Subconscious Hunger

I have the tremendous blessing of living close enough to my parents that my wife and I don’t have to do that much grocery shopping, if you catch my drift.

I’ll stop by in between meetings, when there’s a show I want to watch on cable, or if we just feel like having some good home cooked meals. It’s quite delicious (both figuratively and literally).

I’ve noticed an odd sensation however. Whenever I walk into the house, I immediately go to the kitchen, open the fridge, and look for something to munch on. I realized this the other day when I stopped by to pick something up after eating a rather large lunch at a meeting. I shouldn’t have been hungry. In fact, I wasn’t. But something inside of me though, “Oh! This is where we get good food. It’s time to eat.” It was a weird kind of subconscious hunger.

Our ministries should do that. They should create a subconscious spiritual hunger. Students should walk in and something deep inside of them should think, “Hey! This is where we experience Jesus! Better get ready.”

How do we do that? The same way my Mom does. Consistently prepare great meals and serve them with huge doses of love. That means solid Bible teaching, that satisfies the hunger (aka matters in their life), and lets them know we care deeply about them while we serve up a healthy helping of the Big Guy.

Alright… I’m getting hungry. I’m gonna go over to my folks.

Coincidence is too small a word

Alright, a little post-Christmas story that boggles the statistical processing parts of my brain.

LIMA (Reuters) – Virgin Mary, a 20-year-old Peruvian woman, gave birth to a baby boy on Christmas day and named him Jesus, Peru's state news agency said on Friday.

The baby's father, Adolfo Jorge Huamani, 24, is a carpenter. Religious Peruvians compared him to Joseph the Carpenter in the Bible.

"Two thousand years later the story of Bethlehem is relived," read the headline about the birth in El Comercio, the main newspaper in Peru, a predominantly Catholic country.

The mother, Virgen Maria Huarcaya, delivered the 7.7 pound (3.5 kg) boy, Jesus Emanuel, in the early hours of Christmas at the central maternity hospital in Lima, the capital.

"A few days ago we had decided to name my son after a professional soccer player," the father said. "But thanks to a happy coincidence this is how things ended up."

(Reporting by Terry Wade; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Time-Waster: 99 Bricks

Tetris was a sacred game in my home growing up. My mom, who is not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination, was an obsessive and accomplished Tetris player. It wore of on me.

I credit my uncanny ability to pack a backpack, trunk, moving van, or garage to the hours spent crafting those geometric shapes into optimal arrangement, always praying that the shape-gods would bless me with a sacred Line.

But I’ve discovered the secret to my success. The bricks did not obey the laws of physics. If they had, my Tetris career would certainly have been less celebrated. (Technically, I’m the only one who celebrated my career, with little parties… and cake.)

I know that Physics would have been the end of me because I’ve recently been wasting time playing 99 Bricks over on Time Waster Holy Land Kongregate. The game works much like Tetris, except the pieces obey the laws of physics and the goal is to stack as high as possible, rather than make full lines that magically disappear. It’s pretty entertaining, and much more difficult than I expected.

Head on over and check it out!

Time-Waster: Assembler

Take your typical  “build-a-contraption to get the shape in the right space” game, add physics. Now you’ve got Assembler. The concept, get the green piece in the green area. The trick, you’re given a limited number of pieces to re-arrange to accomplish this task, and they all follow the laws of physics. The result, time well wasted. Enjoy!

Play the game here.

Recharge: Keeping Fresh in Ministry

Ministry is exhausting. Sometimes it is because we have poorly planned and have too many things happening at once. Other times it is beyond our control and our flock requires extra attention.

I was on a road trip once and was passing the time talking on my cell phone. I eventually used the last bit of power and the phone shutdown. It was winter, I hit some black ice and spun around into a snow bank. The car was fine, but stuck. I was nearly home, so there were plenty of people in the area to help me get out. I grabbed my cell phone and… shoot!

That was a long and cold walk to get some help, but I learned my lesson. If I don’t keep the batteries charged, then I won’t have the juice when it really matters.

Keeping our emotional batteries charged is an incredibly important part of an effective ministry. If we let ourselves get too drained, there may come a point when someone calls on us and we just don’t have the energy to properly minister, and that’s lame. Here are some of the ways that I keep my batteries charged:

Keep a “Recharge File”

My favorite file in my entire office is my “Recharge File.” It is a folder in one of my drawers that holds every encouraging note or spiritually significant exchange I’ve had with a student. Things like

• Thank You cards
• Letters from Grads
• Notes from Van Rides & Mission Trips
• FaithStories (Testimonies)
• Pictures

Thanks to the digital age, a lot of these things come via e-mail, but I just print them out and stick them in the folder. There have been plenty of rough days full of students being crazy, parents getting upset, lessons that bombed, or just plain exhaustion. These are the days that I take 10 minutes and go through my Recharge File. It rarely fixes my problems, but it always puts them in perspective.

Have an Encouragement Buddy

A few weeks ago we had a retreat that was a huge success. Spiritual growth galore! I’ve learned over the years that these experiences are often followed by frustration and disappointment. Partly being snapped into reality, and partly Satan working to keep us form getting to motivated, I’m sure.  I came back from the trip and told my wife, “This trip was amazing. I’m going to need you to remind me of that in the coming weeks.”

Sure enough, after another youth event,  I was bumming out. My wonderful spouse was right there to remind me what I had said.

Find somebody who can be the person who remind you of the great things that are happening in your ministry. It could be your spouse, a co-worker, or a volunteer leader. Just make sure you tell them when things are going great, so they can remind you when things aren’t so great.

Take A Day Off Each Week

Disclaimer: I suck at doing this. But it’s from failing to do it that I realize how important it is. God can keep being God without your help. All of your students won’t reject Him if you take a break for 24 hours. Pick a day of the week to take off and guard it like a hungry pit bull with a steak. No excuses. Just do it.

Play!

Find something to do each day that has no other benefit besides being enjoyable. It doesn’t have to make sense, and it doesn’t have to take long. It just has to remind you that playing is part of the point of creation.

Personally, I have a little gun that shoots smoke rings. I like to shoot them in my office and play a form of “Smoke Ring Horseshoes” by seeing if I can get a “ringer” around differing things in the room.

Be a Christ Follower

We spend the majority of our time being leaders. There is a restful quality it just being a follower. Spend time in the Bible that isn’t just because you’re planning a lesson. Spend time in prayer without having an agenda. Do the things you are telling your students to do. That’s where you will find the rest the Bible talks about.

So those are the things I do to keep the batteries full. What do you do?

[ht to Tim Schmoyer at Life in Student Ministry for suggesting this topic]