It's happened again

It’s happened again. A minister has fallen. A marriage has failed. A wife is hurt. A church is devastated.

It is becoming all too common. But it never fails to shock me. I didn’t even know this guy, but I know the church. I hurt for these people. People who looked up to him, people who listened to his sermons week after week. There is a sense of sorrow. And there is a spark of anger.

But after a week of thinking about this, praying for those involved and having some time to reflect, I come to the same conclusions each time this happens. As someone close to me once said, “We are all just a millisecond away from doing something really stupid.” It is arrogant to assume that I will never do anything this bad. At least, it is arrogant to say that on my own I won’t fail like this. Or that my husband on his own will not fail in some public way.

I heard a sermon this week that mentioned that we are powerless against sin (Romans 5). At least “on our own” we are powerless. We do have ONE who is powerful who can help us, and He will. Yet, we have some responsibility to continue learning and growing and nurturing our spiritual lives, and at the same time put the necessary hard work into our marriage relationship.

So instead of being judgmental toward this latest brother who has fallen, I need to continue to pray for him and also realize that we are all sinners. I also need to thank God daily for the man I married and to ask Him to help us to stay alert in our own marriage so that we may not only avoid a tragic situation, but that we will have a joyous and blessed lifetime together, serving our Savior.

Over the next couple of weeks, Lori and I will post some tips and thoughts we’ve read about or learned from experience that may help to encourage you to strengthen your marriage relationships. Feel free to comment and post some of your own as well!

Cheering for you

My husband recently mapped out the rest of our lives. He gave me a chart that included a space for each year from now until we turn 75. It listed how old our kids would be each of those years, various vacation plans, financial plans, several long term goals and some short term goals he would like to accomplish each year. It is the first of the year, so he gets rather focused, dreamy, reflective, and if you ask me, a little morbid. After I read it I said, “This is depressing!” He told me that he thought it would affect me that way. He gets energized by seeing a plan, but I feel like I’m 75 already and the life from now to then is already over.

This looking forward always causes me to reflect backward and relive some of our earlier experiences. A lot is behind us, never to be experienced again. But since my husband and I are now in the college community we get to re-experience the first years of youth ministry vicariously through the students we meet. It is invigorating to watch them throw themselves into the work to which God has called them.

If you and your husband are just starting out in student ministry, we are so excited for you! Let me encourage you to take each day as it comes and enjoy where you are. Make the most of each opportunity that you have. Use your youth, your freedom, your enthusiasm and zeal for the Lord. When it gets hard, rely on those with wisdom, who’ve been there before, to help you sort things out. But while you’ve got the energy and the stamina, work for the Lord, reach out to those young people to whom God has called you.

And even though you will gain more wisdom as you continue to learn and grow in the Lord, there are things that you can do right now and influences you have right now, while you are young, that you will not have when you are older and even more mature.

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example . . .” (1 Timothy 4:12)

And while you are doing this ministry, know that there are people like us who are watching, praying for you, and cheering you on as you invest in the lives of kids!