Best Job in the World

I have been a full-time youth pastor for almost 5 months now. It feels like a dream that you have over and over, and then when it finally comes true, you still think it is a dream. I feel that way. I keep expecting things to go back to "normal" and ending up back in Nashville working at Emdeon and Covenant. The dream hasn't ended yet. I am really enjoying our time at Platte Woods. I love the church and the people.

Over the last few weeks, I have really been thinking about my calling and what it means to be a youth pastor in this day and age. I know that I have the best job in the world. I get to spend most of my time with students and doing all kinds of fun things while I am at it. I love what I do. I love to be in the position to change someone's life. I love spending time with parents and getting to know them more and what they love doing. I love getting to know the students and how God has changed their life, to help them through their problems and really moving their life forward.

But there is a problem... I also have one of the hardest jobs in the world. Hardest in the point of trying to change someone's point of view. Students live in a great big world that is telling them to do everything they want to do, no matter who or what they hurt. The world loves to tell students that sex is ok, as long as they love each other. That parents are just people in your life, but no one to really listen to. To show students a life that is neither attainable or actually worth having, but that students should have it. A world that produces 100 million dollar movies to show students that being "knocked up" isn't that big a deal. This world is what I am battling. A world obsessed with itself and doesn't care how that affects others. A world that is pushing parents and students away from each other, where students are raising themselves and currently failing at it. A world so into sports, that every student out there wants to be on an ESPN Highlight roll.

So how are I, we supposed to combat that world. Churches seem to be declining in attendance because we aren't seen as relevant anymore. People see all the major problems within the church, and all churches together. This is why I have the hardest job in the world. Everyday I struggle to show students that Jesus is relevant in their life and that the things their friends are telling them about God, isn't the truth. But hard or not, like David vs Goliath, I have God on my side. The creator of the universe has called me to this profession. He has brought me to this place in my life and this church and these students.
No matter how hard my job is, He is more than powerful enough to overcome anything.