more organic expression of faith.
Either way you choose, the inverted gospel will be preached.
Either way, our youth are the future and this is what the New Generation
Christian will look like. The baby boom generation will die and the legacy they
leave will not affect what is happening in our youth today. Their rebellion is
not a sin. In fact, their rebellion is the very thing that will bring revival
to our dying land. They will not only rebel against the world and the kingdom
of darkness, they will also rebel against the archaic “Kingdoms on Earth” these
pastors have created for themselves.
Much like the rebellion on the Hunger Games, the rebellion
of a young girl, who rebelled against dominance and oppression, set a country
on fire and changed the world. This rebellious girl, Katniss, inverted the way
people thought about the Hunger Games and their places in the world and the way
they treated others. Her rebellion set people free and destroyed the “kingdoms”
that were established to bring fear and death. That is why books like Hunger
Games and now Divergent are so popular with the youth. They embrace their
hearts, they cultivate their rebellion in a positive way.
We, as Christians, must do the same. We must embrace their
rebellious hearts and steer them to whom they need to rebel against. Cultivate their
culture with love and acceptance and teach them whom their rebellious hearts
were made to rebel against, instead of condemning them for being exactly who
God created them to be. Their inverted mindset, to do everything different than
their parents, is something that is beautiful and creative and may be the very
thing that, if blessed and honored, can change the world.
