It’s amazing the things we can get used to.
Like airplanes.
Everyday, tens of thousands of planes take off and land. All of them being guided by an Air Traffic Controller who calmly guides each plane to safety. That’s crazy… how nervous do you think they were the first time they did that job? I mean… hundreds of people’s lives are in their hands every minute of every day they work.
As an old science teacher I couldn’t help myself but to talk about momentum in today’s post.
In the classroom, momentum is the principle that an object that is moving “wants” to keep moving in the same way. The bigger it is, and the faster it is, the more it “wants” to keep moving in that direction.
The other day I was doing a little writing and trying to uncover some of the “unstated” beliefs I have about our small group systems at North Point. It is working pretty well and I wanted to figure out why. (Actually, that would be a good post for another time: because we rarely take time to figure out why things work, we have no idea how to fix them when they stop working.)
Kids usually have a box of toys, and their favorite toy is the one they are playing with right now.
When it comes to creating presentations or messages, it’s helpful (and fun) to think of the tools available to us as if they were toys in a toy box.
There may not be one perfect tool to help us craft creative presentations. The best tool is simply the one that fits the kind of presentation we need to make right now.
I have a favor to ask of you. But before I do, I want to give you some context.
13 years ago, I signed up to be a Small Group Leader for a middle school small group at North Point Community Church.
Since I spent the rest of my week as a teacher and a coach, I loved getting to be a different kind of character in a student’s life on Sundays.
I loved only having a few to be responsible for.
I loved getting to take part in the program instead of being in charge!
When you spend time in the trenches of Middle School Ministry, you will eventually face situations and circumstances with your students and their families that you just don’t feel qualified for.
Sometimes, when families are faced with trials, pain, or suffering, we feel as though we can’t help.
Have you ever felt like you were thrown into a situation with a family where no training could have prepared you to adequately care for them?
I have.
But I’ve learned, over the years, that helping families through these difficult moments isn’t actually as hard as I thought.
The best help, though, hasn’t come from any bag of tricks that I’ve kept in my office.
The best help for these moments, I’ve found, has simply been “the power of presence.”