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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion Friday, March 12, 2004 |
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Frontline Devotion for Friday, March 12, 2004, by Mike Martine
Bible text:
Luke 6: 30
I’ve been a youth leader, camp counselor, musician for youth events, camp
director, and a youth pastor. If I’ve learned anything from all that, it’s that
the basic assumptions most people have of “what it takes” to do youth ministry
are wrong. Most people assume that, to do youth ministry, you need to be loud,
crazy, and young.
In fact, to do youth ministry, you mostly have to do one thing: be real.
Last weekend, our church sent a group of about 20 senior high youth to
Washington, DC to work with ministries serving the homeless. As part of their
service, they teamed up with the ministry called Community Family Life Services
to serve supper to about 175 homeless people.
One of the advisors who attended this event is named Scott. Scott is a quiet,
calm guy. He’s kind, shies away from the limelight, and is a youth advisor who
(even though he doesn’t look it) is knocking on the half-century mark. Scott
mostly speaks softly, does anything that needs done, and provides a quiet,
steady presence on our youth ministry team.
In other words, Scott’s not a loud, young, and crazy youth leader, but the
other night at that dinner he showed the kids how real he is.
A man came to the meal in pain. In pain because his shoes were too small. He
asked if there were any shoes at the church the meal was held in that might fit
him. Scott told the man he would find out, and then, when the program director
said that she couldn’t find any shoes that large, Scott pulled her aside.
“Give him my shoes,” Scott said. “I’m a size 12.”
“You don’t have to do that,” came the reply.
“No, I want to,” Scott said. “And here, just say you found them - I don’t want
to embarrass him.”
Not only did Scott’s shoes fit the man, but moments later the man’s old shoes
were given to another man who was walking about in the paper slippers he had
received at the hospital.
That night, after supper, Scott walked home, through the city of Washington,
D.C., in his stocking feet. He would have walked barefoot, but the church was
able to provide the man with a pair of socks.
I’ve done a lot of work with kids, and yet nothing I have done with kids ever
matched the effect of Scott’s simple act of self-denial. His simple act of faith
set a tone for the rest of the trip, and touched the lives and faith of our
youth profoundly.
And the best part? All Scott really wanted to do was act on his faith and
help. If he could have managed it, he would have hid his stocking-clad size 12’s
from the eyes of the kids, and they would have never even seen what he had done. Thankfully, though, they did.
Self-denial can help us keep our faith real. Seek someone today who needs
help and help them - really help them. You will emerge from the act richer, and
others might just also see your good works and glorify our father in heaven. Amen.
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