Promises, Promises

Every year, during Lent, my church makes a devotional booklet filled with a daily story or reflection written by members of the congregation. This year, I was asked to write a little 'sumthin-sumthin' and if you don't mind, I would like to share it here! (If you do mind, you don't have to read it!)

When God makes promises, God keeps promises. When God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, God kept that promises. However, the promise was not fulfilled the way that Abraham envisioned. God fulfills promises in very creative ways. Just as Abraham was surprised that his wife Sarah --who was very old-- would give birth to a baby, I was surprised when at 25 years old, I was faced with a career change.

Sure, I’d had several jobs since graduating from high school; camp counselor, sales associate for the Gap, office errand girl…but in terms of an actual career, there was only one for me. I was going to be a youth director! I had majored in Religion, I had interned here at Christ Lutheran and after many interviews I had finally landed a position at a church in Southern California! This was pretty much all I had ever wanted.

As with most things that seem too good to be true…this was. After a year and a half of working for this church, I ended up losing my job. I felt like I was taking a huge leap backwards. True, I wasn’t happy in SoCal…true, I wasn’t finding my footing in youth ministry like I thought I would...but facing the fact of moving back in with my parents wasn’t something I was ready for.

Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” So I know God promised to take care of me…I just wasn’t sure how. God always has the plan, and I had to trust that…I just couldn’t see how God’s plan would fit in with my plan. But, God doesn’t work that way. God fulfilled His promise to me when I was offered a job at ChristKids preschool. A job that has all the components that attracted me to youth ministry: sharing the love of Jesus Christ with young people. God continues to take care of me, and God continues to teach me that His plans are not my plans….and that’s probably a good thing

What happened?!?

Some nights, last week for example, amazing things happen in the youth room at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church.
Some nights...are tonight.
Last week, we had incredible discussions, my students were focused and engrossed. I had them each bring in an article, comic strip or song lyric that deals with religion in one way or another but isn't necessarily from a religious source. One of my girls brought in a political cartoon that had us talking for a good fifteen minutes, sometimes even debating, with my students asking questions that I couldn't answer. It was incredible. Even our tangents were on the ball. I did very little talking, which is always a good thing, because that means the students are carrying on the conversation without me. I was so proud.
Tonight it was like I had a whole different group of kids. It's like someone took my insightful little darlings from last week and replaced them hyperactive look-a-likes. Don't get me wrong, I love my students, they are so full of energy and have a way of simultaneously keeping me young and (on nights like tonight) giving me gray hair. We didn't even get to Bible study tonight. I could tell during highs and lows that I didn't have them. So we tried to recap what we've been talking about in Acts, and I tried to get them to calm down enough for us to at least have a conversation, just a catch up, but one of my girls couldn't stop giggling the entire time, and the boys all wanted to play sardines the whole time.
Let's pray that next week we can find our focus and can get "our Jesus on"...well...we're in Acts, so it's more like getting "our Paul on"

Teenagers...you give them an inch and they swim all over you...