you may be down, but you're not out

Perhaps as the new year begins you find yourself in a tough place. You believe God had called you to work with students but things aren't going so well at your church.

Maybe your church is going through a difficult time and you're feeling the stress of lower numbers and tight money.

Maybe you're dealing with conflict within the staff at your church.

Some of you reading this may be facing dismissal from your church, or maybe you were already terminated in the past year.

If any of this applies to you, please hear me say this: You may be down but you are not out.

Some days it feels like churches are in conflict like never before. A state denominational leader told me recently that a church with a unified staff and peace and harmony among the members is the exception rather than the rule these days. Now, this is just one person's opinion. But maybe it resonates with you. You may look at your church and long for harmony. You may be worn out from the discord.

Remember: you are down, but you are not out.

When things get you down, I want to encourage you to fall back on one thing. During the seasons of our lives where things are tough, intentionally set aside time to revisit the calling God placed on your life. The undeniable belief that God called you to be a youth worker is what will oftentimes enable you to get back up, dust yourself off, and move forward. You have been chosen by God to work with teenagers. As long as that is still the case, no person or church can ever take that calling away from you. God called you because He loves you and He created you. He knows you have just the right spiritual gifts, personality, and passion to make an impact in the lives of the teenagers He has led to your ministry.

If you have been beat down, don't stay down. Get up!

Be assured of your calling and trust God to open up new doors of ministry to students. Remember what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

You may be down, but you're not out.