Shannon Popkin gives a great description of one of the ways your pastor can bless you. Read Shannon’s article and consider her question at the end. I pray that you can give an enthusiastic, “yes.”
When I was in middle school, my youth group went skiing. Pastor Austin, who loved all things fast, was our slope mentor, darting from one new skier to another. If you happened to be lying on your back your skis and poles looking like a pile of Pick Up Sticks, he would shwoosh to your side, put out his hand and instantly pop you up in the right direction (remember… I was living in a tiny middle schooler body at this point). He’d give you a pointer or two, grin, then take off. You could spot him all the way down the hill by these little puffs of powder with each zig zag he made.
I couldn’t really get the zig zag thing. Directing my skis toward pine trees or steep looking cliffs made me nervous, so I tried to keep them in parallel lines, pointing toward the bottom of the hill at all times. This worked beautifully on the hills that were (as another new skier wrote this week) the size of a pimple. But then I took this approach to the mountain.
With ski tips pointed toward the lodge below (which looked like a Monopoly-sized hotel), I was shocked at how quickly my velocity doubled and then tripled. The wind whipped my eyelids back into little squints, so that I could only barely make out a skier just ahead. It was Pastor Austin. I was gaining on him and knew nothing else to do but yell out, “I’m commmmiiiiiiiiing!”
Here to read the rest.
There has been more than one occasion which on which you’ve helped me sort out my pile of Pick Up Sticks. Thanks for extending your pastoral care beyond the lake!