“Halfway up the stairs is the stair where I sit. There isn’t any other stair quite like it.” Remember that appealing song of the Muppets, sung by Kermit’s nephew Robin? Well, I’ve just been helping taking part in a local school assembly with 180 year 8 pupils, and we started with the video of that song.

We asked them why Robin didn’t climb a bit higher. Was it because he was safe and comfortable there? Was it because he wasn’t sure what was at the top ?

The lecture theatre had stops rising up. We pointed out that we all might be on different steps in our belief in God. The bottom step was total unbelief or denial that any belief in God was necessary to successful living. We moved up to the next step of an occasional interest. And so it went on, until the truth about life was a topic that was important to us, and finally on the top step to embracing it in life.

We asked these 12 and 13 year olds where they were on the steps. We would never tell a teenager what to believe, but we put options in front of them. We validated them on whatever step there were at, whether at Kermit’s nephew’s middle step or right at the bottom, thinking that God is irrelevant. We challenged them to think about moving up a step. And I suppose we could all take on that challenge.

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