Amazing Night at Youth Group

I wrote this in towards the end of April after getting home from an incredible night at youth group, full of stories that opened up my eyes. I wrote it that night, but am just now getting the chance to put it on here. Enjoy!

Tonight was crazy in youth group. And I want to write about it while it’s fresh on my mind and fresh in my heart. My eyes were completely opened up to the many opportunities I miss all the time to reaching out to people. People I think are doing fine but are struggling more than I can imagine. I so often just sulk about my own problems, and think I’m so terribly off, but compared to these people, my problems seem like nothing! One girl mentioned that she dreads going through the week. She asks her mom every morning if she can just be homeschooled because she can’t handle school. She can’t wait for Sunday because that’s the only day she can be with people who care about her. Another girl mentioned that she had a friend in Iraq who died yesterday. A few people spoke about needing to show God’s love to people, which is so hard to do with people we don’t necessarily like. Another girl spoke about needing God’s help in reaching out to the lonely people in her life. God is working so much in our youth group, but Satan is also drastically attacking our youth group.

Another huge story that especially touched me and I know touched a lot of other people in our youth group was hearing my friend from Uganda speak. A few years ago when I was in seventh or eighth grade, a girl from Uganda came to our school. She had been captured by the Lord’s Resistance Army and used as a human shield in battle. A bomb had gone off very close to her and had done much damage to her face. She came to America to undergo multiple surgeries to try to help fix the damage done. And out of all the places in America for her to end up, she ended up at my little private school in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This kind of thing just isn’t common, you know? I mean, this girl was actually on Oprah, sharing her story. This was a big deal. And I’m so grateful to God to have been able to get to know her and just to be a little part of her life. She went back to Africa after her surgeries had finished, but she’s actually in America right now for awhile. And she ended up at my youth group tonight with one of my friends. I haven’t seen her in probably around four years. It was incredible. As we were having small group time, we were talking about what God’s been teaching us. And she spoke up. Hearing her talk about how much she loves God, how God is always with us, no matter how dark things get, really spoke to a lot of us. She’s been through so much more than we can ever imagine, and something we’ll probably never have to experience. Hearing her have such confidence in God and just her speaking, she has such an amazing way with words. My personal opinion is that she should go around speaking to people, because I could see her being able to direct so many people to God through her story.

You know sometimes God uses other people’s hurts to teach us a lesson. I really do honestly hate that other people have to go through pain sometimes for me to get it. Tonight made me realize a lot that I’m so selfish. I may struggle, but what good does it do for me to constantly focus on myself? None. I can’t change what’s going on in my life, but I can be there for other people. I can reach out to those God has put in my life and I can be a light to them, and allow God to use me. And that’s what I want.

I heard the song “Power of your Name” this week by Lincoln Brewster. And this is how I want to live my life. Tonight’s youth group has really spoken to me and shown me more of this message. This is the chorus. “And I will live to carry your compassion, to love a world that’s broken, to be your hands and feet. And I will give with the life that I’ve been given, to go beyond religion, and see this world be changed. By the power of your name” and this is my prayer. And I encourage this to be your prayer too. To allow God to work through you as you show his compassion, love a world that’s truly broken, be his hands and feet, give with what you have, and see this world be changed!