Youth Ministry

Friday just got a little heavier than I intended.  Here’s what’s been going on as I take you through my train of thought.  Warning!  This may be scary.

1.  Spoke at revival at Liberty Wesleyan Church this week.  Had a great time and felt the Lord speak to me and through me.  Awesome to reunite with Travis and Autumn Ward who I used to watch wrestling with every week.  God challenged me so much through the messages and was faithful to help me overcome a cough that has progressively gotten worse.  Speaking got all sorts of topics going through my head.

2.  Found out late Wednesday night that my grandfather(on my dad’s side) has cancer and only a few months to live.  Papa Robert is 90 so they are still looking at options.  This has got me thinking about the things I don’t know about so many in my family.  I want to hear their stories, disappointments, and ask questions like,”what would you change if you had it all to do over again?”  I want to capture all of this on video.  What if genealogy could jump off the page and speak to us?  All of this got me thinking about my regrets.  This made me glad that…

3.  We didn’t have Facebook or Myspace when I was growing up.  I think if I were to look back I would be embarressed and ashamed by some of the pictures, statuses, and tweets I would have posted.  It would have been weird hoping my parents never saw my page and revealing my true self to the whole world.  On the other hand, it may have kept me honest because maybe I would’ve made better decisions if I knew the whole world were watching.  I just think that changing my relationship status once a week and posting “couple” pics would be weird.  Would I have cussed on Facebook as much as I cussed in real life?  Maybe I would’ve cussed less, cheated less, and been a better person.  Oh, I went to church more than anybody and am thankful that the influence of Godly parents, Sunday School teachers, neighbors, pastors, youth pastors, and friends won the day and helped me avoid a whole lot of regret.  I realize now that being there didn’t “save” me, but in a way it did.  I still had to choose Jesus for myself, but all those hours at church and with the church opened my eyes to what life truly was about.  It’s sad how many “good” kids I see go through this downhill progression where they forsake their faith and party hard all for the world to see.  It will be hard to tell your kids not to drink when they’ll be able to see all your underage drinking pictures on the internet.  I guess it’s odd that what used to be secretive and only your closest friends knew is now posted for the whole world to see.  You used to hear stories of people partying, but now we’ve got pics, updates from the party, and statuses from the morning after.  I think we’ve gotten so sensitive to not want to be judgmental that we don’t exercise any judgment at all.  There’s this attitude that sin is unavoidable so you might as well go with the flow.

4.  I try to use the internet and Social Media to share my faith and encourage others.  I think they are wonderful tools to communicate with the world.  I think that all of these things are making it possible for my children and (hopefully) grandchildren to know my story.  I want to make it a great one…one they can be proud of.