Are you a stay-inside-the-lines person or a rebel? Do you like rules and order or would you prefer anarchy?
My daughter and I recently went to see Matilda the Musical in London’t West End. It’s the sort of evening out that makes you wonder at what human beings are capable of with enough practise and a generous dose of creativity.
The Brooks family is now very much obsessed with the Matilda soundtrack. If you’re in West London any time soon, you’re likely to hear my children marching the streets singing “The School Song.” As soon as you finish reading this, you should definitely check out some of the Matilda tunes.
At the show’s climax, the children sing a song called “Revolting Children.” It’s not about disgusting children, but about children who are starting a revolt against the tyrannical authority figure, Miss Trunchbull. (“Revolting” is a verb, not an adjective, for fellow grammar geeks.)
Never again will we forget the day
we fought for the right to be a little bit naughty.
One of the tensions in the show is between the evil disciplinarian who sings about staying inside the lines and the anarchic children who want to be free. Of course, the children win in the end.
As Christian parents we spend a lot of time teaching our children obedience. They must respect authority – ultimately God’s authority. We teach them grace and we also teach them to obey Jesus’ commandments, “Love the Lord your God… and love your neighbour as yourself.”
But as I drive through the streets of London singing “Revolting Children” at the top of my voice, I’m also reminded that as a people group, God’s people are often rebellious. They have to be. I want my children to grow up to serve Christ with such obedience and devotion that they are willing to “be a little bit naughty,” or even a lot naughty, for the gospel and for Christ’s glory.
Jesus didn’t lead a revolt (he even said, “Am I leading a revolt?”) but by bringing God’s Kingdom he brought division, subversion and controversy.
I want our children to see that following Christ is exciting, and will sometimes get them in all kinds of trouble. The trouble itself might not be exciting, but Jesus is worth it. Jesus should never be seen as the well-behaved, insipid option.
With this in mind, I present to you my Top Ten Revolting Role Models for my children. Excitingly, it was hard to pick just ten (ish). And apart from the no. 1 spot, they could be in any order, I’m sure.
10. Rahab of Jericho
She harboured spies; she deceived the king’s men; she’s honoured in the family line of Jesus. She’s a sign to us that God’s salvation has always been first for the Jew and then for the Gentile. (See Joshua 2 and Matthew 1.)
9. Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, the Oxford Martyrs
English reformers. Burned at the stake during the reign of Queen Mary I:
“Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”
Where would we be without these brave men, and many like them, who went before us?
8. Brother Andrew
God’s smuggler. Driving round the Eastern Bloc with a modified VW Beetle full of contraband Bibles. Adventure stories don’t get much better than this!
7. Mary Slessor
My 10-year-old daughter suggested that this courageous Scottish woman be included in our list. When she arrived in Calabar, Nigeria in 1876 (aged 28) she discovered that the people there had certain practices which she felt compelled to rebel against:
“[The baby] has an evil spirit… That’s why its mother died and that’s why nobody else wants it.” Mary began rescuing babies who’d been left out under bushes to die of exposure and starvation. She also discovered another horrifying tradition:
“When twin babies are born one of them is the child of an evil spirit. But as we don’t know which one, they’re both killed.”
… There was no arguing with Mary Slessor.
“I’ll look after the twins,” she said… “The Lord God made them both.”
(Excerpt from Ten Girls who Changed the World by Irene Howat, p. 74-76.)
6. Simon Peter the Fisherman
There’s hope for all of us as Peter, the loud-mouthed, trigger-happy coward became the fearless founder of the early church!
18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, ‘Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’ Acts 4:18-20. If you haven’t got it already, I do recommend the Diary of a Disciple, Peter and Paul’s Story. Let your children see their forefathers getting into all kinds of scrapes for Jesus.
5. Saul of Tarsus
It seems from reading Acts that most places he went, Saul/Paul was accused of leading a revolt. Take Ephesus for example, where he inadvertently caused a riot because the blokes who made and sold little wooden and silver gods weren’t happy about Saul’s message about One True God. He didn’t ask for trouble, but it did seem to follow him wherever he went:
22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. (Acts 20)
4. Corrie Ten Boom
Corrie and her family were punished most severely for rebelling against the Nazis by hiding Jews in their home. The courage and faithfulness of Corrie and Betsie throughout their time in the hellish Nazi concentration camps is truly miraculous – a work of God’s unfathomable grace and power. Here is a more lighthearted anecdote:
Many Jews were saved because of the ten Boom family but there were some hairy moments. One day the whole family and several ‘guests’ were sitting round the kitchen table when a window cleaner climbed up his ladder and started to clean the outside of the window! One of the Jews thought quickly. ‘Start singing Happy Birthday,’ he whispered, ‘then they’ll think we’re having a party.’ And that’s what they did. They all sang Happy Birthday to Papa ten Boom and they never did find out if the window cleaner had just come to the wrong house or if he was a German spy! (Ten Girls who Changed the World, p. 141.)
Have you ever tried reading aloud to your children about Corrie Ten Boom? Man it’s hard to get through without tears. When my husband read a child-friendly account to my kids, we were both in bits. If you haven’t read The Hiding Place, I command you to go and do so immediately. Do not pass Go or collect £200.
3. William Tyndale
The heroic Bible translator! Humanly speaking, if it weren’t for him, we English-speakers wouldn’t know Jesus. We give the Lord great thanks that, by the grace of God, Tyndale cared more about peasants (like me) hearing the Word than he did about obeying the rules of the Church or the State. Here are his famous words, spoken to a Catholic scholar:
“I defy the Pope and all his laws. . . . If God spare my life ere many years,
I will cause a boy that driveth the plow,
shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”
2. Daniel the Hebrew
Oh Lord, grant that our children might grow up to be people of whom it can be said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this [man/woman] unless it has something to do with the law of [his/her] God.” (Daniel 6.5). May they say to the world, like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did, “… we will not serve your gods.” (Daniel 3.18) Amen!
1. Jesus of Nazareth
Our perfect, peaceful, revolting rebel! He turned the world upside-down, teaching that the first would be last and the last would be first; he touched the leper; he spoke to the Samaritan woman and ate with tax collectors and sinners. His Kingdom is not of this world and if we’re part of His Kingdom then we’re not of this world anymore either.
“Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.”
Luke 12.51
Mum in Zone One 