As a Millennial kid born in the late 1980s growing up in the 1990s, I was always told: “You can change the world! You can be anything! You can do anything!”
As I’ve grown older, I’ve also grown more cynical about those statements. I ask myself: Can I really change the whole world? Can I really be anything? Can I really do anything?
I’ve always been a positive person. I’ve always been one of those people who looks for the silver lining those clouds somewhere. I’ve often been the person who says, “That glass may look half empty, but it’s still got something in it!”
But when I listen to the news and hear what is happening around the world that seems so big and out of control, a part of me shrinks back.
When I see the anger and distrust and fear and slander thrown around on social media, a part of me shrinks back.
When I sit with people who have lost loved ones, and even as I have lost loved ones, a part of me shrinks back.
I have to ask the person in the mirror: What happened to that world changer? What happened to that person who was so excited to see the world fall in love with Jesus?
It’s easy to look around and be overwhelmed at the long list of KidMin to-do’s.
It’s easy to listen to one more story of a family falling apart and want to give up.
It’s easy to ask: Is this ministry worth it? Are we really changing the world?
As I contemplate all of this, my phone dings with one more notification. But this notification is different.
This one comes from an adult who was once a kid on a Wednesday night at church where I volunteered. A kid-turned-adult who tells me, “Shaun, thank you for everything you did. You showed me what it looks like to follow Jesus. It changed my world.”
Maybe I heard it wrong. Maybe it wasn’t the whole world we were sent to change. Maybe it was the world of one kid, whose family was falling apart, who struggled through their teen years wondering if God really loved them, and who came out the other side remembering that faithful showing up we did as we served “the littlest of these.”
Children’s Ministry Leader, you are changing the world — one little world at a time — as you show Jesus to the kids in your church and community. Because after all, it was never us who were going to change the world. It was always the Holy Spirit through us, working in the lives and hearts of the kids and families we serve.