First Club of the Semester

"And while God does not ask any of us to bring Christ into the world as literally as did Mary, God calls each of us to become a God bearer through whom God may enter the world again and again." -Kendra Creasy Dean and Ron Foster

"Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it's like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too." -Frederick Buechner

Tonight the semester is kicking off with a bang. This is the first ever club in Lenoir City that will be almost completely ran by seniors and juniors, with Young Life leaders helping with the preparation before-hand and giving the talk. I'm so pumped.

There's just something about seeing those Seniors excited about club that makes you excited too. It's contagious. Sunday we prepared ahead of time for the mixer, the game, the music, the walk-on, the announcements, and the signs. Monday they painted up cars. Today we get our shirts, which we will all be wearing. There's going to be hot dogs and corn hole beforehand. Dude. Get excited. This is it.

I have the privilege of giving the first talk tonight. I'm going to talk about my first ever Young Life club when I was a freshman at LCHS. It was senior club and Michael Green did the light and fluffy skit with his friend, Adam McBroon. I'm going to tell about how nervous I was, how unsure I was, how out of the loop I felt, and how I said I would never go back...and here I stand as a Young Life leader today. Funny  how God works, isn't it?

Pray that God speaks through me to those kids who feel exactly as I did 8 years ago sitting in the overcrowded upper room of Suntrust Bank. I want more than anything for those kids to come back. And I want more than anything for Young Life to be everybody's Young Life, not just one group of kids'. I'm getting excited because I feel like our Seniors are starting to get the vision of what the phrase, "Young Life is for EVERYONE," means.

I hope they begin to be like the guys who brought there friend to the feet of Jesus.

"Some men were carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, 'Friend, your sins are forgiven'" (Luke 5:18-20).

Right in front of Jesus. That's where we want to bring everybody. That's the vision that we need. That's where we all belong.