Wednesday, June 15, 2011

My Boss Made Me

A few weeks ago, I ran a cross a blog post that wouldn't let me go. So I prayed, thought, and wrote. I sent my team at the church an email about this blog post in hopes that it would challenge them too. And, of course, my boss asked me to post the email here. My hope is that it would stir something in your heart, the way it did mine.

Hey team!

While reading Doug Fields’ blog the other day one of his posts made me think and more than that, challenged me.

Please read it if you haven’t already done so. Here it is.

Here's what I felt God was stirring in me as I read and prayed about this post:

Doug’s statement: “I’m assuming you all struggle.” In most of my daily ministry interactions I assume and hope for the best. I am , after all, the person who is supposed to encourage, strengthen, and believe that God can do anything, right? I oftentimes don’t ask the hard questions or assume that a student is struggling through things but that it’s not that bad. BUT, what if I should assume students are struggling with major issues? This post is about porn, but really we are capable of struggling with ANYTHING. The other day one of the girls in my Life Group told my co-leader, “I’m so glad that our group doesn’t struggle with drinking, guys and sex…we can just come and learn about the Bible.” Really? They aren’t struggling with anything but school and stress? I don’t believe that. I am pretty sure that once I begin assuming that there is more under the surface, I will find it.

We shouldn’t be afraid to assume that our students are facing deep struggles in their lives. You’re not being negative or lacking faith. You’re acknowledging that we live in a fallen world. BUT, we do need to continually believe and have faith in the fact that Jesus came to save us from the sin that binds us. In Romans 6 Paul says we were all slaves to sin, but through Christ we have been freed from it! As we tackle this, let’s remind our students that they DO have the gift of freedom in Christ, but the first step to receiving it is acknowledging the NEED for freedom.

Thanks for loving students…love you guys.