On the Heels of St. Paul

A few weeks ago, during my daily prayer time, I had a heavy heart to offer up to the Lord. I was filled with concern, concern for the young people that I minister to and love so dearly. As ministers, we are reaching out to youth who are immersed in a world on the verge of war, a culture that glorifies infidelity and promiscuity, a nation that prides itself in separating morality from the common good, a generation of broken homes and families… the list goes on and on.
And I see it in the eyes of the youth that I serve. Every night that we meet, I just look at them and see the burdens they bear. I feel it when I am with them and it weighs on my heart, so I do my best to speak words of hope and truth and love over them. And then, as they pray, I pray over them, that the words God wants them to hear, the words that they need to hear, will settle in their bones. I pray that they will feel His healing touch and His love, and I pray that God will use me, the little that I am, to reach them, to reach them so that He can reach them.
This was what I brought to prayer a few weeks ago. Thinking about what we’re battling as we try to minister, I felt like I was standing in front of a mountain, so small, so powerless to move it. I sat in my room and expressed to the Father my concern for the youth of the world. “I want to reach them – Lord, show me how.”
I opened my Bible up to the first reading for the day, which was from St. Paul’s first letter to the people of Thessalonica. As I read through the passage, a smile broke out on my face. In this part of the letter, Chapter 2, Paul is recounting the way that he worked among the Thessalonians and brought them to conversion, to a place of loving Jesus and being His followers. Through my encounter with this Scripture, the Lord was answering my prayer. He was showing me how to reach out to a group of people, how to love them and lead them to God.

In verse 2, Paul says “we drew courage through our God to speak to you the gospel of God with much struggle.” When we minister, we are speaking the Truth, the good news of God. This is beyond what the world can comprehend or accept. So, why do we expect it to be preached and accepted with ease? Jesus, the Word made flesh, was rejected at times. He is the same Word we are called to speak now, and so, at times, what we say will be rejected. Knowing that we will be met with indifference, with pride, and at times with hostility from the world, we must be stirred by the Holy Spirit’s gift of courage to proclaim the gospel, because it will not be met without opposition.    
“We were judged worthy by God to be entrusted with the gospel, that is how we speak, not as trying to please human beings, but rather God, who judges our hearts” (1 Thes 2:4). The truth of the gospel is something given to us, entrusted to us so that it can be faithfully given to others. Jesus tells us that He is the Truth. The Truth that reaches hearts comes from above. It has to be given to us to give away. I know that for the longest time, when I would go to prepare a youth night, I would think “what do I need to say to these young people?” And honestly, that’s completely the wrong way to approach proclaiming the gospel. If it’s truth that we want to preach, then we are not the source. We can’t be. God is truth. Our words have to come from Him.
Now I’ve gotten in the habit of sitting with God in prayer and letting Him give me what He wants said. Is that hard? It’s not hard, but it does take discipline to carve out consistent time and to sit and listen. But, we were made to not only commune with God, but to always receive from God. And once I sit and receive what God wants said, once I let Him share the Truth that He is, everything becomes a whole lot easier. Then the weight is not on my shoulders. It was never mine to carry in the first place. God wants to work through us. He is the one carrying out the work, not us. Jesus tells us that He is the vine, the life source. We are the branches that transmit that life. We are the vessels, not the ones yielding the power behind them. That’s how it’s always supposed to be. That’s what grace is all about, God’s divine life given to us, within us, working through us. That’s what it means to proclaim the gospel. We don’t craft it or make it, we receive it and then share it.   
 “We were gentle among you” (1 Thes 2:7) Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, my burden is light.” He is gentle with us, and does not wish to burden us. He comes to set us free. His words are spirit and life, and He offers that to us, respecting where we currently are in relationship to Him. He meets us where we’re at. That’s what it means to be gentle.  
We need to respect what our young people need and seek to meet that need in love. For example, this year in our ministry, we’re working on prayer. Over the summer, God revealed to me that the youth I minister to are struggling to pray, and even struggling to understand what prayer really is. He has shown me the need, and now we’re working on it, one step at a time, over the course of the coming year. Young people need to be taught and shown how to open their hearts to God and receive Him. That’s it. It’s simple. It’s teaching them how to have a conversation. I’m not overloading them with the history of every form of prayer, or the technicalities of prayer. They don’t need that. What they need from me is to hear “now talk to God like you would talk to a friend” or “sit in silence and listen for God.” We’re moving down this path gently, because that is the way that St. Paul and Christ ministered.    

