One of Those Weeks

It is another normal summer day. Once again I find myself logging onto Facebook to browse the ever-interesting newsfeed. Only to find that it is "one of those weeks" again.

Now I know saying it like that sounds derogatory - but it is not. It is merely a statement of fact. I do not moan or complain that it is "one of those weeks". Instead, I feel.

Have you ever logged onto Facebook and noticed that it is one of those weeks? No, not the weeks where little annoying issues arise in people's lives. Not the #firstworldproblems kind of weeks. The kind of week where you log onto Facebook expecting some statements of the obvious, some interesting updates on peoples lives, and a few witty lines here and there. But instead, Facebook slaps you across the face with the painful reality that this world is filled with hurting people.

One glimpse at your newsfeed and your misconceptions about how all your friends are happy, they have it all together, they are in a good spot right now--those misconceptions go right down the drain. You are faced again with the horrible fact that you try so often to ignore or forget: everyone is hurting about something. This world is filled with pain, heartache, loss, and emptiness. Times when your life shatters before your eyes. Times when not even the most encouraging note can convince you that it will be okay again. Times when the masks come off. When we see the real, raw, gritty, hurting person instead of the porcelain-faced doll they tried to be.

Isn't it funny how one glimpse at our newsfeed can bring us back to reality? How one glimpse can remind us that bad, horrible, horrific things happen in this world...to people we love. How one glance can instantly have us questioning our faith. How one glance can show us the multitude of individuals that find themselves bombarded by different crisis' in their lives. One glance of this hurting world--one tiny itty bitty glance--and we feel the weight. Our hearts are heavy. We lift our hearts to the King of Kings knowing that he has a reason and a plan, but having to accept the fact that His plan incudes pain.

It is one of those weeks.

 

Now here is the point in the blog post where I turn it back around. Where I tell you that you don't need to have heavy hearts. How we have a God who is in control. How we have a God who has a plan. A God who is the Comforter, the Healer, the King of Kings.

 

And while that is the God we serve, tonight I am refusing to tell you those things. Too often we hear people telling us, "Here's the facts....but it's okay, don't worry, don't trouble yourselves, it will all be okay.."Because, frankly, we don't like to have heavy hearts. We don't like to feel the tension of a hurting world. We don't like reality.

 

So we desensitize instead of empathize.

 

God made us to be empathetic people. He says to laugh with those who laugh and weep with those who weep. We are supposed to feel others pain with them. But we train ourselves not to feel. But that is not how God meant us to be! We try to put all these safeguard up so that we don't get hurt and so that we never feel pain. We find tricks to help us ignore or forget or dismiss the news stories. We invent this "out of sight, out of mind" philosophy for the hurting people in our lives. We want to be happy, right? But each layer of walls and safeguards we set in place makes our life further and further from the abundant lives Christ has called us to live. He created the church to do life together. And yet we don't do that why? Because we don't want to feel pain. Because we want to be happy; even if it is a superficial kind of happy.

 

 

Well, I want to challenge you today. Not the general "you" of the general audience reading this. No, I want to challenge YOU. See? You're already trying to desensitize yourself and I haven't even asked you to act yet. Do you feel the weight of this issue? I'm challenging you to feel more. To empathize. To act. To live as the hands and feet of Christ like He has called you to. And that is a great challenge, right? But a challenge doesn't tend to have much weight unless the participant understands the true weight of the issue involved. I'm getting the drift that you don't fully understand it.

 

No, don't you dare get all defensive on me! I see those walls going up. "I get it!" you say, "Please stop writing. I will do your stupid challenge (albeit halfheartedly), and there's no need for your to explain further."

 

Okay, okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe you get it. Maybe you even allow yourself to FEEL more than the general public does. So  then tell me, when was the last time you couldn't sleep because of an issue you saw in the news? When was the last time you cried yourself to sleep because of the pain and hurt your friend was going through?  When was the last time you prayed to God with every cell in your body for someone else? When was the last time you felt someone else's hurt as if it were your own and you prayed from the deepest part of your being for them?

