Awareness Test

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4?rel=0&w=480&h=360]Watch the above video before reading any further.Go ahead, I’ll give you a minute. … “It’s easy to miss something you’re not looking for.” This principle seems to be true both for moonwalking bears and for us in youth ministry. When we’re so focused on certain tasks, people, events, numbers, etc., we can actually miss what’s most important.It happens all the time.When I’m focused on how many students attended my mid-week program, but miss the conversation the Spirit was leading me to have with that one hurting student who just needed someone to listen.When I’m giving more of my time and energy to planning a summer camp with my students than I am with a summer vacation for my own family.When I’m reading the Bible only to glean some information to teach, rather than to encounter the heart of God and refresh my own soul.When people constantly surround me—students, volunteers, fellow pastors and staff—but I’m navigating through life feeling fairly alone and isolated.Awareness only comes when there’s time to slow down, to pay attention, to really notice what is happening right in front of me. It comes when all the swirling activity—counting the flying basketball passes—fades into the background and I can truly hear the voice of the Savior, who beckons and strengthens and comforts and exhorts. It requires others’ involvement in my life, those who can point out the obvious areas that I’m missing.In this Christmas season of busyness, let us not miss what Christ is doing in our ministry, in our family, and in our own souls. Let us become people with eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that understand, so that we might experience the healing touch of Christ.