I've always wanted to be a youth minister, and I knew that the job required a lot of time, work, and ability. I saw in my own youth minister (AP) that it was draining on his family, caused him even to adopt a young woman in our youth group when she had absolutely nowhere else to go. Her mother didn't really want her and her grandmother decided (1 year after this girl got out of the hospital for an eating disorder) that she was going to get back together with her husband who sexually abused her granddaughter. So, yeah - drastically changed his life and the life of his wife and two daughters (one who they adopted from an abusive parent situations 10 years earlier).
Even knowing all that, and I'm a little naive, but not really - I didn't think it was going to be this hard! Or that there would be so many times when I really didn't know what to do. Even more than that - knew what should be done, but couldn't do it because 'we're the Church and we can't do that.'
This morning at Mass was the reading of the Good Samaritan. The man who was beat up by robbers, broken and practically destroyed - and no one (except the Samaritan) would help him. He was rejected by his own people and taken in by a man who he was raised to hate and stay away from. The danger (and father discussed it this morning) when we Christians aren't the ones who do the rescuing, is that people will follow their rescuer. If the 'pagan' rescues, the broken will pledge their devotion toward them. And if the Christian does, then we will gain followers for Christ.
Lord, show me the way!
Even knowing all that, and I'm a little naive, but not really - I didn't think it was going to be this hard! Or that there would be so many times when I really didn't know what to do. Even more than that - knew what should be done, but couldn't do it because 'we're the Church and we can't do that.'
This morning at Mass was the reading of the Good Samaritan. The man who was beat up by robbers, broken and practically destroyed - and no one (except the Samaritan) would help him. He was rejected by his own people and taken in by a man who he was raised to hate and stay away from. The danger (and father discussed it this morning) when we Christians aren't the ones who do the rescuing, is that people will follow their rescuer. If the 'pagan' rescues, the broken will pledge their devotion toward them. And if the Christian does, then we will gain followers for Christ.
Lord, show me the way!
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