 

I bet you can't answer those questions. And I get it. Because, honestly, I have trouble answering them too!

 

But today I am standing up and saying that we are doing it wrong. I am calling you as a Christian, to stand up with me to be ambassadors for Christ in a broken and hurting world. To bring Christ's love to others through empathy, heavy hearts, prayer, and service. I am calling you to start living in Christ-centered community as it was meant to be. I am calling you to not only laugh with those who laugh, but to also weep with those who weep. Can you do that?

 



Then please join me!

5 Ways to Help Yourself Make a Big Decision

And I'm back! You just can't seem to get rid of me this week, now, can you?

Well, I wanted to come back to write what could be considered part two of my last blog post: 5 Ways to Help a Friend or Loved One Make a Big Decision. See Here

Now it might seem a little backwards the order that I'm writing these in. You'd think that I'd tell you how to make the big decision itself, before telling other people how to help you make that decision. But I felt the need to write it in the opposite order. Why? Well, I've seen bad things happen on both sides of the story, but the one that never gets addressed is when you are trying to help someone else make a big decision. And because that doesn't get addressed as often, I felt more of an urgency to write that blog post first.

But for those of you stuck in the middle of making a big decision, have no fear! This blog post is for you!

So what are some ways you can help yourself make a big decision? Well, while running the risk of repeating a lot of what was said in my prior blog post, I will attempt to help you out.

1. Go to God.
This should always be your first response when faced with a big decision. I admit it's not always mine, and from many people I've talked to, it isn't always theirs either. But I will tell you, the decisions that I have regretted the most are the ones I made without consulting God first. And no, this doesn't just mean a little, "God, show me what to do" prayer. This means taking a considerable amount of time talking with your Heavenly Father. And not just talking either. Listening. Read His word. Talk to Him. Listen to Him. Spend time making Him the biggest factor in your decision making process.

2. Go to people you trust...with CAUTION.
Now you might not be the kind of person who needs to hear this. Maybe you are the kind of person who wants to be independent and make decisions all on your own. Maybe you're the kind of person who will listen to someone's advice, and your natural response is to do the exact opposite. To you, I want to say: listen to people around you! They have wisdom to offer! The best thing you can do is listen to their wise words and heed them. But to the rest of you out there, to all the people who are more like me: be careful. Like I mentioned in my last blog post, it's easy to surround yourself with all these voices of the people around you. To try to heed every piece of advice anyone ever offers you. We are the people pleasers. The one's who drown out our own voice by listening to everyone else's. The one's who drown out the still small voice of God by listening to the far louder voices of people. Now I will tell you, many things people tell you will be wise words of advice! But we face the problem of putting too much weight in the words people give us. If you listen to the people around you so much that you feel like you can't hear God anymore...you've got a problem. So here's some advice for you from someone who has the very same problem:

 A. When faced with a big decision to make, before going to any friends or mentors for advice, take a few days just for you and God. Don't talk to anyone else yet. Just take time for yourself and for God. To seek His direction first and listen to His voice before anyone elses.

B. We people pleasers like to hear EVERYONE'S opinions before making a decision. But maybe limit yourself this time. Just go to two or three people you trust and ask for their best advice. This way, you avoid the risk of drowning in a sea of voices, and you are putting priority in the one that matters the most: God.

C. Weigh other people's advice against God's. Ultimately, we know that God has a plan. And not just any plan. The BEST plan. So why not start acting like it? Learn to be okay with the fact that people might be wrong. Sometimes the person you go to about everything and always gives you good advice is wrong this time. If we are listening to God's voice, we will be able to recognize that, and we can have peace with that, because we know that people are flawed, but God isn't.

