School, Temptation and Synergy

Wednesday night at our church, someone asked for prayer for the kids as they go back to school. They didn’t ask for wisdom to do their school work; they didn’t ask for protection from being hit by a school bus or an errant dodge ball. They asked for protection from temptation.

I thought that was a good prayer request, because the synergy of a group’s proclivities and strengths include the synergy to sin. (Pastors, feel free to steal that nifty little nugget for a sermon title.) The temptation of each individual feeds off the temptation of another, to make the compounded temptation greater than the sum of its parts. This is especially true of a group of people with a lack of spiritual, emotional and mental maturity; people like school kids.

This reminded me of another group of people that got into trouble because they got together. Nimrod and his little kingdom in Genesis 11 got the bright idea that they could build a tower all the way to Heaven. Whether they planned to take over or just move in, the motive was simple; bypass God to get to Heaven. It was here that the synergy of their sin got the attention of God himself when He said, “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” (Verse 6) So, God upset the apple cart by confounding their language so they could not communicate.

So pray for our kids as they go back to school. Pray that they don’t act like a bunch of “Nimrods” and try to live life without Jesus. Pray that you don't do the same in the groups you attend, like work, or family, or even church. Because life is confusing enough as it is.