When it's worth it

Just like life in general, ministry definitely has its ups and downs.  Sometimes things are slow and you just feel like you are talking to brick walls and want to smack some sense in to the students around you! Thank God for using it to develop my patience!  Lately however, though good things have been happening in our ministry, I still found myself in a bit of a rut.  Overall, I've just been kind of down, missing home, and really missing being with close friends and family.  I have some friends up here, but not like back home, and when things are slow, it's easy to get lonely here.  That being said, I got up today not really feeling like getting out and doing anything.  I got up anyways, read my Bible and got going, had a great lunch meeting, and then met up with the skateboard guys I've been meeting with.  Today turned out to be a blessing that I was really needing.  

We started by talking about a skateboarder outreach we are doing at the Solid Rock Youth Center this weekend.  Once we were done planning and thinking through that, the guys headed outside.  I sat on the side of the street with several of the guys talking while a few of them were doing tricks.  After a few minutes two guys came and sat down that I hadn't met before.  I introduced myself to them and started talking about various subjects.  One guy, Clifford, seemed to have a rough background as he mentioned topics from buying guns to having friends who sold drugs, and his mother walking out on him and his dad when he was younger.  I don't really think he realized I wasn't just one of the guys (one of the pluses for looking the age of a high schooler I guess).  Eventually, the topic of taking the Lord's name in vain came up among the guys when one of them did it.  Clifford said he accidentally did that sometimes, but always tried to apologize to God.  That lead to him saying his grandmother was a Catholic, and he said he was thinking about becoming a Catholic.  Then he said, someone else in his family was a Methodist, but he didn't know what to believe.  I then asked him why he wanted to become a Catholic or a Methodist.  He told me it was hard for him to believe everything came from nothing, and that something had to have created it all.  I then told him I went to a protestant church, which is in the same general boat as Methodist churches.  I then had the opportunity to walk him though a discussion about being sinful because of Adam & Eve and then a discussion about Jesus Christ being the "Second Adam," and how it wasn't so much about doing right and wrong as it is about trusting Jesus to forgive our sins.  His question then was, how can a person know for sure?  I then told him when I became a Christian, though I believed, I had doubts too, but as I grew and spent time in God's Word and acted on my faith, it became real to me.  I said its kind of like learning how to swim.... the best way to learn is to jump in and learn by practice.  Overall we had an awesome discussion that some of the other skateboard guys jumped in on some too.  It was just cool to talk and address things that I know some of the other guys questioned too, and if nothing else hopefully get them thinking and seeking answers.  Though Clifford did not make a decision to receive Christ today, I think he left with a lot to think about.  I told him I would be down there once a week, so hopefully I'll see him again soon.  It was just a blessing to share God's love with Clifford.  God seems to have a funny way of lifting us up and using us even in the down times as I have certainly seen a lot lately.  Please be praying for Clifford, and for my continued interaction with the skaters!