A Summer Reflection

     As summer is coming to an end I find myself looking back on the past few months.  Going into the summer I had just finished my first year of teaching, had been leading Young Life at Bowsher HS for a few months, and was looking forward to a trip to Colombia.  I was very excited to continue to receive pay checks even though I was not actually working.  Since I was not working, I figured I would have a ton of time to take trips, fish, and finally finish my first book/novel.  Well I learned that the more time I had free, the more time I wasted.
    Now, I did do a lot this summer.  A week at Young Life Camp with Bowsher, a week in Colombia helping at a Young Life Camp there, I was tutoring three days a week, coaching soccer, and of course hanging out with my high school friends as often as I could.  When I was home or had a day or two free, I just simply wanted to be lazy and thus I did not fish or hike, I only added about 15 pages to my book I am attempting to complete.  And then I pretty  much deleted those 15 pages about a week later...
     But as I sit here writing this blog, I am very happy with how my summer turned out.  Although all the "Opher-Things" I wanted to do did not happen, I still had an incredible summer.  Ministry is extremely important to me.  Since falling in Love with Christ in high school I have always felt my heart pulling me towards ministry.  When I first started leading Young Life in college I thought ministry was simple.  I lead Young Life which means I hang out with kids a couple days a week and go to a weekly meeting.  That is my ministry.  The rest of my time is my time.  Well that out look ended up with me nearly losing my faith a few years ago simply because I viewed it as a job or obligation.
    But God, as loving and gracious as he is, kept tugging on my heart.  And through conversations with friends, books I read, and circumstances I encountered, he really taught me and showed me what it truly means to live in Christ.  He taught me and continues to teach me that ministry is not just an organization we volunteer for, it is not only a day of the week where we sing songs and shake hands, it is not just something we write a check for.  No, ministry is our life.  Every aspect of our life is our ministry.  Now volunteering for Christian organizations is great, and tithing to your church and charities is important.  But I have learned that it is not fully what God has designed us for.
   See, I had all these great ideas for my summer, by they were for the most part selfish ideas.  Thankfully God continued to steer me in the right direction.  When I was in Toledo I got to spend a lot of time just hanging out with high school kids.  I got to truly live life with them, they got to see that even when we do not have Young Life activities I am still here for them and that I still love Jesus.  I hope they got to see that they are not just a time card I stamp but they are my ministry.  As I spent countless hours in the sun yelling at the kids on Bowsher's soccer team to run harder or to "get on the line", I trust that because of Christ, the kids see something different in me.  And when I am sitting around my bachelor pad I often get an urge to call up some of the kids and hang out.  Not because I feel obligated to do so as a YL leader, but because I truly want to be sharing life with them.
    I am not sitting here saying that I am some awesome Christian because I spend soooooo much time with kids.  Because in reality I could certainly be spending more time.  I could be praying a heck of a lot more, I could be spending a lot more time in the Word.  I am simply trying to say this: ministry is our life and our life is ministry.  I do hope that I can be a Young Life leader for a very long time.  I want to be the old guy with a wife and kids but still be leading YL and hanging out with high school friends as much as I do now.  And if Young Life were to disappear tomorrow, I trust that through Christ I will still be living this same lifestyle and still hanging out with the kids.
    I think that too often we see ministry as an obligation or something that we do while we are single and in college.  But why?  Let ministry be our entire lives.  One day I am going to find a girl that I am going to fall in love with and I am going to marry that girl.  And honestly, I have a feeling that I will find that girl only when I am so lost in pursuing God and loving kids that she just kind of blind sides me.  But I am not going to quit doing my ministry.  It will look different, but I trust that my life will still be focused on loving Christ and loving people.  And in the end that is what we must always do.  Love Christ and love people.