Not My Own

"Please shut up! Please shut up!" I thought while holding a squirming screaming child in the middle of Chipotle. I can't believe I thought it was possible to order a burrito while holding onto my 14 month old mess of a child. Don't get me wrong. He is beautiful and precious but I think parents everywhere understand... it was just one of those days. Ordering a burrito was a fail, so I decided to sit down at a table and attempt to get milk out so the kid would pipe down. Desmond smacked the lid off and milk went all over my lap, the table, and gushed on the floor. Trying to hold onto my ridiculously strong son while cleaning up milk was nearly impossible. I looked around contemplating asking someone for help. Yet, my own pride made me think I could it handle it myself. I felt incredibly alone and prayed quietly in my head... God please help me! I just hit that point at the end of the day where I felt like I had nothing left to give. Persevering through the mess, as

I love the idea of youth Sundays where the youth get to lead the church worship service. As a youth minister, I like to give students freedom in how they want to run the service. Even then, there still is an understanding of boundaries and a certain standard of worship. What if during youth Sundays we gave them 100% freedom to do what they feel led by the Spirit to do? I think it would be a beautiful transformational mess. I think lives would be changed, minds would be blown, and everyone's picture of church would be totally flipped upside down. I think Jesus would be jumping up and down yelling..."Do something different! Let's get weird! Hallelujah!" I think this way because I have seen God show up tangibly through teenagers at NFUMC. They are so open minded letting the Holy Spirit work in a variety of ways. They are not afraid of what God is going to do when He shows up. They are just waiting, expectantly, for God to show up. They simply ask God to show up and He