People Will Die

About two months ago on our way home from the John Bosco conference we had the chance to sit down with one of our good friends, J.P. Quinn. J.P. was a youth in my first youth group as a youth minister. He graduated A&M as a rocket scientist and was instrumental in the beginnings of CCFM. 
As I said J.P. is a rocket scientist and as such he is integral in the design and testing of, you guessed it, rockets. At the time he was working on the mounting of a jet engine and as we talked I was reminded just how much smarter J.P. was than me (this happens a lot). As we wrapped up that part of the conversation, he said something that caused an interesting reaction in me. He said something to the tune of: "It’s crazy. If anything is wrong with the project, people will die". 
My first reaction was "Wow, I sure am glad that I'm not in a job where peoples lives depend on me". No quicker did the synapses in my brain finish firing that thought, did a second thought race through, which was: "You're right, your goal is bigger. You're working with God to save eternal lives".
Since this conversation, I've been beating myself up wondering why the reality of my ministry wasn't my first reaction. Sure other jobs affect people’s temporal lives directly, but my job is to walk with others into eternity. This goes for everyone in ministry, all parents, and anyone who works with others on spiritual matters. God has entrusted you with the care and guidance of his most prized possession, that of another human person. This body-soul composite was created for the sole purpose of being with God forever…FOREVER! And it is our work that may affect whether or not they are able to achieve this end.
Don't get me wrong. To God goes all of the glory, but he consistently works through flawed humans like you and I to reach others. We cannot forget or downplay the importance of our role in the salvation of others. I don’t say this to scare you, but we cannot forget what it is we are fighting for. There is a verse that has always played in my head when I think of my work in youth ministry and it comes from Luke 17:2:
“It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.”

Jesus is speaking of actual children in this verse, but there is no doubt that each of us are little ones to God. We must take our role in the salvation of others seriously. Because whether or not we want to believe it, if we don’t take our job seriously, people will die.

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