Deep Impact

Recently I was giving a talk on a retreat and I was sharing about some of the people that have inspired my faith- my spiritual heroes like John Paul II and Therese of Lisieux. After my talk, a teen came up to me and said, “I don’t make enough of an impact on others through my faith”. The more I listened to him, the more I realized that he was not happy being himself. He thought he had to be someone else, someone “important” like a pope- he wanted to make more of a recognizable impact.

As a youth minister, I fall into this type of thinking. I better make an impact either with jokes that make everyone laugh or powerful stories that make everyone cry. The more hours I am up at church and the more people  approve of my youth ministry, the better the youth minister I am, the better the person that I am. The problem with this is that “youth minister” is not who I am, it is just my job. I have a duty to do a good job, but a more serious one not to lose myself in it. "Christian" is who I am and marriage is my vocation, the main way that God has given me to live out being a Christian.

I now realize the way for me to make the greatest impact in ministry is to be the best person that I can be (I know, sounds ARMY). For me, that means becoming holy through my vocation first. When I am an adequate father and husband, my ministry is mediocre. But when I am a strong counter-cultural man who first desires his wife’s happiness and holiness, the ministry that I serve seems more fruitful. The teens seem joyful and energized. So how did I reply to that young man?

I told him to be the best student that he can because learning is the purpose of his life right now- his vocation in a sense. I said, "People might not laugh or cry, but God can work powerfully when you cooperate with His design for your life". It’s great to dream about being the pope or a saint, but not at the expense of losing the impact that can be made through the obedience of faith today- by trusting that the state in life that God has given you is a powerful tool that He is using to change lives, even if it is not highly visible or dramatic.