Response to “Walking with God in the Last Days”

In the article “Walking with God in the Last Days,” Pastor J. Elem draws our attention to Enoch’s walk with God, noting that Genesis 5:22 seems to tie it to his role as a father. He teases out both the call to walk with God and to parent faithfully, considering what it might look like for us to live in a way that results in generational faithfulness. Despite our cultural and geographic differences, many of Pastor Elem’s concerns resonate with me. How do we pass on faith to our children? How do we attend to our own faith as parents? What does it mean to pursue God wholeheartedly despite the challenges of family life? But Pastor Elem’s words also reminded me of the spiritual possibilities of parenthood and that the work of parenting invites us into unique dimensions of faith. 

Pastor Elem’s context in Beijing undoubtedly shapes the ways parenting challenges his relationship with God just as my context here in the United States does to mine. But his words hit uniquely on my Western ears because I live in a context where parenthood and childrearing are, more often than not, a lifestyle choice. Drawing the connection between Enoch’s relationship with God and his role as a parent confronts our western tendency toward an individualist faith. Whether we understand it or not, our personal walk with God cannot be uncoupled from our relationships with others, and the relationships closest to us, such as between a parent and child, have the greatest affect on our spiritual walk. Family is not simply a social structure, a chosen lifestyle, or a source of fulfillment. Family is a crucible in which faith is formed and refined. 

For American believers, parenting particularly challenges our culture’s belief in self-creation. At first, we may persist in this delusion, especially when our children are young. Parenthood may even convince us that we have greater power over destinies than we do by virtue of the fact that our choices shape so much of our children’s lives and experiences. But soon enough, infancy gives way to the “No’s” of toddlerhood and toddlerhood gives way to the increasing independence of adolescence. And our children will assume their unique callings just as we once did. 

Wrestling with our own “begottenness” is especially important for those whose generational memories extend only a few hundred years. In the United States, for example, we can struggle to understand ourselves as the descendants of our ancestors and in turn, struggle to grasp that we are the ancestors of future descendants. This “generational blindness” fosters a kind of personal self-reliance and presentism at odds with the Christian faith. Learning to walk with the God of eternity means understanding ourselves within time and generations, understanding the limited role we play in our own creation as well as the limited role we play in our children's lives. It means learning to rely more closely on God’s own timelessness and surrendering ourselves—and our children—to him.  

Parenting also invites us to face our inability to keep our children safe. Again, we often resist this invitation. And insofar as American culture allows us to, insofar as we can pursue their security through wealth, education, and social advancement, we will. And as Pastor Elem notes, when we do this, we can overlook the thing that our child needs most: to walk with God themselves. “Do you really believe,” Pastor Elem asks, “that growing in the Spirit is also the first priority for him?” 

But if we will let parenting teach us what God designs for it to teach us, we may just as quickly learn how much we and our children both need God’s protection. We may learn that the only sure way to protect our children is to abandon them to him—both now and into the future when we are no longer around to protect them. Because ultimately God invites us into the work of hope. 

This may seem at odds with Pastor Elem’s focus on the “last days” and the promise of God’s judgment. Speaking of Enoch, he notes that “he knew that his generation would end in judgment; and because he knew it would end, he would live a completely different life from others.” And that “different life” was marked by walking with God. In other words, preparing ourselves and our children for the inevitability of God’s justice means aligning ourselves now with the world that is to come. This eschatological vision interrupts our presentism and confounds the lie that the comfort we currently enjoy will last forever. Instead, we anticipate that our children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren may be the ones to endure judgment when it finally descends.

Why is this hopeful? At the very least, it offers us a clear-eyed glimpse of the future. It reminds us that God will prevail. Aligning ourselves and our children with his purposes will prepare them for the day when he finally sets all things right. Furthermore this vision—that God does not overlook injustice—offers particular hope to Christians suffering under persecution. As parents calling our children to a life of potential hardship, we can do this in the confidence that these present difficulties are but for a moment.

Finally, by drawing our attention to Enoch walking with God through the challenges of parenthood, Pastor Elem reminds us of the influence we have over the next generation. While we have many things to learn from parenting, we also have many things to teach. And ultimately, the best way to lead our children to walk with God is to walk with him ourselves. “What is even more crucial,” he writes, “is whether the parents’ own faith in the gospel can be a powerful witness before their children.” Sometimes this will mean parenting our children in countercultural ways. Sometimes it will mean being less present in their lives in order to make room for God’s presence. But ultimately, it will mean entrusting them to the One who has proven himself worthy of this trust throughout all generations.