3. Weigh the Pros and Cons.
This should be a step we take in every decision making process. There are obviously good points and bad points of every decision we make. Maybe they have to do with money, location, relationship, opportunity, etc. But take some time to make a list. Which choice will get you where you want to go? Which do you feel God pulling you towards? Which would grow you to be more Christlike?

One word of advice from my experience: be careful not to choose something just because it would be more comfortable. Everything that the secular world put weight on in decision making is flipped upside down when Jesus is added to the mix. Recently I had to make a very big decision where one option was easier, more convenient, less scary, more friendly, and just all around more comfortable. In the secular world, that would've been the obvious choice. But I knew God was calling me to the option that was scary, was harder, was less comfortable, would push me, challenge me, grow me, and ultimately grow me closer to Him.

4. Keep an open hand.
Sometimes, when we make the decision we felt God calling us towards, we have this idea that because we made the right choice, it will be easy for us. Wrong. Like I just said, sometimes God calls us to make the harder choice. The one that will hurt more at the time. The one that we will wonder why we chose it. But God has a plan. We have to remember that even when things don't go as WE planned them to, they are still going according to God's plan. We need to trust Him and keep an open mind. Be willing to go through some hard stuff if that's what God's calling you towards. Know that life will not be easy or painless. But also know that you know the Ultimate Counselor, Shepherd, Healer, Father, and Plan Maker, and if you trust in Him, He will carry you through.

5. Ask God to give you peace.
A very wise man once told me words that will forever help me in my decision making processes:

"I have often found that God wants me to keep moving even when he hasn't spoken clearly. When he speaks clearly, it's called obedience. When he doesn't, it's called faith."

It is natural to doubt your decisions and wonder if you chose right, but here's the main point: If your goal is to choose the choice God is leading you towards, and you seek Him in the process, you have done the right thing. There will be bumps along the road, but know that God is leading you over every bump and choose to be content with His plan. Pray that He would give you peace about your decision, because He gives a peace that transcends all understanding! And once again, just like I said in the last blog post, "The worst decision you can make is to not make a decision."

Happy decision making!

5 Ways To Help a Friend or Loved One Make a Big Decision

It is the season of decisions. College decisions. Job decisions. What to do with your summer decisions. And even, as wedding season is here, the season of making the decision to spend the rest of your life with that special someone. 

I've been surrounded by people having to make very hard decisions about their life. Even I just had to make a very difficult decision recently. And from being in that place, and seeing others in that place, I wanted to write a post on how you, as a person on the outside, can help the people around you make these decisions.

1. Acknowledge that you're biased.
It doesn't matter if its about a sports team, a college, or a job situation. You are biased. Maybe you're biased because you went to that college. Maybe you're biased because you've had a similar job situation and made the wrong choice. But to some degree, you are biased. The best way you can help a friend make a decision is to acknowledge that fact to yourself before you start to give your best attempted to be unbiased advice.

2. Look at their options and help to identify what would be the best choice for them personally.
In general, one option might be better all around, but looking at this specific person and what they want and need, you might find yourself suggesting the other option as a better fit.

3. Choose to be okay with God's plan instead of your own.
We often envision our preferred future. In this preferred future, we might decide to have our friend continue living in state, instead of taking that out of state job opportunity that you both know is a better fit. If this friend then goes on to choose the out of state option, its easy to feel angry, disappointed, bitter, and betrayed. But we have to remember that what we wanted to happen was never a reality. We have to remember that what we wanted to happen might have been better for us, but not for our friend who's decision it is to make. We have to remember that the right decision, is not always the one we want. One of the hardest things to do is to keep an open hand to God with those that we love. But that's what we must do when helping loved ones make big decisions. Don't push them towards what you want them to do. Push them towards what you think God wants them to do. And if they listen to God and not you, then even if the outcome is one you don't like, that is a victory.

