People

I love reading.

Reading is one of my favorite things to do. I love getting lost in a well-told story, letting my mind make up what the characters look like and imagining what their lives are like.  A book I recently read that I thoroughly enjoyed was  Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. It’s not your classic mind boggling piece of literature, but the reason I enjoy this particular book so much is because the characters feel real. It’s a darker book following the lives of a few high school students in Pittsburgh, PA and doesn’t necessarily have the happiest of endings. Nonetheless, the characters are real and their stories are captivating.

I never get tired of captivating stories.

Young Life was where I started my relationship with Jesus and was the first ministry where I wanted to get involved. I thought Young Life was the best ministry and I loved hearing the stories of those involved with Young Life.  I started realizing I didn’t have to go to books to find captivating stories, all I had to do was live life and meet others. The stories I heard were ones that you couldn’t script and bind within a cover with some hipster title like “The Silence Between the Rain” (The title of a story I’m currently writing ha).  These stories were real and I loved getting to hear them.

In 2013, I stepped back from Young Life and I thought the captivating stories were going to end and that I would have to turn to fabricated ones in books once again (Don’t get me wrong, I still LOVE a great book with a great story). You could say that this thinking captivating stories will end because Young Life was removed from my life was the result of naiveness or ignorance. I thought no other ministry was as good as Young Life.

A person once told me “Ministry is people”. This was eye opening. I realized people were everywhere I went, no matter what organization I was involved in. Young Life was just a tool for me to meet people with amazing stories. Every one has a story and every one’s story is captivating because it’s theirs. Your story is one I can’t go to the local bookstore and read about. I was reminded of the quote “Ministry is people” because of Young Life College. Young Life College teamed up with the Mission, a ministry that reaches out to people. Both organizations are involved in Laundry Love, another ministry that reaches out to people. This past Tuesday Night, there was an announcement about a ministry called Joni and Friends and yes, they reach out to people as well. I look at Jesus' life and He reached out to people too. And it wasn't certain people who belonged to certain groups or organizations, but to all people. 

Lately I have been reminding myself to focus less on the name of a ministry and focus more on the name of Him who did ministry best. When I do this, I truly care about people and not because of the ministry I am a part of but because of who they are to Him. I want to hear their one of a kind story and perhaps have the opportunity to share Jesus’ story with them.

In His grip,

Josh