OH He's still working on me...Makin me what I'm supposed to be

After being the youth pastor for 4 years now I have seen and heard many, many things. I have been able to be there for youth that needed someone to talk to, or even needed help through addictions... God has truely blessed me with a passion for people...NOT just "saved" people but all people... I didn't realize what God was preparing me for....I didn'want to realize.

In November of 2009 we lost our 3rd pastor (thats right, our 3rd) I was in a place where I just wanted to give up. I wanted to just go to some mega church and dissapear into a sea of faces, and forget about the things that God had called me to do. It was just to hard!!! I didn't understand why we were going through this. The sad thing is I thought that everyone felt the same as I did..."Let's just close up shop and move on", that was not the case!

We had a meeting the week after out 3rd pastor had left and I was sitting on the stage with the elders of the church. I remember A very special young lady coming up to me and saying "We can't close the church, I cant' lose my family". I still remember thinking I still can't do this... Then anthoer young lady came to me and express how hard it was for her...( she was an athiest before coming to a youth revival and dedicating her life to Christ). Things started to get a bit fuzzy in the ole brain at that point...I was battling like Jacob...God was winning! All the sudden I could feel God softening my heart. It was like a chisle cutting through rocks and being almost there. Then it happen...The question I was waiting for... Can we just close the church? Then a VERY special lady stood up and stated with a powerful voice "over her dead body!" I was shocked to see that the people wasn't thinking what I was thinking. They were holding strong when I should should have been holding strong for them. They were holding me up when I should have been holding them up.

God spoke to me then and there as the rocks fell off my heart, "Protect My People". He said it over and over again...It became a voice that would not leave my thoughts. Quickly I looked to my best freind and partner in ministry, Timothy, and said " you know that we have to do this...He looked at me with a funny face and said "i'm gonna kill you"....haha right? Then he said "I'm with you".

I found myself in that wierd place yet again... Unsure of myself but confident I was was where I was supposed to be. Even though I wanted to give up, God had other plans. You see when it comes to his people, God cares! People may look at me and say "how can a 27 year old be a pastor?" I'm not sure myself, But God knows. So I will listen and follow him, feed his word and most of all...Love! We can't do some of the great things that God can do, But one thing we can do just like him is LOVE.

I am reminded of the song I learned as a child... "It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the Earth and Jupitor and Mars. How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

I will not give up!

Philippians 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

My God Bless you Richley