Information Overload

As I sit in my office this morning, I am realizing that too much information really can be a bad thing. Since my speaking engagement with a church last week, I have been on a reading kick.  I have read youth ministry articles and books, and I have re-read some of my old business books.  The questions that keeps coming to mind is:  "Are there any sure things in this volume of good ideas?"  I don't believe that most people write without being at least somewhat credible, so what they are writing must have worked at some time right?  In the midst of all this information, I can feel the obsessive side of me starting to come out and over analyze life, so I am taking a step back for a week or so.

What I have been able to determine so far is that in every successful business or ministry book relationships seem to be at the heart of success.  Relationships between leaders, leaders to students, students to students, students to parents, and finally parents to leaders.  Especially in youth ministry relationships are hard, complex and perplexing, but I am willing to accept the premise that they are the heart of what we do.

This is a really ironic realization to come to because even though I am academically trained to excel in relationships, I have also spent my entire life trying to avoid genuine relationships.  This last several months has opened my mind to healthy relationships, but God is absolutely guiding my heart towards investment in relationships.  In many ways I feel like this is it, this is where the rubber meets the road, this is my weakness in which God will be made strong.

I need to love people genuinely and completely, I need to invest in the human and spiritual development of people, and I need to reflect the reality that Christ never missed an opportunity to be in relationship with people.  I am finding this easier as I become more secure in my identity (see last weeks posts).  When I am more comfortable with who God says I am, and I accept my kingdom responsibility in this world, then the relationships will come easier because they won't be a chore, they will be a reflection of my relationship with Christ.

"May your feet be covered in the dust of your master,"

Pat