Keeping the Change

Jim Elliot, one of Christianity’s most famous missionary martyrs, once wrote this prayer in his journal:

“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men [sic] must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.”¹

Let those of us who care for teenagers be “crisis people” through whom they encounter the life-changing power of Christ and are confronted with the need to live more like him.  Our students need change, but they need help to do it.  The best we can do as change agents is to earn our kids’ trust, understand them, discern their stage of change, inspire them to seriously consider God’s way of living, and then train them how to run after God.  Only the Holy Spirit can change a person’s heart, but we can work hard to make the Spirit as welcome as possible in the lives of the struggling kids we love so much.

What do you think?  Take a look at Dustin’s article in this month’s E-Journal: Changing for Good, Part 2.

1. “Excerpts from the Journals of Jim Elliot,” Pure Gospel Truth.com, http://www.puregospeltruth.com/excerpts-from-the-journals-of-jim-elliot.html, accessed 9/18/2010. [↩]

©2010 Fuller Youth Institute