Inverted Gospel

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. 

Don’t be surprised if you are not included in this movement. The “fathers” of the baby boom mega church generation is looked at by the “rebellious youth” as judgmental dictators, who exist in an archaic machine that no longer has purpose. You can either embrace the youth and their inverted gospel approach, or you can reject them.

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.