Church Can Still Be Cool

Seven years ago I began my journey into youth ministry by teaching a 5th grade class.  Eventually, my volunteer role morphed into my life’s calling and full time vocation.  The first several months left me working a full time job that i didn’t really like, pouring into a full time ministry that I was passionate about, and planning a wedding to the woman of my dreams.  It was insane, but I convince myself it was just a “busy season”.  Seven years, 1 wedding, 2 children, countless camps and retreats and events and football games later, I find that season never ended.

Busyness isn’t unique to ministry, we are all busy, all the time.  I have found that even in full time, vocational church work (I often tell my students that I am a professional Christian) my personal spiritual development takes a back seat to the tasks at hand.  The problem is that there is always a task at hand.  Lately I have been thinking alot about what to make of all this.  If busyness is the norm (we could debate whether that should or shouldn’t be the case, but that’s not for here or now) than how do i find Christ in the midst of the norm?  Today, I write not as one winning, but rather as one losing but who desperately wants to find a better way.  To that end, I offer a couple of suggestions for finding faith in the frantic…

1. Make the most of moments that aren’t crazy

There are moments of calm even in the craziest of days… turn the radio off in the car, take the long way to the copier, heck, put the magazine down in the bathroom and instead talk to Him.  Don’t worry about the way it sounds, just tell Him what’s going on in your day.  Vent, confess, listen… connect.  A couple of minutes won’t kill you or set you behind.  Be willing to let your mind slow down and focus only on Him, even if just for a couple of minutes at a time.  I promise, it will change the way you look at the world around you.

2. Realize who God really is, and who really isn’t God

Start each day reminding yourself that you aren’t God, and He is.  There is nothing you face today that God can help walk you through.  he created you, your boss, the person who invented the industry you are employed in… In Colossians 1 we are told that in him everything is help together and finds it’s purpose.  I laugh at myself when I say I am too busy to stop and pray… isn’t it at those times i should stop the most?  Martin Luther once said, “My life is too busy not to spend the first three hours of it in prayer.”

Show off.

But seriously… you aren’t God.  I’m not either.  We can’t make it perfect in our own strength.  Sure, we could finish the task, but at what cost?  What we can do is connect to the one who is perfect.  And more than completing the task, we will find ourselves feeling more completed.  We were designed to be dependant… not on pay checks or approval, but on Him.

Again, I ain’t there yet, but I want to be.  Next month will be busier than this month, and then, well… let’s just say it looks like this season is going to be a long one.  If I can’t change the pace, I can at least change who I follow.  Here’s hoping.