Adage #17: Gimme a break (Part 1 of 3).

I was standing in a dark and cold kitchen at 2am exchanging stories with two other senior high leaders. I began to realize that something was off when they kept asking me who I was talking about. My stories centered around students and leaders who were no longer involved or who had graduated. I had no current stories to share with them. I was living in the past. A good friend of mine quoted her high school English teacher by saying: "if you're looking back to a part of your life and calling it the 'glory days', you are doing something wrong with your life now."

I started working in youth ministry when I was 17 years old and my youth pastor asked me if I would like to intern for her over the summer before I left for college. I didn't even have to think about it - I immediately said yes! I interned the following summer as well and when I returned for my sophomore year at Whitworth, I began as a volunteer youth leader at Life Center North. Since then I've been a volunteer, an intern, part-time staff member and a volunteer again. I've done junior high and high school, sometimes at the same time; worked with three different youth pastors; led small groups and small group leaders and even had a couple of brief stints in preschool and college ministry.

Nine years later, I found myself wondering where my passion for youth ministry had gone. It was frustrating beyond belief. I wanted so badly to feel that desire to serve the Lord again and I did the best I could to fix it. Our youth pastor did a great job of helping me and encouraging me to find where I best fit in the ministry. Even though I was using the gifts God had given me, I was still tired and lacked excitement while at youth group on Wednesday nights.

A friend suggested I take a sabbatical. "Sabbatical" seems like such a big scholarly word, but I think it's important to make a distinction between taking a "sabbatical" and taking a "break". Sabbatical isn't taking a breather and then maybe thinking about working again when it's over. It is an intentional time of rest. It is about energizing yourself so you can get back to doing God's work. I went into my sabbatical with some plans for how I would spend my time and with an ultimate goal of returning to ministry. 

Is there somewhere in your life that you need to take a break or an intentional sabbatical? Are you holding on to something just because you've always done it? Are you living in the "glory days" of the past?

I am about halfway through my 3 month sabbatical and I think it's important to share what I've been learning. I want to take the next two posts to tell you what I've been doing with my time in hopes that whether you're taking a break or not, you can evaluate how you are resting, getting energized and preparing yourself for the work ahead of you.