Remember Surrender

Eight of them sat in the round table with heads bowed.  We prayed for a good dialogue, an open heart and a willing spirit.  

When you witness young people called to serve in a ministry to help bring young people to God, you ask yourself only one question.  Am I really equipped to help these people draw closer to God?  There are actually 9 of us but one was still at work so only eight came and they were all there seated with their heads bowed in prayer.  And I prayed earnestly for a spirit of surrender.

When you're serving part-time in a youth ministry it becomes a great challenge to learn how to balance all other areas of your life.  I listened to the young ministers speak of their challenges and I realized that we are not giving enough support to young ministry leaders when it comes to helping them learn how to sort out their time given all the activities they have to do in school, their family and church work. 

For the first time, I saw them as I saw myself.  They were going through what I was going through and while I try to muster some kind of help I find myself a little bit unsure that I'm saying the right things.  One thing burned with fervor in my heart though.  And that one thing was bringing a sense of recognizing God in the work.  

I realized that when we get busy with so much work, we really lose sight of what God is trying to do.  We are weighed down by the inconveniences, the cutthroat timelines, the difficult people you interact with, the several procedures you have to accomplish just to finish a task.  All these details pile up and you're heart gets buried underneath with no lifeline at all.  You begin to wonder how you're going to get yourself through all this.  

He tossed his back-pack at the table and slouched into the chair.  

Loosened his ponytail and let his shoulder length hair fall across his face.  

He fiddled with his phone and tried to listen to what is being said at the same time answering text messages from work.  

She chose to sit on a high stool and pulled her bag to her chest.  Took out a worn out notebook and a pen.  

She leafed through a page and saw a stray piece to doodle on.  

One of them was skimming through the iPad while looking at everybody's faces intently.  Absorbing the conversation and just letting the words sit in his heart.  

These were the young people called to minister to other young people.  They were tired and weary.  They needed rest.  

I'm not sure I know how to share to them the rest that I've found the past few days.  Not resting from the work but resting from how I think about the work.  It is often our thoughts that tire us out.  It is often what we worry about that exhausts us.  It is often our human reactions that wear us down.  

I remember tonight that surrendering the work God asks us to do is the best thing we can ever do for the work.  Surrendering doesn't mean complacency.  It means letting go of the anxiety that comes with the responsibility of having to accomplish a list of things.  It means trusting that God never leaves you without the capability or the support to pull through.  It also means finding the humility to see if all you need to do is pause or completely stop.