preference or conviction
This July is the first time in at least 15 years that I have not traveled on a ministry trip. It has been nice to be home as peppers and tomatoes ripen in the garden and to stop for ice cream with the family. It has been odd, as well. For the past ten years I had spent at least one week at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore with Merge. It had been a time to catch up with friends and colleagues and to watch God at work in my life and the life of teens. I really miss the late night conversations, the laughter, the stories, facing challenges together, solving problems and celebrating victories (small and significant).
I was talking with a close friend yesterday. We were reminiscing and dreaming toward the future. He mentioned something that I have been considering. It was a great question. During the summer in youth ministry many of us find ourselves as spectators for part of our experience. We often find ourselves at camps, conferences and the like going through ministry experiences with our teens (while others lead the larger experience). We can often put on our “evaluation hat” as other adults present or speak or facilitate ministry among us.
How do we know when we come across those issues that we don’t like or that we would handle differently whether it is the result of a personal preference or a deep seated conviction?
– does it matter?
– do we discuss it with others?
– is the Bible the final arbitrator?
– is there a gut feeling? intuitive sense?
Love to hear of your experiences and how you wrestled or are wrestling with your inner critic this summer.
I think that how we perceive that decision is a matter of how we are wired … whether you use MBTI or some other personality indicator … I think how a person processes those sorts of decisions and information is based upon who they are. IOW … you might do that very differently than I do as an INFP.
I will take home the experience, process it fairly thoroughly and then discuss it with friends after I’ve come to some conclusions. I’ll measure those conclusions against what my friends say. Sometime what the friends say will change my conclusions, sometimes not. But … my processing is internal and is done intuitively afterwards.
I do remember one late night at a winter camp - I can’t remember if you were along for that confrontation - but one of our ministry staff’s deep seated convictions pulled me from my bunk into a meeting with the speaker to voice our church’s youth ministry concerns with his presentations for the winter weekend…
that was fun?
do you recall?
I think I do … and if you’ve read Jesus Creed this morning and Scot McKnight’s post about the fragile brilliance of glass, I’ve found myself reflecting on that visual quite a bit today. I’ve been thinking about all the times I’ve thought that I saw something that was a hard winking diamond, but now I realize it had the fragile brilliance of glass.
I’m coming to realize that the only things we should be harshly convicted about are mercy and grace….