Need

“...God actually delights in exalting our inability. He intentionally puts his people in situations where they come face to face with their need for him.”

 - Radical by David Platt

In some strange way, this is comforting. It means that God knows when I am BSing wildly, which is about 98% of my life, and when I am so lost that I don't even know where to start BSing my way through, which takes care of the remaining 2%.

If someone were to examine my twenty-one years on the planet and distill them down into one simple phrase, it would probably sound something like, “Make it up as you go.”

But, God delights in that. He delights in placing me in situations on a minute by minute basis where I can do nothing but trust Him and move forwards one step at a time.

At the beginning of the school year, I signed up to work with a small group of fourth and fifth graders on Sunday mornings, and, like a good Sunday School teacher, I started asking God what our focus for the year should be, how I should go about interacting with these kids.

“Love them.”

“Okay. But, what should we focus on during our small group time?” (I'm a teacher. I'm looking for a lesson plan here. Something that I can make sure they leave the school year knowing.)

“Love them. Do life together, and love them.”

“That's it?”

“Love them. They need to be loved.”

I'll be the first to admit that it sounds like a great MO. Of course these kids need to be loved. They're humans. All humans need to be loved. But, seriously? That's my lesson plan?

And, it has been. If I were to write down my next week's plan for a sub, it would look like, “Do life. Love them like Jesus.” And, the week after that would look the same, as would the next week and the next and the next.

Perhaps more than any group I have ever taught before, it has looked like chaos.

With my last group of fourth and fifth graders we focused on understanding the bigness of God. With my kindergarteners our goal was to know the memory verse and the Bible story. With my third graders we worked on applying the lessons directly to our lives.

With this group we have sword fights and donut fights. We play tag and we go exploring. We scrape our knees and cut our fingers and all know exactly where the bandaids are kept. We spy on big church and the middle schoolers. We love and we talk and we do life.

I will be the first to admit that I am in over my head.

But, God delights in that.

He delights in the fact that every moment of Sunday mornings are an exercise in dependance on Him, because it means that His power is given a chance to be made perfect in my weakness.

(And, it has been made perfect. I know that there are days and moments where I jack it up, but He has done things in that group that I never thought that I would see. He had a plan, and, for these kids and for this year, it has been the right plan. Next year...will be a totally different story, because it will be a totally different group of kids.)