There are days when the job of ministry gets to be overwhelming. I guess that can be true for any job. I've often joked that I would love to be a garbage collector for the city because you would probably take home less trash at night. There are those days where I think we spend more time babying the Christ followers than we do invading the darkness. I'm not talking about ministering to our people but about having to deal with all the whining and "nah-nah" that comes from "Christians" who are a mile wide and half an inch deep. You know the ones that Paul wrote about when he said "some of you should be living off the deep stuff in God's word but instead we are still covering the basics." How frustrating it is to have time wasted (and I mean that in the harshest sense of the word) with eternal babies that refuse to grow and prefer to be coddled. It's time that could be spent on building new relationships, taking new Christians to deeper levels and fighting the real battles we face in loving a world to Christ.

Then there are days like yesterday. We baptized two new believers in our worship. Two young men who came to the point where they realized their need for Jesus. It was so awesome watching as they began their journey and talked about how God had gotten their attention and had won them over with His love. If you're reading this guys (I doubt that any teen is taking the time to read a 39 year old pastor's blog, but just in case), stay strong, never doubt His love for you and His desire to see you reach your fullest potential for His glory. Don't stay a baby. Grow, read, pray, go, serve, share, love and become all that He desires for you. You are the reason that this job is worth every sacrifice we make. You are the reason that God called us to go. You are the reason that God asked us to plant this new work in Franklin. And, for the millions more who need to know God's love for them, I pray you hang on until we make it...after we've tended to all the babies that suck energy and life from a body that should be moving forward much quicker than it does. In the end, God's love will change you in a way that you cannot believe.