Where do you turn in times of trouble?

"I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." - John 16:33

Lets all admit it: life is a mess sometimes. We have trouble, and lots of it. There are a lot of us who are hurting right now. Things have been said, we seem to be stuck in cyclical habits, our families seem like they are falling apart. We are tore down on every side, so where do we turn to? For some of us, we feel hopeless and lost. But let me tell you: you only feel this way if you look to the world for a solution.

This past week has been a huge challenge for me, but I must constantly remind myself that the only place to turn to is Jesus. His words here in John 16 must be what I cling to: that he has overcome the world. Let me challenge you this: if you are angry, if you are hurting, if you are lost, nothing the world can offer will fix it.

You won't find healing in drugs.
You won't find healing in porn.
You won't find healing in sex.
You won't find healing in drinking your problems away.
You won't find healing in money.
You won't find healing in a job, a profession.
You won't find healing in a video game, music, or anything else.


Apart from Christ - things will not get better. Is it a guarantee that in Christ things will be better? No. But this I can tell you:

sex, smoking, drinking, porn, money, music, video games, none of these filled me. none of these fixed me. none of these healed me. none of these gave me purpose.


And in my lowest point, God met me, the arms of Christ embraced me, and His peace was set upon me. A peace which God continues to place over me, that even when I am stressed, I look to him. Knowing I can rest in the fact He has overcome the world.

Friends, family, whoever is reading: know this - God has overcome the world. He desires an intimate and personal relationship with you. Know that whether someone from in the church or outside has hurt you, whether you feel like because of what you have done, you cannot be loved - Christ came not to condemn the world but to save it. To buy you back, to call you His own. To give you a peace, not a happiness, not a carefreeness, but knowing that in times of trouble, you and I can rest in Him.

I love you all dearly, and whatever you feel, think, don't think about God - it will never change this: He loves you, He died for you, and He desires to call you His own. You can run, but His love is unrelenting. Take heart - He has overcome the world.

- Brummy

The Harvest is Plentiful, the Laborers Few

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." - Matthew 9:37-38 (ESV)

Let me make something clear: I don't do my job because its fun. Secondly, I don't really consider it a job. I hope you don't see it only as some 20 something who doesn't want to grow up so he plays with nerf guns, plays video games, listens to rap music, etc. I am here because of Christ, and its not easy. Each week there are times I question myself, I am discouraged. And each week I am forced to cling to Christ.

I come in contact with numerous middle school and high school students throughout the week. I don't count just those who walk through the walls on Sunday (church is not defined, in my mind as once a week, or within the walls of a building.) If I have a conversation over a lunch table, that is "church." If I talk with a student at tutoring, someone who may never walk into our building, that is church. And I look and see so many students within this area of Stark County who are broken, who are hurting, who are waiting for someone to show them the love of Christ.

You're scared to? You don't think you can relate to students? Its not about relating. This weekend I sat down with a student from an inner city ministry who was at the same retreat as us. I didn't know him. He was 15 and in the 8th grade, from foster care, and a bit awkward to talk to. It was awkward to get him to respond. But see, he needed to see the love of Christ. Was it comfortable to sit down next to him? NO! But when were we ever called to be comfortable?

If you want comfort, sit your fat butt in a lazy-boy all day. But that's not being a christian. Sitting in the pew each Sunday, yeah its great. I love gathering and worshipping with you all. Its important. But more important is this: we cannot lose sight of the world around us. We aren't called to separate ourselves, in fact we are called to go INTO THE WORLD!


I see a lot of kids who only know brokenness, who only know hurt, pain, feeling alone. Who don't know the love of Christ. Correction: they don't see the love of Christ. It must be more than words, it must be more than handing them a Bible, more than handing them a tract (these things may go hand in hand, and not going to say God can't use them) but in reality they need to see a display of this love we speak of, which has redeemed us.

