There is a phrase in my Young Life area’s leader team, we say FTK all the time. At times we say it as FTK, #FTK or more importantly the whole phrase: For The Kids. This past week the acronym FTK has gained a whole new meaning than what I thought it had. Our YL family ventured up to Timber Wolf Lake this past week with 29 high school friends and eight leaders; all ready to have the best week of their lives. The students’ experience is far different from the leaders experience, as one might expect. It was, for sure, one of the most challenging weeks of my life spiritually and physically. I definitely learned just how far I could take myself when I am giving all of myself to them, so that they have the chance to experience new things and most importantly experience God, some of them for the first time.
For the past year and a half of leading with Noblesville (IN) Young Life I have been tested in ways I never thought I would be, done things I will never regret and exhausted myself enough to sleep for about 11 hours straight; which maybe doesn’t seem like a lot but that’s pretty tired if you ask me.. It has all been FTK, for the kids. I have turned to God so many times just praying hard for energy and the words to say in all the tough moments and questions they present. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I, and some of my fellow leaders, would…
- Drive an hour about 3 times a week to even be physically present with my YL family
- Stay up till 1:30 to pray for the next day’s club talk, asking for melted hearts that would turn back to God
- Fall backwards into a mud pit during an obstacle course, sequentially jamming my two middle fingers and still finishing
- Hand out hot chocolate at a 16yr old’s candlelight vigil
- Act a fool in front of a room full of teenagers as a “thumb-dancing thumbelina”
- Pray with a girl in the middle of a high ropes course to help calm her down so she could keep moving
- Go to a high school football game, that wasn’t even my high school
- Chaperone prom for two years
- Pray for salvation with a freshman in high school
- Sit at a family table, that wasn’t mine, to just chat about life
- Form a second family in Noblesville
- Dress up as a troll and compete for slappy points
- Feel like a proud mama for people who aren’t even my own kids
- Relate to another girl struggling with the exact same things I did in high school
This is such a small list and please don’t take it the wrong way, I just point these things out to show how far WE really can go “for the kids.” Things I never thought possible and things I never even thought about have come up in the past year where I have had to decide, “do I have a bit of self-preservation or do I go all out so these kids can experience the never ceasing love Christ has for us all?” Everything that I do, and most certainly my YL team does, is to show our kids that never ceasing love Christ always shows.
I believe that FTK is such an invaluable lesson I have learned in such a short amount of time.
This phrase can be taken much farther. To do that I’m going to get really cheesy and say that I can start saying FTK is For The Kingdom. How far am I willing to go to bring God’s kingdom here to the earth, here to his children? Such a huge question to answer. What am I going to experience this year or do this year that stretches my emotions and physical strength that is completely motivated by sharing the love for Christ?
I am beyond excited to be stretched, stretched even farther than I was this past year. It is so challenging, involving tears, pain and frustration but worth every second. In those moments that I am devoting everything I have For The Kingdom God works miracles and Christ’s love shines bright. That love is what life is all about. Moments of being stretched so that Christ may be seen clearly. When Christ is seen life begins and we can live forever with him and each other.
In this amazingly written song by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors I feel it speaks some great truths about this life and how we can direct all our actions For The Kingdom:
Laughter is the only thing that’ll keep you sane
In this world that’s dying more and more everyday
Don’t let evil get you down
In this madness spinning round and round
I want you to live forever
Underneath the sky so blue
Some people say faith is a childish game
Play on, children, like it’s Christmas day
Sing me a song, sing me a melody
Sing out loud, you’re a symphony
I want you to live forever
Underneath the sky so blue
I want you to live forever
Underneath the sky so blue
Take courage when the road is long
Don’t ever forget you’re never alone
For some reason this song displays an amazing amount of urgency for those who are lost and an encouragement for us to go all out so that WE can all live forever, together with our Savior. I hope you feel it too. 
Here is the link to the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUf4FEiimwg
