I know a high school student named David*. David is a good student, a decent athlete, and a fun guy to be around. Most of his teachers don’t know his name, but he has a group of guys that he hangs out with during lunch. By all appearances, David leads a normal life for a teenager filled with academics, sports, and social gatherings. However, David doesn’t have many people in his life that he feels close to. In fact, there are only a handful of people on the entire planet that David trusts enough to talk about his feelings, his doubts, and his painful times.
David lives in my neighborhood and we hang out multiple times per week. He comes to YoungLife events, we go to the movies with other guys, he visits my house for dinner. One afternoon, David told me that he had something important that he wanted to talk about. He came to the door, looking nervous. We sat at my dining table and I asked him, “What’s up?” David went on to tell me that he had met a youth pastor who had invited him to their youth group meeting. David wanted to go, but was scared that if he went he would no longer be welcome at YoungLife. I chuckled a bit and explained to him that we are here for him, and that I would gladly drive him to that youth group, which happened to be led by a friend of mine at a local church. We went on to talk about faith, life, and what it means to love yourself as Jesus loves you.
As David headed for the door to leave, he turned around with another nervous look on his face. “Josh? What are we? Like, what is this that we’re doing?” I laughed a little more and told him simply, “This is called being friends. I learn from you, and you learn from me.” He liked that. David told me that he doesn’t have many friends that act like this. “Well,” I said, “we’ll just have to find you more friends.” As David left my house, I realized that this act of understanding and caring for my friends is what ministry is. This is what YoungLife is. This is what love is.
*Name changed to protect identity.
-Josh
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