You gotta start somewhere I guess...

OK, so recently I have become a huge fan of the MTV show Awkward. which has kind of inspired me to begin my own blog, which I know sounds kind of lame, but I thought it'd be interesting to try.

So this is now my third attempt to write this post for my blog... usually I'm a person who has plenty to say, but whenever it comes to actually putting said thoughts on paper that have the potential of someone else reading them it's a rather daunting venture.

I suppose the reason for this post is born out of the fact that I recently started working in a new church; one which is a completely different context from my previous job. I have been deeply challenged by the fact that all young people are different. Some people might think that is such a stupid thought, of course all young people are different. But I guess, in my own arrogance and lack of understanding, I assumed that I can just do youth work. It's something I believe I have been called to, and so I guess I hoped that in my new job I could simply get by on the same skills and abilities I learned in my first job, without the need to alter them. In my first couple of weeks I realised how completely foolish this was, and that, in fact, I would need to alter my methods a great deal in order to find common point of interest to connect me to my new young people.

I have come from a church in the middle of housing estate where the kids are very much 'what you see is what you get' and are loud and quick to ask you about yourself in order to begin their sussing out process of you, which was great. I am now situated in a church in the country, amongst the fields, where the young people are quiet, polite and need a lot of probing to get them to engage with you, which is equally as great. Having grown up as a country bumpkin myself I feel a natural pull towards the young people whom I now serve, so really this should provide me with a springboard from which to begin my new ministry... or so I thought.

I guess what I have learned in these past weeks is that we should never just make assumptions about young people based on their background, circumstances, school, social standing, dress sense... Each of the young people I have encountered in my, short, youth work career is so special, they are made in God's image and are HUGELY important to him. For that reason they deserve what time, energy, love, patience and service I can offer them as they journey along what can be one of the more difficult eras of life.

A song that really inspires me for why I do what I do is 'Break My Heart' by the 1930s. It just perfectly articulates why we should invest time in young people, and how we should examine ourselves in light of what God has done for us, and how this should have an impact on how we live our day to day lives. Here's just a few lines of the song that really stick out for me...

"Sometime the things I do break my heart, and other times they don't but they should. Either way these things will still hurt you, but what breaks your heart should break mine too. Oh Lord, let what breaks your heart break mine too... If it means something to you, then it means something to me. You mean more than all these things."

-The 1930s