Seeing Differently

Having been both a church and community youth worker in the town for most of those years I now occasionally bump into ex-youth group members on these pub visits. On most of these occasions I might get a nod of recognition or a brief greeting, something that warms the soul - I can’t have done too bad a job if a) they remember me & b) they’re willing to acknowledge me! But this time I had a humbling reminder of what Jesus called me to when he put community youth work as a passion in my heart.

This young person was one of the first that the project I co-founded worked with. Their journey was complex and their story is their story, but to the outsider it probably looked like all our efforts were futile and the resource was being wasted. It was all too easy to think “you win some you lose some” and try and learn something for next time. And had we been parachuting in to this community to “do” youth work and living and breathing community life elsewhere that would have probably been my and their mentor’s story. But when you see someone out and about around your town for years after you’ve seen them at youth group; when you make an effort to connect, to chat; when you still pray and hope for their wellbeing and awakening of their true identity, because they are part of where you belong and you love your community, then writing them off to experience just isn’t an option.

Last weekend this now adult shared a little bit of where their story had currently landed. They then referenced the impact our youth work had had on them. It wasn’t a glowing 5-star review or an ego stroking narrative of youth work inspired transformation. It was an outcome that could quite easily have been put down to the usual process of growing up out of adolescent behaviours and identity struggles and simply maturing. But one little statement brought me right back to the heart of why I stepped into my youth work journey.

“You saw me differently, you saw who I really was”

Jesus saw his disciples differently than they were used to being seen, He didn’t just see who they would be one day but who they really were in that moment. In youth work and ministry we are called to see young people differently to the way they are seen by the world and culture around us. We are called to see them as Jesus sees them, for their true selves and all that they can become. And just one or two adults in their world can make that difference. Because when they are seen differently, they see differently. And that may be now or it may be in 10 years time.

So if you sometimes (or often) feel like a voice shouting into the void of your church or community, or you’re feeling disheartened that no matter what you do that young person just doesn’t seem to change, or if it constantly feels like a struggle to get others to see the value in what you do then “be strong and take heart” (Ps 31:24). Not just because you will be making an as yet unseen difference but because you too are seen, heard, known and loved by the God who holds us all.