Children’s ministry. That’s always been my thing. When I was 13 I started helping out with children’s church as often as I could. Throughout jr. high and high school I helped out with VBS every single summer. Then in high school I went with my youth group on mission trips dedicated to teaching children about Jesus. By the time I was 16 I was helping out with children’s church most Sundays. One Wednesday evening I skipped youth group to babysit for the women’s Bible study. My youth pastor told me I should have been at youth group.
My response? “I was needed somewhere else.”
My youth pastor responded with “But YOU needed to be here.”
This made no sense to me. Why should I have been at youth group that evening, where I was just a participant not someone with a job, when I had the opportunity to actually serve somewhere else? Well, it turned out my youth pastor was a wise man who knew what he was talking about.
At 19 I got to go sit through a church service, worship and hear a sermon maybe once every 6 months. Every single Sunday I taught sweet and ornery kindergarteners a Bible story while their parents went to church. I loved it. I loved the kids. I loved teaching them. I loved getting to serve. However, spiritually I wasn’t getting fed like I needed. I was pouring out but not getting poured into. It wasn’t anybody’s fault but my own. I sought opportunities to serve others, and didn’t take time to be cared for myself spiritually.
When I was 20, due to a variety of circumstances, I wound up switching churches. At that point I knew that for my spiritual health I needed to actually go to church. So, despite opportunities to jump right in at my new church and help out with children’s church, I chose to go to the church service every Sunday and found other areas in my life where I could serve.
Fast forward a few years and I’m in Ghana, on the World Race. My first Sunday here I got to help out with children’s church. It was wonderful! I loved it and realized how much I’d missed teaching children’s church. As I left church that Sunday I knew I wanted to help out with the kids the following week. Then I realized that wouldn’t be a good idea. I’m in Ghana, where English is the primary language, so it would actually be really beneficial for me to go to church, worship and hear a sermon in English. Thus, the following week I watched the children go off to children’s church with some of my squadmates and I stayed in Church. I was proud of myself for that decision. I felt like I’d finally learned how to balance serving others and meeting my own spiritual needs.
Well, you know how the Bible says “Pride comes before a fall”? Yep, I learned that this past week. This month has been really busy with ministry and the fact it’s all-squad month (meaning all 57 of us are living at the same place more or less and working with the same church), and this week I haven’t made my personal quiet time a priority. When I’ve had free time I’ve chosen to do things other than spend time with God. The result? I’ve been doing ministry this week spiritually and emotionally drained. It’s really hard to do ministry that way. It’s really hard to live life that way. This morning I was ready to just sit down and cry, and I didn’t even know why. Then I just knew I needed to spend time with God. So, I took my Bible and journal outside, sat down under a tree, and spent a couple hours talking with God and reading my Bible.
I wound up reading about Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). Martha was always busy, doing what needed to be done, serving others, but she missed out on the blessing of spending time with Jesus the way that Mary did. So often I’m like Martha, thinking about what needs to be done and where I can fit it in my busy schedule, but God’s been teaching me that I need to be a bit more like Mary. I need to make spending time with Him my priority. He has given me the awesome opportunity of doing the World Race and serving people around the world. I can take advantage of that opportunity, and serve people better, if I’m spiritually filled up myself. So this week I’m going to make that happen, and maybe next Sunday I’ll be ready to help out in children’s church again!
