My pants are a little damp…it’s because I didn’t have any dried clean pants for work this morning and so the pair of jeans that were air drying were almost but not quite done. And I had no time to really iron a nice pair because I was so tired from spending the last 15 hours wet vacuuming the basement. Our basement usually does well; however, with the obscene amount of snow and then the heavy rain on top of the snow the ground just became too saturated. The water just started to leak into the basement, and after hours of wiping with towels and vacuuming with one of man’s great inventions the wet/dry vac, the leaking subsided and now like my pants the basement is damp.
How wonderful this story is for talking about emotions, especially when it comes to feeling broken and vulnerable. As youth ministers we have tried to hold it together for the students, the parents, and ministers only to let the built up anxiety, joy, frustration, disappointment and many other emotions and then pour out streams of crying on the way home, pigging out at chick-fil-a or watching reruns of Seinfeld until 2am (not that this is me).
Obviously there are things we can do to better control our emotions like creating margin in our lives, finding a mentor or spiritual director and spending some quiet time with the Lord, but it can still be difficult. The best thing we can do is to be authentic, meaning admit our brokenness to our ministers, to the students and even parents. It’s okay to be wrong on things, to not know an answer and most importantly, not be all things to all people. When we can interact with each person with humility and authenticity the emotions won’t build up as much. Ministries grow when Youth Pastors admit that they are limited in their abilities and not perfect, the thing, again that’s important is that we pour out love to those we serve and serve alongside.