I challenge you, where are you displaying the love of Christ which you claim? At work? At home? At school? There are hundreds of middle school students who need to be shown the love of Christ. How many are willing to step up and take that challenge. To stop being comfortable, and start being real. Christ wasn't comfortable on the cross. Why do we think we should be comfortable as Christians, when there is a multitude of those in desperate need of the love of Christ.

Will you come alongside and show that love, share it through your actions, through all you do. It's not easy, but its not about what's easy. I am not here because its easy, because I like it. My passion is only because of what Christ has done in me. And I look and pray for those who will step up, who will get thats its not about liking it, about being perfectly relatable to middle school students. But who see a generation desperately in need of the love of Christ.

- Brummy

Where Do You Seek Rest?

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28 (NIV)

As we move into 2012, I have noticed there seems to be a lot of weariness. Perhaps this season was crazier than others. Life seems to be crazier and heavier now than it has been for a lot of people, myself included. Many of us are looking for rest, whether in middle school, high school, college, parents, grandparents, pastors, leaders, interns. So the question arises, where do we find rest?

There are things which, of course, we tend to turn to for a bit of personal escape, which I believe is alright. Fishing, for a good friend of mine. Music and starbucks for others. Perhaps video games for some.  And while these things are great (I enjoy all but fishing...) I think we have the tendency to forget to rest in God. Especially those of us who are continually investing and pouring into the lives of others.

Personally, I have a problem. Its a good one though. My heart grows heavy and breaks for those who are hurting and searching in life. And with that means I have to balance an understanding that I cannot be Jesus, but I can do my best to point them to Jesus through my actions and words. I can be there for them, but I cannot fix them. Sometimes this gets me down. And sometime, being around a lot of hurting students and people all week weighs me down. Which reminds me why I need Matthew 11:28. That when I am weary, weary of seeing so much brokenness, I run to God. That when I feel weighed down by seeing broken families, I turn to Christ. That I surrender it to Him. That I rest in the fact that He knows they are hurting, that God is a God who redeems, who restores. And He does it on his timing. My own life wasn't turned around in a day. It was more like a 20 some year process, cause its still in the works. And while its not easy to grasp, I can rest in the hope of Christ. I can come to Him when I feel overwhelmed in life, in ministry, with a student, with a family.

And you, where do you go when you are overwhelmed?  You are not abandoned. You are not alone. You don't have to fix everything. You can't fix everything. But you can turn to the One who loves you more deeply than you could ever imagine. Rest in Him, turn to Him, and we have this promise: God will give us rest, if we come to Him.

In Christ,

- Brummy

Why We Can't Overlook Middle Schoolers

"Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." - 1 Timothy 4:12

I spent the weekend with over 150 middle school students, 30 some of them from the youth group I shepherd. I was blessed to have my group for the weekend consist of 6 middle school boys whom I was able to lead in the activities and lead in discussion after each session. And the weekend reminded me why the church needs those who are invested in the day to day lives of students in 6, 7, and 8 grade.

Going into the weekend I knew I had students who are in the midst of parents fighting every day. I knew I had students who wonder each day whether they are loved by their father or loved by their mother. I had students whom I knew were trying to figure out what is happening to them, why they are changing, what these emotions are they are feeling, why they aren't little kids anymore. And I had students who I knew desperately needed those to love them for who they are, for where they are, and to show them God's love.

There were 20 minutes on Saturday where the students were released to the camp to take time alone to spend with God. I walked and prayed as I watched the students curl up on rocks, sit on swings, on logs, alone in the cold and the dark. And yet not alone, embraced by the arms of a God who loves them. I saw students kneeling, saw students with hands raised and eyes lifted to heaven. And I prayed, I prayed. And I knew, God was moving.

As the minutes faded and my sixth graders entered the cabin, I began to ask them how their time went. And God revealed to me how He had moved. A student shared how he surrendered his life fully to Christ, began to share the realizations which God showed him, things in his life which don't line up with following God. That its not a Sunday thing, but an every day thing. We had deep conversations about how every girl is a daughter of God, and God is one father with a shotgun you don't want to mess with. I had another student break down in tears and got to talk and pray with him about his relationship with his dad. And I realized while I had the opportunity to spend a weekend with a few of these middle schoolers, there are hundreds more in Stark County which we overlook. We look down on, we despise because they are young.

