Monday, August 4, 2008

Time Flies


This past week I bumped into three people who used to be in the youth group here -- two of which are out of college now (one getting married), and another girl who's a junior in high school (who started going to a church closer to her). Talking with them was a bizarre experience, because I don't ever expect these teens to actually, you know, grow any older. But they keep on doing so, often times without my permission.

I think that's great. Someone once told me that you had to stick with a church for at least seven years to really start seeing the fruits of ministry borne out. I don't know if that's true, exactly -- I think a lot of "fruits" will go unseen by me until the end of my life -- but it is a singular joy to have been a part of these teens' lives from when they were little kids to the point of graduation and beyond. It's weird because I feel like time stands still for me: I will forever be a geeky 20-year-old in whatever aging body I'm inhabiting. But they just keep on growing up.

I see great choices and decisions in their lives, careers followed, interests that have bloomed to full-fledged passions, potential wives and husbands chosen. My deep prayer for them is that they have not abandoned God in the pursuit of their lives. I worry about that a lot, worry that because they went to church here and were ministered by me, they didn't get as full or as rich of a discipleship as they needed. Ultimately, it's a moot point -- God's the one who works in their lives, not me, and it's by His grace that I'm here in this role instead of tooling around in a computer case for decades on end.

I just wish they could stay a few years longer when they're here. Just a few years more, and maybe I'd be able to get through to them in ways I haven't yet.

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