What a week this has been…and it’s only Thursday! Last weekend one of the guys in my high school small group gave his testimony in our high school
services and he did an awesome job. Several students going through what he has experienced in his life could relate to his testimony and came up to talk to him afterwards. It’s awesome to see God use one of my students in that way, it shows all of the guys in my group that God can and will use you when you open yourself up and tell Him you will do whatever it takes.
At the same time I’ve had four of the guys in my group come up to me this week and ask for some advice and help with some stuff going on in their lives. And while I love that they feel comfortable with me to talk to me about anything, it kills me to see the pain on their faces while they explain what’s going on.
This week Steven sent out a tweet that said in the past couple of weeks he has experienced the highest highs and lowest lows in four years of student ministry.
What’s the point of this post? I think I have several that are rattling around in my head but there are a couple of main ones. First up – Spiritual Warfare. Satan HATES when things go good in your ministry and you win more and more for Jesus. His tactic is to bring you down emotionally. Well sorry Satan but Steven and I aren’t falling for that one. We will not back down and we will not give you power over our minds or our ministries. We’ll keep plugging along and bringing students to Christ and helping them grow in their faith. The one thing that is always true: God is faithful.
Second one and I still have to remind myself about this one. It’s not my timing it’s God’s. I’m just a piece of the puzzle. I won’t back down, I’ll keep finding ways to grow and stretch the faith of my students to grow their relationship with God.
We all have good and bad seasons in student ministry. My hope today is that somewhere, someplace, sometime, other youth workers who have experienced what Steven and I have this past couple weeks will read this post and they won’t back down either.
We’d love to hear your experiences with this and how you fought back.
