Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

So I am at the Superstart conference this weekend in Bloomington, IL.

I have the privilege of bringing 9, 5th and 6th grade students to this event and it has been a blast. We already had a student lose a tooth during worship. Don’t worry I didn’t hit her. I think she hit herself. Im not really sure though.

Anyway there was something that happened during the service that if you are following me on twitter you already seen, but there was an event that I was not expecting.

During his sermon, Patrick, the main man of the weekend, called someone up to the stage to read a passage from the bible. You would almost think that it was something that was planned before the service. One of those things that you cant really explain other than God speaking to a group of people.

Now I know that it is somewhat hard to envision, but imagine a 4 foot nothing, red head, that is home schooled get up from his seat, in front of 1300 preteens. Well this is what came out of the crowd.

A little 5th grader named Austin. What Austin had to say though, was much more profound and amazing that what his stature portrayed.

Austin got up and read Ephesians 5:1-3. A) he did a great job reading the passage. B) he then got asked the question “what does it mean when the bible says to imitate God?”

(this is paraphrasing what he said, but imagine a 5th grader saying this)

“Well when you imitate someone it means that you are being the same, some people call that being a copycat.” Another question was asked-”so what does it mean to imitate God?”

Austin’s answer: “well it would mean that we are supposed to be exactly like God, but that isn’t possible because God is perfect and we can’t be perfect because we sin.”

Question: “so what does it mean to show God’s love to others?”

Austin’s answer: ” well, we are supposed to not be mean or anything. But since i am home schooled i dont get the most oppurtunity to show it to others. But my friends say that they see people eating by themselves, so if i was them i would go over and talk to those people and you may never know, you could find out that he or she is  really funny, or maybe you will end up finding a really good friend. But it would be even cooler to if you could bring them to Jesus. ”

Are you getting it like this 5th grader is?

When was the last time you  talked to someone about Jesus without knowing them? Or even talking to a stranger at your local coffee shop, or breakfast spot?

Imagine if we all had the courage like Austin.

I wish I could.

Are you sharing God’s love like we need too?

Are you imitating God in everything in your life?