Time Out: Weekly quiet times for the youth worker’s soul.
by Adam Wormann

My kids love to wrestle – especially my four year old. I can’t count how many hours we’ve fought in his room. It started with some wrestling, moved into a little martial arts and MMA, and usually results in a free-for-all. I have a slight height advantage, which helps my self-esteem. I tried to teach him how to jam someone. Basically, that means you get really close to someone who’s taller than you so that you can get them, without them able to extend to strike you. Kind of levels the playing field against someone with a long reach.

So, Cole usually tries really hard to do that. He doesn’t get that when you do it, it’s a good idea to strike someone. He tries to grapple. I’m not a physics guy, but something tells me when someone almost quadruples your weight, you’ve really gotta know what you’re doing to take them down. Usually he tries to go for the knees, sometimes just grabs the leg and pulls. Usually this results with me laying on my back.

Most people could legitimately beat me up — I get that. Most 4 year-olds can’t. I will typically take a pretty dramatic dive and land on my back. Cole smiles. I’m not sure, but I think he believes he’s really taking me down. For the record (and I don’t tell him), I’m taking a dive. My son is not beating me up. He loves it though. He’s proud of himself, he’s learning, and he has a good time. I love bonding time like that.

It would be pretty ridiculous to think that my kid is really winning the fight against me. There’s a bigger force at work (mostly me and gravity).

If you think about it, that’s how we act sometimes. We build our ministries, build our careers, and build our families. Now, I believe that we have to be responsible, and that God works through us. In the end, it’s not about making a name for ourselves, it’s about making a name for God.

Please don’t fall into the trap of building something for yourself, or building something and taking all the credit. It’s okay to accept compliments, it’s not okay to say, “Look what I did.” That’s the problem since Genesis.

“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” – Genesis 11:4  (Full passage here)

As you serve, remember to keep your focus. Remember to honor God with all you do. This isn’t for us, it’s for Him.

Some questions to think about

• What motivates you to do something?
• Are you doing something quality? Why?
• Do you have people in your life that are keeping you in check?
• Are you sure that what you’re doing is honoring God?  Really think about that one for a bit.

Posted on October 17, 2011