Welcome to the online version of this week’s Port Ann Wesleyan youth group lesson. To catch up on previous lessons, click here.
Starting out this week with a new (to us) song by Leanna Crawford, titled “Work in Progress.”
Prayer requests include the family of Middleburg Police Chief Tony Jordan — who passed away earlier today after an extended battle with COVID-related issues.
Betty Herman, wife of Roy, mother to Star, is still hospitalized with COVID. Things have taken another turn for the worst. The infection hsa spread and vital organs are impacted. Please keep her and the extended family (including her siblings Roger, Barry, Dan, Jeff and Johnny) in prayers.
Myron Campbell was rushed to the hospital earlier this week with a variety of symptoms similar to pneumonia. More recent news was that he battled some sort of infection, but has improved and has been discharged from the hospital earlier today.
Sally Sheets has completed her 12th treatment and awaits further testing and updates on what is next for the tumor in her pancreas.
What other prayer needs do you have? You can email them to us by clicking here.
Some vocabulary to kick off our lesson. How do you define the words “jaded” and “jilted?” Two j-words, neither super popular for everyday conversation, but both powerful words that hopefully speak to us today.
Jaded is an adjective that according to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary means “fatigued (or exhausted) by overwork.” A secondary definition: “Made dull, apathetic or cynical by experience or by having or seeing too much of something.”
Sound familiar?
We recently offered a survey for our youth … in-person pen-and-paper versions were handed out last week in our first in-person session of 2021, and we also have an online version for those of you who can’t make it to the church. If you haven’t filled it out yet, click here.
There have been a number of common themes among many of the surveys received so far. One of which has been some struggle among our youth to persevere with our daily faith after being pummeled by so much chaos, uncertainty, anxiety and loss over the past year. The pandemic has been in our face for nearly a year now, impacting most every part of daily life, and that has caused many of us — even if only for a short period of time — to become dull, apathetic and/or cynical in our walks with God.
In some ways … if even only for a short period of time … we have become jaded Christians, which sounds bad on the surface, but in reality is a feeling every Christian has at some point or another in his/her walk. How we respond to that feeling makes the difference long-term.
A few weeks ago, I shared a mini-movie from YouTube called “The Present” in an online lesson about serving others and how we can make a difference even if we are broken ourselves or feel limited in some way. Today, please re-watch this video from a standpoint of the young man in the clip … who is struggling with something which causes him to check out on reality and push away those around him:
The boy is obviously struggling with his disability, and it is apparent i.”n the way he reacts to his mom and to the puppy at first that he has become jaded in his interactions with others. The puppy, dealing with its own disability, never loses that optimism and excitement in his effort to connect with the boy — and that ultimately makes a positive impact in their relationship.
Pop quiz … the word “jilting” … what does it mean?
According, again, to Merriam-Webster, it means “to cast off or reject.”
For those who are feeling jaded, who are burnt out and overwhelmed about the never-ending cycle of pandemics, politics and other pressures, wouldn’t it feel great to cast that feeling aside? To reject it and replace it with a new-found hope and optimism?
God offers a number of verses that can lift us up in times of struggle … that can jilt our jaded views. Consider John 16:33 (NIV)
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
And 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV):
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Eventually, as we mature in the faith, we can see our struggles, disappointments and “jaded moments” as beneficial to our growth in God, as suggested by James 1:2-4 (NIV):
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
In that regard, we are all still works in progress — as Leanna Crawford sang about in the song at the top of this blog post. God continues to work in our lives not only via our happy times and triumphs, but is also there with us in the valleys and struggles. When we mindfully seek him in those circumstances, he can help us endure so much more than we could ever do alone and develop a deeper reliance on and appreciation of His works in our lives.
In those moments, He becomes the Truth in which we can stand on.