Was the weekend full of poop stories? Of farting? Of smelliness? Of a giant, freezing mud pit? YES! But going through this with them, allowing them to be themselves, meeting them where they are at. It is what Christ calls us to. And I sit and realize how blessed I am to work with this age, to be able to speak into their lives at this critical age. This is when they are beginning to make decision about the rest of their lives. Not at 15. Not at 16. Not at 18. Not at 25. Yes, they make decisions, but it begins NOW, at age 11 and 12. And they get it, if you give them a chance to speak, if you take a moment to listen. To giggle with them, to fart with them, to laugh about the time you pooped your pants. And to be messy beside them, to be real.

If we are willing to come alongside them as they are, laugh with them, cry with them, and listen, God will use us. God will use you. I have seen more evidence of those truly striving to live for Christ in my incoming sixth grade class this year then I often see in the adult community (not intending to be disrespectful) But when a sixth grader makes a realization they need to change things in their lives, you know God is active. And when they share that they know it will be hard, but that they have to. Well let me tell you. They are setting the example. Will we follow it? And will we follow the example of Christ? Will we be willing to get messy. Because these students need us now. At this age. High School is critical, but in my eyes, from my experience, if we wait until then, its often too late.

God has placed on my heart a passion for middle school ministry, for middle school students, for high school students, for the world. I pray we wouldn't overlook this age group though, just because we think they are smelly, they are kids, or they are annoying. Because they are very much in need of God's love, and to be loved. They are very much dealing with more than we could possibly imagine. And God is very much working and using them at their age. Because they are willing, often more willing than us. And that is beautiful.

- Brummy

Rescue the Weak and Needy

"Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. - Psalm 82:3-5 (ESV)

 It has been a week since I walked into a local middle school, and only the 3rd time I have been there. And yet, as I entered the halls I was walking and hear a cry of "Matthew!" I turn and find a 6th grade boy running towards me. I smile inside, that I was recognized and remembered from being spotted from a distance. This student walks along with me into the meeting area, and I find myself greeted by a few other students I had met, some only once others both days I was involved. I realize a sacrifice (but not really) of one extra hour on one extra day is worth it. To see students smile as I walk through, even though some are probably catching on that I am not the best tutor (what can I say, majoring in youth ministry means you tend to forget a lot of the "schooly" stuff) but its the conversations, the relationships which matter.

I had started a conversation with two guys last week about how they really don't need to greet each other by cussing each other out and talking about girls inappropriately. Now, this is a talk which is probably going to go towards, hey don't do that. I said, "Dudes, why do you have to do that?" last week. And yet, they asked when we would finish it? 5th graders, wanting to continue a conversation about why what they were doing wasn't cool or a good thing to do. And it breaks my heart, wondering how many times they just hear stop doing that and shut up, rather than talking through it. Someone who is willing to give them some attention, to help them be better in what they do. I understand teachers can only do so much, but I wonder what home life is like with mom and dad (or if mom or dad is even present.)

And I was reading the Psalms and was struck by Psalm 82, realizing that is my call to God this year. As I continue to build relationships, I see these kids just want to be loved, to know that someone is there for them. To rescue them, to be there to help in time of need, to deliver them. Because for many, they have no knowledge of a God who loves them, they don't understand why someone who isn't a teacher, isn't a parent would come and be there with them. But see, that is what shakes the earth. The earth was shaken by sin but sin was shaken by Christ, by the ultimate display of love he gave to a world unworthy of it. But because we are unworthy, it makes that love so much more beautiful, so much more pure.

