By the time you're reading this, I will already have returned from the trip I'm about to discuss, but I decided I'd like to share this story nonetheless. So, timeline will be a little off, but it usually is on this blog anyway. So, here we go...
I'm leaving soon to go on a trip with our church's youth group. It will be 20 adults and 145 teens, heading off to the mountains for a youth conference and some quality time with the Lord and each other.
Some of the adult leaders met last week to prepare for the trip, covering both physical and practical topics, as well as those of spiritual preparation.
As I've been reflecting on what lies ahead, I've felt a little brush here or there of fear. Our job, for roughly six days is to just get completely outside ourselves and love these teens like Jesus does. I will say that my conscious and honest aim is to love others each and every day in the same way Jesus does, but at the end of most days, I get to go home to my nice quiet refuge of a house, decompress and stare at the wall a bit.
This week, I'll be surrounded by what I feel pretty certain will amount to a great deal of chaotic, high energy and high-hormone fun. These are teenagers, after all! If you're not still a teen, do you remember what it was like? I know I wasn't the only one who felt like I was going crazy half the time!
In any case, what I'm sure of is that, in order to do what it is I aim to do on his trip, I need some help. And I'm talking the Big Guns. It is only by the gift of God's Spirit that I have any chance of maintaining six days of outpouring love for these kids. And I am grateful to be able to know absolutely that He will provide. I have no doubts that it is His will that they be loved and respected - and not just for these 6 days, but every day! And I am certain that He has more than enough power to keep the love going, even with 2 days of bus riding and sleeping on the floor!
I am looking forward to being a conduit for His lavish adoration of these kids; and I am looking forward, almost with as much anticipation, for what He'll teach me in the process.
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