4. Point them towards Christ.
Ultimately, we have to acknowledge that we don't always have the answers. When loved ones come to us for advice, sometimes the best thing to do is tell them, "I don't know. But God does." I know of people, including myself, who have made decisions because people wanted them to. But we should never make decisions because the people around us tell us to. We should make decisions because we see God leading us there. Sometimes we have to stop listening to all the voices around us, and just listen to God. And when He tells us to go; GO. When people that we love come to us for advice, we have to remind them, that we may give all the advice we want, but none of it matters, because God's plan is really what we should be straining after. Encourage your loved one to listen to God first, and everyone else second.

5. Be happy with them about whatever decision they make.
Making decisions is HARD. And the one thing that is most hurtful after making such a hard choice, is when people put you down, disapprove, or imply that you made the wrong choice. Be affirming and congratulate your friend or loved on on making such a hard decision. Be happy with them! A wise man once told me that "Any decision you make is a good decision. The worst decision you can make is to not make a decision." So be excited for this individual! Yes, there may be bumps in the road, but she will get to those when they come. For now, just take to time to be happy about it.

The Little Lessons Along The Way

I love how God teaches you little lessons along the way as you go through the average day to day stuff. It's a great reminder that He's right there walking beside you! But it's also so cool how he takes His truth and teaches you an object lesson through the things around you! I had a little lesson God brought to my mind today which I thought was just so cool.

The actual story is rather embarrassing, to tell the truth. I had gone to Taco Bell/Pizza Hut after church with my family and a couple friends to eat lunch. We had a great time and then left and had to run some errands before returning home. Because of this, it was about a half an hour after leaving the restaurant that we returned to my home. It took that long to realize I had forgotten something essential: my purse!

It was one of those -facepalm- moments. I had set my purse beside my chair at the restaurant and simply left without it. So we turned the car around and headed back to get it.

That five minute drive was one of the longest five minutes I've experienced! My mind started running through all the things I'd lose if my purse got stolen! For those of you who don't know, I hold like my entire life in that bag of mine! I would lose at least $40, my phone, my state ID, almost all my favorite lip glosses, and my bible! The thoughts raced through my head!

But it's funny how God can change your heart in five minutes! At first my prayers were super uptight and full of fear. "God, don't let anyone take my purse! That's so much money and my Bible is in there!" but as the five minutes progressed it was cool to see what He did.

God knows I'm a huge music person. I respond to music, so often He will speak to me by putting a song on the radio that speaks into that moment. Well, I don't remember the title of the song that came on...but the lyrics hit me because they were all about letting go of everything else and making Jesus your everything. I thought about that. Was it really so bad if I lost some state ID that had my picture from when I was like 15 on it? Was it so bad if I lost my old brick of a phone and had to get a new one? What about the forty dollars? Is that really so much in the span of eternity? Maybe someone needed that $40 to pay their mortgage or to put food on the table. Was it really so bad if I contributed $40 to that? And my bible. I love my bible. But maybe someone needed it more. Maybe the person who took that purse needed one of the verses I'd underlined.

I saw my thoughts changing from very me-centered to quite the opposite. My prayers at four and a half minutes sounded more like, "God, if someone did take that $40, please use it for a need in their life...not just as fun spending money."

I was amazed at the change I saw God make in my own heart. In five minutes He convicted me that I was not making Him everything. He showed me that maybe I'm holding onto my possessions too much and not trusting Him. And He gently reminded me that my things are not my own, but merely ones He has loaned me for the time being, and if He needs to take them back or use them for someone else, than I should be joyful in letting Him do that!

Well, my purse was still at Taco Bell when I got there to check. And I did give a big sigh of relief! But on the way back home I was just reflecting on how cool our Lord is! That He can use such a small thing as forgetting a purse, and take five minutes to teach me a lesson I won't soon forget.

As you go throughout your week this next week, try to be open to the little things God is showing you! You never know. Five minutes can be more significant than you think!

The Truth about Ministry

So there's this myth going around. A myth that many people fall prey to believing. The myth that ministry isn't about you. That it's about other people.

But actually, ministry is all about you!

