Coffee and a Blog
I'm terribly sorry to all of you who check my blog simply for pictures of the Clarabell. This post will have no pictures attached. It's 7:40am and I just returned from a Lock-In not long ago. I'm sitting on the couch with my coffee and I decided to blog to help me stay awake. Last night we had a lock-in with numerous other churches from the East Texas area at a place called Celebration Station. There was hundreds of teens playing arcade games, riding go-carts, playing paint-ball & putt-putt, and running around like crazy all night long. I decided (probably not the smartest decision) to go ahead and stay awake because I have to attend an Elders/Staff breakfast meeting this morning at 9am and a funeral at 11am. Since my brain shut down last night at about 9pm and I'm completely sleep deprived I thought I might share with you some observations and odd musings I've made in the last 12 hours for you to consider.
One of the youth minsters at the lock-in had a great t-shirt on that had the definition of "Youth Minister" on the front. Youth Minister: a person cleverly disguised as a responsible adult. Somewhat appropriate and comical I think. A more fitting t-shirt for myself might be-Youth Minister: the guy who forgot you kid in New Mexico.
I also remembered why I never schedule lock-in's even in the face of begging and pleading from teenagers looking for any chance to stay up all night. They are TERRIBLE! Has no one else considered that in some cultures sleep deprivation is a form of torture. Why on earth do we voluntarily subject ourselves to this? You shouldn't have to torture yourself for fun. That's kinda sick I think.
Before the lock-in the youth ministers that were bringing teens all emailed each other with questions and comments. This last week one of the youth ministers emailed and asked if we were going to have a time for singing/worship at some point during the night. I laughed at the immediate response of one of the others, "Ah man, do we always have to do the 'God thing' whenever we all get together?" He of course was joking, but I josh you not one of my teens leaned over when we started singing and asked, "Why do we always have to do worship whenever we go to something like this?" Without responding I slowly backed away from him because I didn't want to catch a stray bolt of lightning from the heavens. Now I'm pretty tired right now but here's a thinker...how often do we bring that same enthusiasm Sunday mornings?
Happy Saturday, and for goodness sakes somebody get the youth minister some sleep already!
One of the youth minsters at the lock-in had a great t-shirt on that had the definition of "Youth Minister" on the front. Youth Minister: a person cleverly disguised as a responsible adult. Somewhat appropriate and comical I think. A more fitting t-shirt for myself might be-Youth Minister: the guy who forgot you kid in New Mexico.
I also remembered why I never schedule lock-in's even in the face of begging and pleading from teenagers looking for any chance to stay up all night. They are TERRIBLE! Has no one else considered that in some cultures sleep deprivation is a form of torture. Why on earth do we voluntarily subject ourselves to this? You shouldn't have to torture yourself for fun. That's kinda sick I think.
Before the lock-in the youth ministers that were bringing teens all emailed each other with questions and comments. This last week one of the youth ministers emailed and asked if we were going to have a time for singing/worship at some point during the night. I laughed at the immediate response of one of the others, "Ah man, do we always have to do the 'God thing' whenever we all get together?" He of course was joking, but I josh you not one of my teens leaned over when we started singing and asked, "Why do we always have to do worship whenever we go to something like this?" Without responding I slowly backed away from him because I didn't want to catch a stray bolt of lightning from the heavens. Now I'm pretty tired right now but here's a thinker...how often do we bring that same enthusiasm Sunday mornings?
Happy Saturday, and for goodness sakes somebody get the youth minister some sleep already!
It's great that you have such a heart for your kids that you allow them to talk you into something like this.
Believe it or not, I did my very first lock-in this last New Year's Eve, at 47! I even made it staying up all night. Of course there was major crash and burn the next day.
Continue to work hard for the Lord and he will be the "tooth picks that hold your eyes open".
Love,
Dad