Recently I've been listening to some old school Christian rock that I grew up with. Specifically, some old school Michael W Smith. (In case you're unaware of him, Michael W Smith is a Christian artist that had the height of his popularity in the late 80s and early 90s). One of the songs that I have been listening to is entitled “Give It Away” from his Change Your World album. A reoccurring line at the end of each verse is, "love isn't love until you give it away."
This song has got me thinking about our job as Christians specifically working with youth and young adults. Let's face it, there are some youth and young adults that are very trying and are very difficult to love. If I were truly honest, these individuals would be my least favorite to be around and I would look for any excuse not to be around them. But I am sure Jesus experienced the same with the people he dealt with in his ministry on earth. Not everyone that he formed a relationship with could have been easy to love, yet he did it all the same. Loving people who are easy to love, is no problem; we do that almost out of reflex. But loving those persons who are the hardest to love, can take great patience and skill.
Because one of the most important aspects of youth and young adult ministry is forming relationships with youth and young adults who crave them, this means that we need to practice loving the unlovable. I know a camp director who made a comment to a youth director who had brought his junior high youth to their camp. Her comment to him went something like this, "Oh I hate junior high youth… They are so difficult to deal with!" I often wondered if one of the junior high youth had overheard that camp director making that comment to my friend. How would they have taken that? What would they have thought?
The chorus of that Michael W Smith song is just below. I offer it up as a prayer for all of us to realize that there will be those youth and young adults that are the hardest to love. However, our responsibility as Christians (especially Christian leaders) is to go the extra mile and try our hardest to overcome those difficulties. When you find yourself having a hard time dealing with those persons who are hardest to love, I would invite you to listen to this Michael W Smith song and use it as a prayer.
As we live… Moving side-by-side…
May we learn to live…learn to sacrifice!
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