Now before you get the wrong idea, let me explain. I've worked in different ministries throughout my life, so I know this from experience. People start working in a ministry with a certain mindset. If you asked them why they work with that ministry, various answers might sound like, "I want to serve people." I want to help people." "I want to see people changed" "I want to minister to people" and many more that have different words but basically mean the same thing. They have the mindset that they are there to change others. Whether that means teaching little kids about what Jesus did for them, feeding the homeless and seeing hearts changed, or just talking to young moms and seeing them grow closer to Christ even through their trials.

But guess what? Working in ministry isn't so you can change others. It's so God can change you!

That's the beauty of it! I know this from my own life. I started working with the Junior High youth group ready to impact younger girls. But I realized pretty quick that's not what its all about. God doesn't have me working there so I can change them, He has me there so He can change me! And He has! He has shaped me and grown me and stretched me. He has taught me more about how He created this Christian life thing to work. He has taught me how to listen to His voice and obey. He has taught me how to be a tool.

I guess that is what I've come to love about ministries. When I work in a ministry, God teaches me about His world, changes the way I view Him, He teaches me how to be a moldable tool for Him, and through that He uses me to impact others. It's not just this man to man thing: It's God working FOR me, so God can work IN me, so God can work THROUGH me, so God can work FOR others, so God can work IN others, so God can work THROUGH others, and on and on! Isn't that a beautiful cycle?

There's also a relational aspect to it. While I may be going to Junior High Youth Group to talk to and hang out with younger girls, that's not the main point. The relational aspect I'm talking about is the relationship between God and I. There's a depth that is added to that relationship when you get involved with ministries. Why? Well, you have to be humble before God. You have to rely on Him for literally all your guidance. Because you don't know what to do most of the time. You start to ask Him about things. This could be, "God, who do you want me to be talking with right now?" or, "God, give me the words to say to this person" or, "God, show this person that she can find comfort in you." When you work in ministry you realize just how helpless you are to help people where they need it most, but you also realize that you know "this guy" who can fix everything and you start to humbly tap into His resources.

This is why I love ministry! Ministry helps me to grow closer in intimate relationship with God. It helps me to learn to rely on Him for the big and the small things. It gives me a place to authentically live out what He teaches me. It gives me a place to follow His leading. It gives me a place to be used by Him. It gives me a place to see Him using the little things I do to impact others. It gives me a place to say, "Wow! I am not great, but God used that little thing about me to impact someone else and that is so cool to see!" It gives me a place to see what God is doing and jump in! It gives me a place to experience God's power and see His works.

Now, plot twist:

I don't see Junior High Youth Group as my ministry. Nor do I see being on the Worship team, or working in the nursery, or working at Camp Agape as my ministry. I see my whole life as the platform God has given me for my ministry. When I smile at the cashier, when I babysit those kids, when I wash the dishes, when I write that paper. That's all part of my ministry.

So, what's your ministry?

The 'M' Word

Dear Christian,
I know you. I know you because I am one of you. I know that you have memories of being in Sunday school and saying that Bible verse over and over to try to remember it. I know that you were at one time, that little AWANA kid. The kid who wanted to earn more patches, or points, or jewels, or just the signature at the bottom of that page that meant you never had to see that verse again. You were probably the AWANA wanna be. The kid who wanted to be like those star kids. The ones who memorized three verses a week, did the review AND that extra credit stuff. But you weren't. You weren't that star kid. Instead, you were the kid that your mother had to remind a hundred times to go over their verses. You were the kid that dreaded having to remember all those fancy words just to get a badge. You were the kid who sat down five minutes before you had to leave and learned that verse just well enough to say it and get it marked off. I know because I was that kid too!

Or maybe you were that star kid, but only because your parents worked it into your scheadule to go over verses. Maybe you were that star kid because you wanted to beat all the other youngins. Maybe you were that star kid just because you wanted to be. But you aren't anymore. You don't have time, right? And there are no points to be made for memorizing a bunch of words like justified or begotten.

