Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was 31 when she and her husband moved into the White House. That’s pretty young as far as first ladies go. When I heard that bit of information during the televised commentary of President Obama’s second inauguration, I paused… and asked myself… what was I doing at 31?
Was I helping to lead the free world? Was I making a difference in my country, my community, my neighborhood?
This winter, like in each of our Winter Teen Retreat seasons at SpringHill Camps, our prayer and purpose is that students, whether in middle school like the 600 students coming today or in high school… our prayer is that they would leave with a better understanding of their purpose in this world, and ready to do something about it.
Ephesians 2:11 says, “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
I think, when I was in middle school, I thought you had to 50 or 60 to do anything worthwhile. I figured missionaries and preachers, even youth pastors, must be really old to be full of all that wisdom. I thought, someday, when I’m old too, I’ll do something important.
It’s one thing to know that God has a purpose for you, some important things mapped out for you to do someday. It’s an entirely different thing to understand what it is he wants you to do today.
Because God has a plan for you, not only when you’re 40 and old, but right now… and yesterday.
In youth ministry, part of our job is to prepare our students for what God has for them down the road, but perhaps a bigger part, is to help them live out what God has for them today.
So youth pastors, here’s a few ways to get started:
Do something worthwhile with your life today. Do what God prepared for you to do today.
Tell your students the stories of real young people, just like them, who did something that mattered today.
Jump on every opportunity to help them do something themselves.
Here’s a story to get started, it’s one my friend Wade told me a couple weeks ago. (I’ve had to paraphrase it. I think the details are accurate.)
Wade: When I turned 12, my dad sat me down and asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and how I was going to support myself doing it. I always remembered that conversation,
so when my son turned 12, I asked him the same question.
What he said surprised me, he said, Dad, I want to be an ichthyologist. It’s like a marine biologist,
but they study freshwater fish.
It blew my mind, so I said, how are you going to support yourself doing that? And he told me he was going to farm freshwater fish. Apparently, he said, you could do it in your garage. He had done his research.
So we started buying tanks and filters with $300 of startup money. Today our garage is full of tilapia, and we’ve placed an order for thousands more fish. When we go to aquaculture conferences, he holds his own with the old guys from universities with PhD’s.
Who knew? Who knew a 12-year-old could be an ichthyologist?
Who knows what else he might be tomorrow. But today, he’s doing something, something I once thought only old people could do.
So, what are you going to do today?