I see these students, and my prayer is that they would not walk in darkness. And while my words may be limited, my actions are not. I am there to listen. They are already telling me secrets (that they have a girlfriend now) and it makes me smile. If it takes words for someone to see what I am about, then I'm not about it. A football player can't speak their skill, they embody it, it is seen through their actions. In the same way, I'm not a follower of Christ, I'm not in love with Him if only my lips speak it. My actions should make people say, hey, there's something different here.

This is my challenge: where are you at in life where you should be living daily as a light for Christ. If we aren't among the "darkness" how will it be made light? Don't just shine in the church. Don't separate loving God at church from the rest of your life. It shouldn't matter if you don't know what to say. Listen. Be there. Show it through your actions. Remember the one who died for you, who took nails in his hands, whose back was torn, flesh ripped out of, for you. That is sacrifice. And that is action speaking love. Surrender your pride, surrender your lust, surrender your time. We fill our lives with so much crap. And somehow we make a disconnect of God time and our time. We must stop that. Christ gave everything, all of Himself for us. Will we do the same? Let us stop making excuses. Let us stop just speaking it, let us do it. Every day. It's not easy, it never will be. But we must. There are those who don't understand, and unless we shine, unless we love them, how will they ever? So will I sacrifice my time for them? I will. Will you sacrifice your time for those who need it? For Christ? Only you can answer. But let us stop making excuses. We are to be the hands and feet of Christ, to be a presence, to love, to rescue the weak and the needy.

What We Need

Today began with worries of how I would make it in to work. I have been without a car of my own since Thursday. But God provides.

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

- Philippians 4:19 (ESV)

Funny how true this has been. I was blessed to be able to use a car of a church members this weekend, and today I was picked up as I walked down Main Street in North Canton by another church member and dropped at the church. I was then able to find a ride later to a local middle school where I began tutoring. As I walked up, the students were all rushing to reach their buses and I grinned as my heart beat in my chest, a bit nervous. It was, after all, my "first day" at school. After being sent three different places I stumbled upon about 60 students sitting in the theater. I smiled as after being introduced a few kids introduced themselves, most just asking where I went to school, if I was in my teens (ooh yah I still look young even with a beard...er maybe because they know I can't grow one!) My heart instantly went out to all the students, and I knew just from being there a few minutes these next weeks through May would be amazing.

As I walked down through the school with the students, I engaged in light conversation by many, helped a few 5th grade girls know it was ok to stay with the line of students, even though we were walking through the boys locker room. Oh the fears of an adolescent. Once in the room, kids talked loudly as they found chairs and I realized it was myself and another school staff member trying to work and control these students. And I couldn't be happier, and yet more sad. As I looked I called out in my head, guessing what each student's story was. I could tell those who were from broken homes, those who had no friends, those who I knew desperately tried to fit in, those who wanted to be seen as "men" because it was important for them to be tough. I guess its my gift, I can usually tell what someone is going through, at least have a pretty good idea. And it was great as the students slowly opened up. Thats what's great about my job, and working with middle school students. They get around to liking you pretty quick.

And I sat and realized how blessed I am, and just why God has placed me here in North Canton. Its sad to see how many churches are in the area, and yet as I have begun to seek out relationships in the community, I wonder how many are involved outside their walls? (And I do not at all mean this to be a blog against those, I love the local church leaders here. I am blessed to be a part of a great church community.) But I stop and say, look at the need here. Look at these kids who just need someone to love them. Do we even understand the reason many of these students act out is because at home they have no attention? At home they are over-looked. When a teacher has to ask what a mothers last name is now, what does it say about the male figures in their lives? And I wonder and pray, will our generation fall into the same pattern.

And I stop and realize I am so amazingly blessed to be able to spend time with these students. I'm not looking to say anything to them. I want to listen, to know them. They don't need anyone else to tell them what to do. They have enough people telling them to do things, but no one listening to them, helping them sort through, and showing them what to do.

