Are you listening?

Have you ever stopped to listen to what is going on around you?

I recently was at a gas station, while I was inside buying a bottle of water, these two ladies came in talking about a relationship that sounded like wasn’t too good of a thing. But the conversation was very interesting:

girl 1: he did what?

girl 2: ya you herd me right

I don’t know if I want to go on too what else I heard, but let’s just say it was avery interesting conversation to be having in the middle of a Speedway gas station.

I started to think about what I was doing. I was just standing there, listening. Almost like I was on a reality tv show, and I was just apart of the drama that was in these two ladies lives. Are you listening?

There is a thing that I have been thinking about lately and it has been about what is going on around you. We are talking about a series of Identity in our youth ministry and as I am preparing for sermons, I have this conversation I herd pop into my head, because although the conversation was very intense and very profanity filled, it was obvious that these ladies were searching for something. Searching for relationships, a place of belonging, a place that they could fit in and be who they ought to be. The girl talking about what happened to her had a distinct tone in her voice that she was just not happy with where she was. Maybe I am stretching or maybe I am crazy, but I think this girl was a picture perfect image of the searching soul of youth today.

Youth today are searching for multiple things, friends, success, belonging, culture, all of these things make up what is essential to a youth’s existence.

The question is are you listening to their cries for help? Their cries for help? Their cries for love?

How do we as youth workers help these students, how do we listen so they will see the love that God has for them?

How do we shed love into their love lives and help them come to the everlasting love that is Jesus Christ?

Are you listening?