Spring has Sprung: Youth Director’s Perspective
One of the best of the 4 seasons of the year is spring. Some might suggest otherwise, and that’s quite okay. However, the season offers a sense of newness. Trees begin to bud. Plants spring alive and flowers blossom once again. You could even hear birds chirping once again, rousing you out of sleep. The temperature gets warmer. And your favourite basketball or hockey team might be on the road to a championship win! Happily, what also comes along with spring, depending on where you live, is the presence of road construction…
Beyond all of these, spring also brings with it a season of celebration. During that time, students finish their coursework, complete their final exams, and many of them achieve the honour of graduation; all benchmarks which demonstrate some level of success. Today I salute every young person who is graduating, and moving from one level of their educational pursuits to the next. Your efforts should be celebrated. The time and resources you have invested in your future should be commended. And those, like your parents, who are your biggest cheerleaders, should be given a standing ovation.
Even more, this season of spring offers to us a valuable lesson. The Apostle Paul once said: “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected…I do not count myself to have apprehended…” (Philippians 3:12, 13). Whatever it was that Paul believed was still to be accomplished for God, we won’t fully know. However, we are reminded that, despite the many efforts to achieve the goals we had in mind, there is still so much left to do and still many more miles to go.
When I think about the work OC Youth Ministries department, on all levels, is committed to achieving, these sentiments become sobering. Like Paul, I am determined to “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” My prayer is that this spring, and in every season, we all would have a similar determination to fulfill God’s call in our lives for youth ministry leadership