“With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well” (1 Thes 2:8). When I tell people that I minister to middle schoolers, I get the same set of reactions: wide eyes, sympathetic smiles, head shakes and a lot of “that’s a hard age”. But I always give the same response: I love working with middle schoolers! Why? Because all they really want is you to be there and to care about them. That’s all it takes. And in that, they express a deeply rooted truth of the human person. We all have the desire to know and be known by real, authentic people. We have a desire to be in relationship with others.
 This makes perfect sense. We were made in the image of God and God is relationship. He is Trinity. If we think that we can bring people to God without building bonds of trust, without giving ourselves to those that we’re bringing the gospel to, without building relationships, we’re just kidding ourselves. The people of this world are hungry for Christ, yes, but they are also hungry for true, authentic relationships. Yes, that’s scary sometimes because it means putting ourselves out there, it means being open, it means being vulnerable. (See Kyle’s blog from last week.) But we have to do it. That’s what love is – giving of ourselves for the good of another. We have to share our hearts, our very selves with the youth that we serve. They need to see that we care enough to invest ourselves in them, to form a bond with them. Only then they will listen to what we have to say about Jesus. Only then will they truly be able to receive and respond to the gospel that we are sharing with them.
“When we were bereft of you for a short time, in person, not in heart, we were all the more eager in our great desire to see you in person” (1 Thes 2:17). Always keeping our young people with us by carrying them in our hearts… Sounds so nice, right? But, let’s be real about this. If your youth are anything like mine, there have probably been a number of occasions where it’s been difficult to treasure them and reserve a place for them in your heart. They’re kids, which means they’re loud and messy and rowdy and complicated and, at times, they can get on our last nerve. We get impatient, or frustrated, or annoyed and that’s ok. We’re not perfect; we’re human. What’s not ok, is if we let those emotions influence our actions, because if they do, we will find ourselves failing to love. St. Paul tells us that love is both patient and kind. Our young people deserve our love and to be treasured. They are a gift from God to the world, made in His image. He loves them and treasures them, and if He does, so should we.
This care and compassion for the youth we serve – we need it. And if we don’t have it, we need to ask for it. Something I’ve learned in prayer over the past few months, is that if we’re struggling to give compassion, it might just be because we’re trying to find it within ourselves. Wrong answer. It has to come from God. He is the source of care, compassion and love. We have to allow ourselves to be filled with His love, so that we can give it away. And honestly, when we love others, He’s doing most of the work anyway. We’re just being open. But, one thing we can do to help ourselves love the youth we serve, is to carry them in our hearts. One of my favorite Marian verses is the great line from Luke, where Mary “keeps all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51b). This is what happens with the things that you treasure, you hold them deep within, in the dearest of places. When we hold our youth in our hearts, they are united with the love that God is giving us to give to them. We must treasure them and love them, and allow God to love them through us.
-

The Lord always answers prayers. When we’re confused or lost, or need answers, He will give us what we need to hear. He cares for the youth of this world. He uses us, even though we’re so, so inadequate… or at least I know that I am. But He will always provide. He will always fuel our works if we let Him. He speaks to us in Scripture, and shows us the way with His Word, if we read it. He has shown the way to so many who have gone before us, and they have left a legacy for us to follow. May we follow in the footsteps of St. Paul, going out to all the world to tell the good news, with hearts full of the Father’s love.