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

- 1 John 3:18 (ESV)

I wonder where we forget passages like this? Our words have truth when there are actions behind them reflecting and speaking for them. If I'm truly about Christ, I will be there to listen to these students. I will put up with their little antics because, lets face it: they aren't adults yet. But sadly, they are forced to deal with adult situations. I wonder how many of these students have been told "I Love You." by any adult. And yet, I could probably count (with a calculator) how many times they have been told "Don't do that." It's easier to tell them not to do something, than for someone to actually care and listen. And, sometimes, just let them be kids.

I am excited for this year. I am excited for my students I see every Sunday. I am excited for these new students I will be in contact with every week. Because for me, I am not called to sit behind the walls of a church office. I am not called to be a light in a church office. (Well, its not the extent of it) I am called to be in the community. People don't want to hear us talk about God, don't want to just see us walk into a church. They want to see us be active among them, where they are at.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

- Matthew 9:36

I see many sheep who are without a shepherd. I am beginning to see God has placed me here to watch over these students. To be a light for Him here in this community, in these schools. To these families. So that even if they haven't heard someone say "I Love You" they would know, there is one greater than any on this earth who so desperately wants you to know "I LOVE YOU."

Listen

So there's this new show on MTV called "Skins" which seems to be stirring up a lot of controversy. I am sure there will be much backlash from the conservatives, but it sparked my interest because our focus is most likely "How can they show that?" instead of "Why is it like that?" The sad truth is we have a blind eye.

Let me start by saying I have not watched an episode yet, but I am speaking from articles I have read regarding the content. I think we would all like to believe that this content is only seen in television. But in reality, it is what is facing the generation of teenagers today. While I do not at all endorse this content, I think it does open our eyes to what is going on.

One of the cast spoke on the show and its content:

Sofia, 18, defends the show, saying, "It's what teens are doing. It's the way teenagers believe, I think, especially you know in certain situations when you come from home lives where your parents don't really support you or really listen to you. That's what most of these kids are going through."

(http://www.popeater.com/2011/01/21/sofia-black-delia-skins-naughty-but-nice-with-rob/)

I would like to not talk to my middle school students in the sixth grade about these issues of drugs, alcohol, and sex. I would like to think there is no way these kids would be dealing with this. But the fact is, I can't turn a blind eye and pretend it is not going on. While we can blame shows such as 'Skins' for exposing a young generation, we can also allow it to open our eyes to a generation that is crying out. In a world where facebook, texting, and media rules, a generation is crying out in pain.

We can't expect to tell them in church "Don't do this, don't do this." What are we giving them? They are searching for meaning, for affirmation. A church who looks at many and sees them as problems rather than those hurting. Rebelling because they are misunderstood. They don't want to be seen as potheads, the girl who sleeps around. They need to be loved, to be truly loved. They need someone to listen to them. To just take time to hear them, regardless of what they are doing. Someone they can confide in who won't look at them as a "project to be fixed."

I think of a student I knew whose perception of the church was to live by the ten commandments. If her friends were not living this way, her family constantly put her down and told her to give up this company. She had no voice. Where were those who were "quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry?" (James 1:19)

Do we take the time to listen to a generation that is hurting? Are we slow to speak, trying to get our word in? Are we slow to become angry if they don't get it right away?


My heart breaks for this generation. I am placed where I am because I had a problem with the church and how it was dealing and approaching youth. My plea is that God uses me to make a change, to restore the church to a point of listening, to be an ear and to be arms to hold a hurting generation. If I don't listen, I can't understand. If I am not slow to speak, it is me trying to fix someone, instead of God. If I am quick to become angry, I have no grace. I am not loving as I should be. Because I hear someone out does not mean I condone what they do. But scaring someone, forcing someone into change is not true change. Loving them and giving them something to strive for more than what they already have, that is true change.

My prayer for this year is that I would use opportunities such as 'Skins' to reach and understand a generation desperately in need of Christ. I pray I take the time to stop and listen, rather then jump and use my own (foolish, and ineffective) power in a weak attempt to change. Change comes through Christ, through love.

- Brummy