Not For Me

Here's what I like (or rather, don't mind): singing in public.

Here's what I don't like: speaking in public.

Contrary to popular belief, there is a difference!

With singing, you have music and, often times, a whole band to back you up. With speaking, it's just you, a microphone, and a couple hundred quiet people waiting for you to stutter. Maybe it's not that bad, but you catch my drift...

The reason I'm saying this is, tomorrow, I have to speak in public (the public being my church famliy!). And the reason for this public speaking is to share some highlights and meaningful experiences from our youth group's recent beach/mission trip. No big deal, right? Well, for someone like me, who's more of a public singer than speaker, it's a bit scary.

So, instead of freaking out about what I'm going to share in front of my "family" (that word makes it sound so much less nerve-racking than the word "public", doesn't it?!), I'm going to test it on the few readers of my blog that I now have! (And when I say "few", I mean very few!)

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity."
- 1 Timothy 4:12

1 Timothy 4:12 is a bible verse that, as a teenager, I'm pretty used to hearing. And, up until this simple little trip, I didn't realize how true it really was...or, more honestly, what a great survival guide it is for a kid.

On our trip, we acted like typical church kids would. We were crazy, but we were crazy with class...

Between all the fun, inside-joke kind of times, I managed to build relationships with people I never really foresaw myself getting to know. I strengthened the relationships I already had with good friends, youth leaders, and most importantly, GOD. I learned what it meant to serve others with a cheerful heart, and learned that some people can be just as much of a blessing to you as you were trying to be to them.

We worked at a drug and alcohol rehab center, where a group of people who were so grateful for the shirts on their backs shared their stories with us. I went in there to serve them some food, clean up a little, and sing to them with our youth praise team. When I walked out of there, I was more blessed than when I walked in, because not only did we sing to them, but they sang to us with a love for the Lord like no other!

We helped with kids at a small community center in an area where most of us never would have normally gone. And these kids, who were soooo excited to see us, and to have someone to love them and play with them, came right up to us and gave us big hugs... Those hugs meant more than any hug I've ever had before.

And then, just a few of us older youth worked at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore. And we had fun, laughing at one of our youth leaders wrestle a cabinet off of a wall, and - for me - using a power tool for the first time... But seeing how grateful the manager of that store was for old, used pieces of furniture that had been donated - now that was something cool.

"We have different gifts, according to the grace given us... If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully."
- Romans 12:6-8

This verse, one of the themes for our trip, says a lot. But, what it doesn't say is how much joy that serving and teaching and encouraging and generosity can bring to not just those who you're helping, but also to yourself.

Don't be fooled... You'll always get a heck of a lot more out of something than you put into it, if you put your heart and soul into it, and you do it not for yourself, but for others and for Him.

Jesus.
Others.
Yewww.