Its crazy how busy life is. I'm sitting here listening to the rain and wind outside our cozy living room, just thinking. Life/Work/Church/Future/Family/Friends/Home.. Its 11pm and I could fall asleep right now, but I don't want to go to bed. My head is spinning..
I love this craziness. This world is insane, and as much as we all sometimes want to deny it, we can't. I often think about the students in the high school youth group I work with. Some of their lives are unimaginable. So are the lives of many of the middle school students that come to our Jr. High program. It hurts to hear about their lives and wonder what it must be like to live daily in their situations. We don't give some of them enough credit for just living. Coming from families with one (or no) parent(s), raising siblings, taking care of the house, dealing with drugs, gangs, wrong crowds, etc. Todays youth face so much more today than they did just a few years ago. Can you imagine how strong some of these individuals must be? And they're not even technically adults yet. We each face our own battles, so those of us who didn't grow up in situations like theirs have no idea what its like to live in their 'world,' and its hard to bridge that gap because many students from those situations have walls built up around them. Our church recently hired a new youth pastor after searching for over a year. He grew up in the area and really has a heart for students, and people in general. In a conversation with him early this summer, we were talking about how to get through to students like I mentioned above. This is what he said: just love them. 'Just love them?' I thought about this for a very short time before it clicked. Just love them. Thats what Jesus did; He just loved people. Like the woman at the well, and Zacchaeus, and everyone else. We're all drawn to Him because of His love that seems so unimaginable to us. So it made sense that the way to get through to our students is to just love them. They're not going to open up to someone who is judgmental, rude, not genuine, and doesn't seem to care. No, they're going to run to the person who has repeatedly made it know to them that they have value, and that they matter. And I'll tell you, it works. So, needless to say, "just love them" are three of the most valuable words I have ever been given in ministry advice to this day.
Just love them. Three words, just for ministry, right? Wrong. After thinking about loving these students it really made me think about just loving people. At some point in the last few years I made the decision to love people like Jesus did, but it never clicked as much as it did this summer. Lets get real, as adults - or anyone for that matter, to 'just love them' is harder than it seems. We deal with so many people per day; young, old, smart, challenged, rude, etc., that sometimes we flat out don't want to show them love. We want to be rude just they like were to us, we want them to get paid back for the wrong they did, and on and on. But thats our nature, as humans, and its a daily battle. Loving can be a very hard and conscious choice, but can be easy for some. I'm not one of those people, and I'll be the first to admit it. Loving people isn't always easy, but its one of those things that drives me. Even within my family, its hard. Growing up I fought with my siblings, parents, extended family,.. everyone. I wasn't exactly agreeable. And then I moved out. And I realized how big of a jerk I was. I realized that the love I needed to be showing them should imitate the love of Christ. I still don't succeed in always showing that love to them, my husband, or others, but I can look back and see the progress I've made, and know that God's not finished with me yet. I make a conscious choice to love, and move on. Its one of those one-line prayers we utter, mine being "God help me to just love them" and rely on Him to guide us and grow us into a more loving person. After all, we're all just people trying to live, survive, and figure out where we're supposed to be; so lets cut each other some slack. Give grace, give love.
Just love them. Pure and simple.
Just love them.
No comments:
Post a Comment