As I awkwardly sit on this charter bus to Cedar Point with about 50 teenagers, 6th to 12th grade, I begin to ask God, "Why did you have me do this?" Not just the cedar point with a bunch of raging hormones part. The part where I saw an open door and saw God telling me to go through it - the part where I thought I would be good at getting to know and being a witness to these young souls. Me. The quiet, introverted, shy, awkward, don't know how to relate to 16 year olds anymore me. The only questions i know to ask are, "How old are you? What do you want to go to college to be?" after I've asked that question (sometimes unknowingly more than once, oops), I'm at a loss. God, why did you want me to do this? How do I get to know these people? How do I relate? How do I conquer my past of trying to fit in when I was their age, let alone now? How do I tell them about you and encourage them to grow in you? Pastor Rick put it pretty well yesterday - you can't be surprised when God puts you in an uncomfortable, sometimes painful situation that demands faith when you've asked him to grow you in that area. God answers prayers, especially to grow us, but what we don't expect is that it's not going to be easy. When I got asked to be a youth leader, I said yes, imagining myself as someone completely opposite of who I actually am. Luckily, I can be sure that God chooses the weak and the foolish, the unpopular, the worst and the quietest of us and through Him makes us strong, wise, exalted, righteous and bold as a testimony to rest of the world of how great His power and glory is. This passage is really ministering to me as I write this, because it makes me aware that God has a hold on me for a reason - and it's not because I'm strong or the most outgoing. He puts me in these situations for a reason and I can be sure He is with me and for me, ready to pour out his strength and grace on me to make me what I ought to be and to grow me. God is so good. I'm still nervous, but I'm not hopeless. Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. (1 Corinthians 1:26-28 NLT)
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