We all have probably gone downhill since we finished AWANA. And the "M" word terrifies us. We have all kinds of excuses. "I hated memorizing all those Biology words, but at least they were used in regular English sentences. The Bible is even worse!" or maybe it looks more like, "I can't memorize things. My brain's just not cut out for it!"

Well, probably to your dismay, I'm here to tell you that the excuses are over. Memorizing scripture is an essential part of the christian life. Just as important as reading your Bible or praying. There are many reasons for this.

The first is that we need to store God's words in our brains so that when we need them, He can bring them to our minds. When you're having that hard day where you just want to give up, He can't tell you "My yoke is easy and my burden is light" unless those are words you've committed to memory.

God also uses those verses to help us when we are tempted. This is something I've experienced within this past week, even! I've been working on keeping Hebrews 4:14-16 in my long term memory for several weeks. And when I was tempted, God's door out was just running that verse through my mind,

"Therefore since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." 

Pretty cool, huh? God could only do that because I had memorized that verse.

Another great reason to memorize verses is because we may not always have our Bible with us. Within this point, I can think of two scenarios. The first is, imagine that you are having a spiritual conversation with your unsaved friend. You say God is a loving God, but he asks you to prove it. He has only seen many natural disasters with little signs of God's love. You know it's in the Bible somewhere, but since you don't have a Bible with you, you are left unable to back up the truth. If you had memorized a verse like that, you could've said it then and there and kept the conversation going.

A second scenario I think of is one that may at some point be true in America. Throughout history, Christians have been persecuted for their faith. Situations would range from Bibles being confiscated, to the Christian being put in prison. If this ever happens, your only access to the Bible would be through verses and passages you had put to memory.

These reasons for memorizing are only scratching the surface to be sure. But before you get too discouraged that you are a horrible Christian with no hope because you can't memorize, let me present a new idea to you.

Maybe the dreaded "M" word we've been using is actually the wrong word entirely. Maybe the reason you've had such a hard time memorizing is because you weren't called to memorize; you were called to use a different 'M' word: Meditate. Now before you freak out because that sounds an awful lot like weird monk dudes sitting Indian style and chanting "OM", let me explain.

Meditating is more than memorizing. It's not just going over words until you remember them. It's so much more! It's taking a verse or passage and thinking about what it means. It's digging deeper and taking it a step further. When meditating on a verse, you don't just recite words until you can say them without looking. You look at the passage as a whole. Look for the context. Look at all the little parts. You look at all the word pictures and think of what they truly mean. You look up words like 'justified' so that you know what they mean, and aren't just saying an empty word. You pray the verse, you wrestle with the verse, and there's something else. Something important. One huge difference with meditating is that it's not just a sit down and say the verse over and over one time. When meditating, you look at that verse when you wake up, you take it throughout your day and are thinking about it as you go about your life, you go through it at night. Meditating is so much more than memorizing.

And I wanna pause right here for a few seconds for you to take some deep breaths. Don't freak out. This is not a major time commitment. The thing is, when you meditate, you remember. You remember the concept of the verse, what it means for your life, and eventually you know it word for word. It enables you to know the verse long term and be able to remember it when you need it. Because the verse now means something to you. And you can share it with others.

So to put you at even more ease that memorizing and meditating is something you CAN do, let me share a  couple tips and a story.

