Are you scared?

After viewing the movie expelled:no intelligence allowed, I was sitting outside with one of my youth leaders. As we were waiting for a couple of parents to arrive and take their kids home, he asked me this question, "Do you ever get scared?" At first I thought, that is a strange question. I mean, I love a good thriller movie, snakes scare me, but what did he mean? And then I realized that he was talking about what we are attempting to do as youth ministers. Looking around the entrance to the theater that evening, I observed the battleground. Yes, it is a battleground. We are battling for the souls of teens. If you doubt this, then you need to evaluate your current view of the world in which we live. "It is a jungle out there."

We continued the dialog a while longer, and I related my thoughts like this: 'before us lies a mountain. It is daunting and unable to be conquered apart from God. With God I am excited to tackle it, to take on this task of battling for souls.' My co-leader responded in kind with a word picture that I must share with you. In the movie "300" one of King Leonidas' Spartans (preparing for an unsurmountable battle) receives this warning; the "enemies arrows will block out the sun." His reply, "then we will fight them in the shade."

God has enemies. His enemies want the souls of your teens. You have to be ready to battle for them. I will leave you with this scripture for now, so you can be on proper war footing;