![]() They ended up as missionary kids right here in America. We know God has called us to love the city of Los Angeles, and this is how it looks right now. ![]() And every year my husband and I weigh our circumstances, family ministry opportunities, and their educational needs to see if this all still makes sense. They attend a school where they don’t know anyone else who goes to church every Sunday. While my childhood was saturated in Christian culture, my kids are having the opposite experience. I was hungry, and God was so, so gracious. I was a hot mess of self-righteous arrogance and wild-eyed insecurity, but a seed planted nonetheless, hoping to grow into spiritual fruitfulness amid various thorns and thistles of church-life at the turn of the last century. I had no idea how much I was being shaped by safely floating among the majority culture. Still, I prided myself on being “in the world” because I hung out with a handful of non-Christian theater friends. I was the banner youth group kid in a town where we spent more time discussing which kind of Christian you were than whether or not you had heard about Jesus. I did, however, attend Christian summer camp and youth conferences, where we sang “Friends are Friends Forever” and “I Can Only Imagine” until our eyes were all red and our hearts full. My parents are both musicians, and my dad produced music for several country artists, so most of my CD collection was Shania Twain, Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, and all their other friends in low places. In fact, I only recently learned that this is an insider acronym for “Contemporary Christian Music” thanks to Twitter. I was raised in the Bible Belt, although to be fair, I did not actually grow up on an exclusive diet of CCM. The line between music quality and the rosy glasses of nostalgia has completely blurred for me, and I have no shame. I added this year’s Cornerstone Kids Camp songs to a Spotify playlist I created after VBS 2019-enhanced of course with some Newsboys, 90s worship jams, and half the DC Talk Jesus Freak album because, well, necessary. While 20-something me would have rolled her eyes in musical elitist disdain, I could not be happier to learn the dance moves and sing along with my children about how God makes a way in the wilderness. My car speakers are on a regular loop this week that includes “ Jesus is our Guide,” “ He is The Light,” and “ I’m Trusting You,” a song that opens with a growling lion and monumental drumbeat.
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