1. The easiest way to meditate on a verse--like, I'm telling you, SUPER easy--is to put it somewhere within your boring routines. I have started taping verses to my shower door. (which is glass, and I know not many of you have glass shower doors) That way when I get into the shower, and wash my hair (which takes no thought process whatsoever) I can actually use my time efficiently and go through a verse or two while I'm at it. Proof that this works is actually right above! I wrote Hebrews 4:14-16 by memory, and it was a verse that I first memorized a few months ago! Some other easy places to put it is: a) By your bed. This works especially well if you are in a bunk bed, cause you can tape it above you and still be able to read it cause it's pretty close. If you don't sleep in a bunk, you could write it big and tape it to the ceiling, or put it on your nightstand. b)Write it on your mirror. You can do this with a dry erase or vis-a-vis marker. I do this all the time with reminders or my to-do list too. It's an easy way to remember things because you use your mirror several times a day and most of the time it's while doing things that take no thought process. Let me just say, without any intention of memorizing the verses when I put them up, every single verse that I have taped to my wall, I could say from memory now. It truly works, people!

2. I want to tell you, I never really believed I was the memorizing "type" until I got bored and challenged myself. I ended up, to my astonishment,  memorizing Philippians 2:1-11, which I can still (probably imperfectly) quote for you today! "HOW?!?!?," you ask. Well, basically I went over one verse per night. I learned one verse, or even just a phrase, and I went through what it meant, I thought of scenes and pictures in my mind, I thought of how I could live that part out in my own life, I prayed the verse. And then the next night, I went over that verse and learned the next. Until I had learned eleven verses with not much effort at all!

Now, Christian, I could probably keep going for a while on this topic, but I don't want to keep you too much since I have already written a small book. There are, however, a few things I want to leave you with.

There IS hope! You CAN memorize! The trick is to change your 'M' word to Meditate! Meditate on those verses, read them day and night, think about them when you shower and when you brush your teeth. And if you do that, you can easily learn verses that God can use to enrich your Christian walk so much! It IS worth it. And always remember, now that you've read this, you know how to do it. And you CAN do it!

Now go! Pick a verse and start working. You won't be sorry!

***NOTE: Any part of this post stating that God can't bring unlearned passages to memory is purely to emphasize my point. Of course God can do anything, but in most cases He doesn't unless its a verse you've memorized***

Just people.

Dear people out there,
There is this impression out there that Christmas break will give you extra time to write blog posts. I am here to tell you that is FALSE. So I hope you all had a good break, and here is a letter concerning you all.

Yes. All of you. Are you 40? This concerns you. Are you 12? This also concerns you. What is it? Well I just want to discuss a certain topic that I've become very passionate about this year.

So right now I want you to close your eyes. Close them and think of people that have impacted your life. Whether that was that teacher in 2nd grade, or the upperclassman that helped you learn more about Romans in college. Think of all those people that shaped who you are.

What was special about them? What did they have in common? That is something I've been working through this year. Because I'm a leader in the Jr. High youth group now, and I'm a upperclassman in our high school youth group. I am in a position to be that person to others. But what does that mean?

I remember my 5th grade Sunday school teacher, Mr. Vale. He was the best! He had such a passion for his faith that made me want to jump on board too! He was the one that inspired me to take my faith as my own.

I remember my junior high youth group leaders, Ashley and Chantal. I looked up to them so much! They were some of my favorite people. I thought they were so old and had this life thing figured out. Now I am their age and a Junior High leader, and man, I do not have life figured out! But it just makes me appreciate them more! Cause they did what they could to impact us, even though they didn't really have anything figured out.

I think of my teacher that taught me various literature classes, Mr. Yeiter. He was instrumental in confirming the passions and strengths that God has giving me and encouraging me to pursue them.

I think of my youth pastor now. He taught me to be intentional. He pushes me out of my comfort zone even when he knows I hate it, because his only goal is to push us closer to Christ.

I can think of about 100 more names of people who have impacted my life. And I wish I could personally thank each one. But the point is, these people did not have a whole bunch in common. They weren't at a certain point in their lives, they weren't doing some magic thing to impact me, they were just people.

So I want to encourage you to be that same kind of person. It doesn't take much to impact someone. It takes you caring aboput the people God has placed in your life. Being intentional about reaching out to them, whether they're younger and need advice, or lonely and need a friend. God has placed people in your life right now that you can impact. Now it's your choice whether you go out and do that.