small group story

its 6:30am, I just finished my Thursday morning prayer meeting, and I wanted to share a story before I forgot it.


the guys I pray with on Thursdays lead a small group of middle school boys with special needs. by the time these guys got to their small group, a lot had already happened that night. there was a lot of emotion in the air. we had just played a long, crazy game, and these boys did a great job, but ended coming in third place. also, earlier in the night, one of the boys from this group was in tears over something that happened while he was playing a videogame in our game room. when this small group started after the group game, another boy, I’ll call him Joey had his back turned to his small group and had his face in a chair. when the leaders of the small group asked him what was wrong, he too was upset over coming in third place in the night’s game. another boy was being silly as usually and was sitting upside down in his chair. honestly, I don’t know how these guys do it, but they always manage to have incredible small group meetings with these boys; and they always show an amazing level of patience and grace. these guys are heroes.


the night’s topic was evangelism. one of the leaders mentioned that a great way to tell someone about jesus is to just tell them your story of what Jesus has done in your life. the boys loved the idea and began to take turns telling their story. the first boys that went was the boy I mentioned earlier, Joey. he told the boys that he prayed to receive Christ in his bedroom, the day that he had been diagnosed with autism. he shared that he felt helpless and cried out to God, and God met him there, and that he had been following Christ ever since. this silly, emotional group of boys were silent and locked onto this boy as he wept and shared how good God had been to him and how his diagnosis led him to Christ. the men who were leading the small group shared that they knew that they were in God’s presence as Joey shared.


they shared with me how they were reminded of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, “But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”


my friend Joey is strong; and God's power flowed through his weakness and his story on Tuesday night. God's grace is enough for Joey; its enough for me, and enough for you.
there are some other details to the story, and I guess I could write some more, but the words of Scripture are so profound in this moment, that its better that I just let them speak:


“But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”


God is love.
-rev-rob