Kinda nice.

Yesterday one of the boys in my youth group who is a senior spoke to the youth group. He is a very intelligent young man, one of those boys who studies hard and well, and excels in all things academic.

I have gone through a long journey with him, where we've had lunches, and I've given him rides to his Aunt's house, I've hung out with him just to play video games. He grew up in the church, but not in one that was very concerned in teaching him how he can live out the immense life God is calling him to, but one that is more concerned that he doesn't smoke, and wears good clothes, and votes Republican. You know the type I refer to?

Anyway, I always appreciated him for the person he was, he's a very neat young man, but I never really thought I was getting through to him, it often felt as though the stale Christianity he had been taught during his younger years was too deeply entrenched, and the things I was trying to help him discover would simply bounce off that crusty old mindset.

I was pleasantly surprised last night to discover the absolute opposite. I find it hard to understand how he could have changed so much in his personal thinking, in his personal understanding of how he is going to live each day, and where God wants to take him, without me ever knowing it. This is a kid I talk to a couple times a week, who I hang out with, and yet I never knew the changes God was doing in his life.

That is at once both encouraging and scary. It is encouraging because it reminds me that ultimately God is the One who is going to bring about change. God is the one who will enlighten these students to truth through the Holy Spirit. Not me. He can and will work around and despite my inability to be everywhere and doing everything. It is scary because it tells me I can be so close to a person and yet not at all know what is happening inside them. What God is doing in them. It is scary because it makes me have to reanalyze my preconceived notions of the people that I know.

But regardless, I thank God for His work in that young man's life. I thank God that he allowed me to be there and hear him talk about the changes God has been doing. How absolutely amazing. How blessed I am. I pray that God would continue to work around me. I'll do what I can, but You do take care of the rest. You take care of the miracles, Lord. Thank You.

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On a side note, I have decided to have a good summer. I want to enjoy this summer. I don't even barely remember last summer. I don't really know where this thought came from, but it was a really nice day on Tuesday and I went outside and I smelled the freshness, even in the middle of a city, and I decided that this summer I'm just going to enjoy life, I'm going to enjoy God, and I'm going to enjoy the people around me.