The Duration

Here's something they don't tell you when you volunteer to be a youth leader at church. It's for life. At least it's turned out that way for me.

For example: I walked into Subway the other day and there was a youth group "kid" I knew behind the counter - from 10 years ago, when the kid was in youth group! Our smiles were immediate.

Another kid from youth group gives me tomatoes when we talk. Another one sends me songs to listen to. "Youth Leader" IS a lifetime job!

Of course, one could ignore all of their Facebook posts and messages and simply unfriend them all, but that's not what God wants us to do.

Once you read the Bible, God's plan, and His will for our lives, is to love one another. It's really that simple.

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." - 1 John 4:7 

"And He (Jesus) said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." - Matthew 22:37-39

We get the picture. The question then really becomes this: Is love a finite thing? Can we love someone, and then just STOP loving them at some point? No! And, should we actually ever stop loving someone, was our "love" really even love in the first place?

Love is eternal. At least it should be.

My point is this: This world is run by Satan, not God. God is still all-powerful and intervenes whenever He so chooses. But "God is love" as it says in 1st John, and we are "children of God." We are commanded to love! You read the verses. We should be exuding love wherever we go!

When we sign up to be a youth leader it should be because of our love for kids, especially for the lost. That love should never die. It might fade for a bit or become stagnant but it should always there.

That's when we must fan the glowing embers of love into flames of love for God's glory. Quite honestly, to do anything less is a sin.

Who will we exhibit unconditional agape love for today?