Question:
Dear Greg,
My husband is a youth pastor. He
is discouraged and wants to give up. He
wonders why it is all worth it when others who don’t follow God have the same
blessings as us.
What would you tell him about why it is worth it to be a Christian and
follow God? He also says he is
struggling with hearing God and seeing His direction for his life. Thanks!
Jennifer
Answer:
Dear Jennifer,
I understand exactly the feelings you are talking about.
Teaching the Bible to young people, trying to have an impact upon their
lives, is something I have experienced. I
taught the Bible on the college level for 20 years before becoming involved in
media ministry. I well remember the ups and downs, the highs and the lows.
First—we must be careful not to measure our worth and our contribution,
and God’s recognition of our service and our ministry, by physical blessings
(or the lack thereof) in our lives. God
does not give us absolute guarantees about being physically blessed, more than
others, in this life. David often
asked this question in the Psalms—in effect, “why do my enemies prosper?
Why do they seem to be more blessed than I am?”
It is a fact that Christians who serve God—and specifically, pastors
and teachers, are not in a highly paid profession.
There are many other professions that are more highly paid.
So if we are involved in the work of the kingdom and we are looking for
our primary reward on earth we will be disappointed.
There are many students I have had who are far more financially
prosperous than I ever will be! And
I am delighted at their success, and occasionally allow myself to think that I
might have had a little bit to do with helping a few of them.
And I know that what I do and what I have done will not be recognized
with lots of money and stuff in my world and by my culture—and that I must be
careful not to measure God’s pleasure by physical possessions and stuff.
John 10:10 says that Christ brought (and brings) us life to the full—and
some prosperity/health and wealth preachers interpret this passage to mean that
we will be blessed with health and wealth if we obey God.
But the context is all about life eternal—the life of the age to come.
The eternal life that we are given now, and the assurance of that life
with God for all eternity. That is
the life that Christ gives us—to the full.
Christianity has never been “worth it” if we measure the new life in
Christ by the standards of this world. God
came to us, in the person of Jesus, to show us that—to model that—to die for
our sins on the cross. The Captain
of our Salvation was willing to experience life just as we do and the fact that
he suffered, and bled, and died—as well as the fact that he was resurrected
victorious over death and the grave—give us hope.
God has not asked us to do anything that he was not willing to do—or
that he has not already done. If we
are hurting—he has been there. If
we don’t get through to our students—Jesus knows all about that, he had 12
disciples who seemingly never “got it” until he died on the cross and was
resurrected. If we feel betrayed,
Jesus has experienced that. If we
are not as wealthy as others—Jesus did not live as a king, but rather a
pauper. If we do not live to a ripe
old age, neither did Jesus.
We live in a world that judges us by our intelligence, our outward
appearance, and our talents. If we
are not as smart, not as good looking, not as slim, not as young, not as
athletically gifted—then we are not as worthy as others, so says our world. But our world is not God’s world; our world is based upon
false values. The values of this
world will one day be shown to be as empty and shallow as they really are.
For example, read Revelation 18: --the fall of Babylon, this is the final
end of the “me-first”, surface culture that so pervades our world today.
Finally—consider the impact you are having on young people, how you are
shaping and influencing not only their lives, but also those that they will in
turn lead in a future generation. A
college sociology professor once had his class go into the inner city of
Baltimore and get case histories of 200 young boys who all lived in the same
neighborhood, went to the same school, and were approximately the same age. The class wrote an evaluation of each boy’s future—in
every case their evaluation was a variation on "he hasn’t got a chance.”
Twenty-five years later another professor happened upon the findings of
that study. He had his students
follow up, to see what had happened to these young men.
With the exception of 20 boys who had moved away or died, the college
students found that 176 of the remaining 180 had achieved more than ordinary
success. Some were doctors,
lawyers, and businessmen. The
professor was astounded, and decided to try to interview each one of these young
men himself.
He asked each one of the 176 a question, “How do you account for your
success?” In every case the
answer was the same, “There was a teacher.”
The professor found out that the teacher was still alive, and he found
her—wanting to know the magic formula she had used to pull these boys out of
the slums of Baltimore and turn them into productive citizens. When he asked her that question, the now retired teacher
broke into a smile and said, “It’s really very simple. I loved those boys.”
We need teachers, pastors, youth pastors—we need people who care about
others enough to invest their lives so that others may benefit.
May God bless you as you do.
In Christ,
Greg Albrecht