Content with where we are

Lent started last week and I'm excited to tell you all that I have learned some stuff already from what I gave up. If you don't know what I gave up, I'll tell you. I gave up complaining about youth group. If you know me at all or have read some of my blogs, then you probably know how much I complain and mostly complaining about youth group.

Giving this up hasn't really been that difficult. I thought it would be a lot harder, but it hasn't been. I guess it's because I haven't had anything to complain about, which is a good thing.

On Wednesday, I realized something after youth group. I was at home getting ready for bed and I was praying. I don't know how long I've been praying for a new youth pastor, but it's been a while. On Wednesday night, I realized that we don't need a new youth pastor. We have a bunch of great people who help with the teens. One of them is a guy we all grew up with and he is training to be a youth pastor, so he coordinates all our activities and such.

I also realized that my youth group isn't as apathetic as I thought they were. We were all talking about our 30 Hour Famine, which we were supposed to have in a couple of weeks, but we found that there would be about 6 people missing from that event. That's half our youth group. So we all decided as the group that was involved in youth group that night, that we needed to switch the date. A few of us got to talk to our events coordinator guy, JJ, and we're changing the date again.

He actually likes the idea of changing the date. That way we can do what he had planned on us doing anyways, which was cleaning the town's park-n-ride. We haven't done that in a while. I remember the last time we did that there was a decaying deer in a black garbage bag that smelled so nasty, but we didn't have to clean that part up.

Now what I've realized this week is that I'm content. I'm content with my youth group. I'm content with having JJ as our partial youth leader person.

I've also realized how my complaining makes other people feel. How? Well I was reading my friend's status, which was complaining about his Spanish homework and it kinda didn't make me happy to see him complaining about that. Is that how people feel about me when I complain?

Now this friend also commented on our old youth pastor's status on Facebook the other day talking about our current youth leader JJ and what he needs to do. More movie nights, SAC's (Sunday After Church), etc. Hey, JJ is trying. He's still learning. He's in school and working at the same time. He doesn't live at the church and he can't do everything. So we need to just give him a break.

We all need to be content with where God has put us currently. He puts us here for a reason. He does answer our prayers, but sometimes it takes time. Sometimes God likes to play the patience game with us.

If you aren't content with where you are right now, give it time. God is moving even if you feel like He isn't doing anything to make things better. Give it time.

Patience isn't only a virtue; it's also a skill.