Last
year at this time I was in the middle of a year in which I quit my sufficiently
paying job that I did not enjoy to teach soccer to children on a part time
basis; a job that most definitely did not make enough live off of. The goal was
not to be as financially unwise as I could be but rather to follow where I felt
God was leading me. I was also challenged to believe that if He was who I
believed He was when I had enough, then he would be that same trustworthy,
all-providing God when I didn't have enough. That one job quickly turned into
two, and by the end of the summer I was working three jobs Including the Youth
Director position at the Church.
So last
September at this time I was working three jobs and was focused on reorganizing
the Youth Group leadership teams I would rely on and work with at church. At
the time my role was temporary and we didn't know how long I would be in it or
what would happen next, so we prepared prepare the Leadership teams to be able
to run themselves and run the youth program on their own. Since then, both the
youth group and the Leadership teams have matured and developed significantly. It
was very exciting to see five of the leaders that I have watched grow for years
graduate out of High School this past spring. Now, as I prepare to work with a
different set of Leaders I am reminded of how much I have grown as well.
I have
been involved with this youth group continuously since I was in High School.
That experience has allowed me to know each program through and through. What I
didn't know when I began working as the Youth Director was how to implement the
programs, and how to cast the vision for where the youth group would go. In
short, I didn't know what I was doing, and I didn't know how little I actually
knew. Fortunately that first task of rebuilding the Leadership teams was a
short term goal that had to be accomplished before the rest of the youth group
could be built on it. I was not prepared to cast a long term vision for the
youth group and God knew it so gave me something small first. In the last year
I have learned how much I actually know, and how little that actually is in the
grand scheme of things. I have also learned to look for the next step while my
leaders continue to capably run the week to week youth programs.
Learning
these things has required me to frequently step out of my comfort zone. I
quickly reached the end of what I knew how to do before hitting a significant
learning curve. These days that learning curve looks to be getting steeper as
every step forward is new. It's an exciting time but it is also constant work.
I am repeatedly faced with the decision to humble myself or to try do it on my
own when I know that I don't have a clue. Ironically, this is the decision I
put on my youth in the leadership teams all the time so that they can grow. It's
good to know the learning process is the same at 26 as it is at 16. This road
is a good one and when I'm honest with myself I remember that I really do enjoy
learning new levels of leadership and working with people; I just don't enjoy
the hard work and letting go of my ego. This road is a good one thought, and
mostly it's because I'm not making it up, instead I'm looking for where God is
working, and following him there.
2
Corinthians 12:9
