I quit last week. But then I wasn’t alone. Youth workers from all over the world came together on the Welsh borders and quit. From Finland, Poland, Austria, Australia, the US, the UK, Ireland. We all came together, thought about it for a bit, and then quit youth ministry.
Now bear with me because this takes a bit of explaining, but if you get it like we got it, then it is life changing. You see too often we live for youth ministry. It’s what gets us out of bed in the morning, it’s what we’ve given our life to. It’s what defines us. When we die we want it on our tomb stone: Colin Piper-Great Youth Minister.
The only problem is it was never meant to be that way. Ministry can only ever be a means to an end, not an end in itself. When it becomes more, it becomes dangerous and worse still: a burden. It stresses us, wears us down. Just think for a minute of all the stressed, burnt out youth workers you know of. You may be one of them.
Jesus said: Come to me all you who are burdened and I will give you rest. Take my burden on you, because my burden is easy. In other words, just focus on getting to know Him, loving Him. That is a pretty good purpose in life. In fact it is awesome. My identity, my all in all, is simply loving Him, and that isn’t hard. Then from that place of rest and joy, I can serve Him. My ministry is no longer the be all and end all and therefore no longer a burden. It is a joy. It is a love gift to Jesus flowing out of a love for Jesus, rather than some arduous duty flowing perhaps from a need to be wanted or appreciated! Now I serve out of relationship with Christ, and if it gets hard, it isn’t my deal, it’s His.
So I quit. I’m not doing this by myself, in my own strength, perhaps for my own ends. I laid that burden down and picked up another: Jesus’. A burden to know and love Him, and with Him to know and love others, particularly young people. To serve them with His love and for His glory. Now that may not sound too dramatic, but just try it, and you’ll see the difference. Go on quit working for God, and instead let God work through you.
1 comments:
I recently read Genesis 24. This is a story about Eliezer. He was probably the oldest servant of Abraham's house who ruled over all that Abraham had posessed. One thing that struck me about Eliezer was that the whole moulding of his life was his devotion to his master, not to a sense of right or duty! We know very little about devotion to Jesus Christ today; we know A LOT about devotion to right and to duty.
'Be renewed in the spirit of your mind,' says Paul, not that you may do your duty, but that you may make out what God's will is - good, PLEASING, and perfect will' (Rom 12:2). You see, all Eliezer seeks is the happiness of his master; self-remembrance in him is dead.
"My deepest desire Lord is to put a smile on Your face. My heart's cry is as David prayed:
May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to You,O Lord,
my Rock and my Redeemer.(Psalm
19:14).
So Lord help me to be totally devoted to You Who called me than to the work You have called me to"!
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