seems simple

for the last several years I’ve been working with youth for Christ on a project called campus life. campus life is a club that is run by local churches on middle school campuses. its evangelistic and lots of fun for students, and usually meets at lunchtime. there are some 35 clubs in town, each with as many as 100 to 200 students in each club. I oversee one of those clubs (with a youth pastor named Will), and I’m looking to start another one at another local middle school campus (with a youth pastor named Chris).

my contact at youth for Christ organizes resources, volunteers and youth pastors to oversee these clubs. she keeps us out of trouble and gets us out of trouble when we cross a line- and she handles all of the legal and paperwork.

we were talking about the new club, and she said that another ministry had also targeted this school and was going to have a another local youth pastor oversee the club. we figured that is this was the case, then it made no sense to have 2 clubs on the same campus. so I called this pastor to get some more information.

it turns out that he is new in town, and the ministry that he is working with has never launched a club before. he would be responsible for the club, not the ministry. and if he got into trouble, he’s have to find his way out. he asked if I would like to help him, and I told him that I would prefer to work with youth for Christ. he wasn’t interested in that. I’m not interested in going forward without YFC.

so I was driving this morning and thinking about this thing-
and I was thinking, “if this guy chooses to work with youth for Christ and Chris and I, then he has all of the resources of youth for Christ to protect him. he has all of the resources of Chris’ church and my church (which adds up to 6 youth pastors and 2 interns) and who knows how many parents that would also like to volunteer.
but if he chooses not to, then he’s in it all by himself.”
(I have done it by myself- its enough to make you want to find a new job.)

it seemed simple:
work with YFC and have all the resources you could ever want,
or go without YFC and try to do it all by yourself.
and then the Lord laid this on my heart:
“yeah- its like that with Me too.” whoa!
I can choose to do life,
ministry, family, marriage, and parenting with Him,
and have all of the resources
of the Creator of Heaven and Earth available to me-
or I could give it my best shot all by myself.

it seems simple.
but there is a pride issue involved.
there is credit on the line.
and this whole thing requires humility.

there are those days when I look back and think,
“I was doing it all on my own today- and that’s why I was so frustrated!”
and there are those nights when I can consider how much I let others do, and how much I trusted the Lord to accomplish.
There are those nights when I prayed,
“God- I can’t do thing on my own- I need You to show up,
to come through, to change the outcome of this story.”
and He does.
seems simple!

but how often does He show up, and I take the credit?
how often does He long to assist me, but I want to do it myself?
if its so simple, why don’t I lean on Him instead of attempting to do it all by myself?

jesus foresaw this whole dilemma and said,
“i am the vine; you are the branches.
if a man remains in me and i in him, he will bear much fruit;
apart from me you can do nothing.”

with Him or without Him?
it seems simple.

"I'll be with him
on that midnight train to Georgia
I'd rather live in his world
than live without him in mine."
-gladys knight