Someone Cares About Me

Last week I was enjoying a great book (The God Ask by Steven Shadrach) and a hot cup of coffee in the back corner of our Panera Bread when a couple of young ladies, I'm guessing in their early 20's, sat down in the booth across from me. They started out with the normal small talk of friends just chatting. I was trying to ignore their girly yakking and focus on my book.

Eventually their conversation turned to church. One of the girls was describing her recent mission trip to Mexico. Of course I started to eavesdrop at this point. Just out of curiosity...I am in the middle of reading a missionary book. After her story she shifted the conversation with, "So tell me about your new church!"

The other girl described what the service was like: the preacher, the person who invited her, etc. It was a typical (boring) conversation that I was quickly losing interest in until I heard this statement: "Someone actually cares about me!"

My first thought was, “Well, they're girls...I guess that stuff is important to them.” Aside from her new church, I didn't know what she was talking about. She continued to explain to her friend how she had never felt like that before and it was so deeply meaningful to her at this stage in her life.

I've also been reading another book called Sticky Faith by Kara E. Powell and Chap Clark. You should just do yourself a favor and read it too. Sticky Faith is based on a research project by the Fuller Youth Institute. Essentially they were trying to find out some of the things that made faith "stick" (or not) in teens transitioning from high school to college. Here is one of the many great things this book has to offer: "By far, the number one way churches made the teens in our survey feel welcomed and valued was when adults in the congregation showed an interest in them."

How are you showing our young people you care? You may just change a life.