My Experience as Youth Pastor

I really enjoy lethal weapon. It is one of my guilty habits. Anytime it is on TV and I have some free time I watch. It doesn't really matter which one is one, I like them all. The problem is, tonight I think I understood for the first time what Danny Glover meant when he said he was too old for this … stuff.

I think I've done an exceptional job of keeping up with my youth. Shoot, half the time I can outlast them at events because I don't bother with energy drinks. They may burn a bit hotter early on in the event, but once their Monster high is gone they are dragging till the next fix. I can keep running and jumping for hours while they are sitting down barely able to keep their eyes open. My wife has to eventually check me because my energy just keeps building as I try to get the youth back into the excitement of whatever we are doing.

This, of course, is because I'm not really that old. I turn 30 this year but I've lost weight and am in the best shape I've been in since I was 18. Unfortunately all this energy and lack of real maturity has me doing those things my body is too old for. Tonight I was playing games with the Youth and ended up losing my balance and planting myself on the floor. At one point in mid air I am fairly certain my body was perfectly horizontal for an extended period of time. I'm not sure how long it lasted by I was able to mentally write this entire post during the time I was frozen there as well as look around at all the Youth as they sat frozen the look of pure LOL on their faces. Then time resumed and gravity had its way with my 29 year old body.

I know when I was younger I did the things that got me sprawled on the floor tonight, but I don't remember being flat on my back after. I know I've reached a special kind of place in life. Mentally I am aware of certain limitations, but I'm not sure I'm ready to admit it. When I first started dating my wife, my eventual father-in-law had me fill out a questionnaire to get permission to date his daughter. I don't think any of my answers scored points with him because I took the whole thing as a joke. One of the questions was, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" My answer was, "Peter Pan." I think I was just being terribly sarcastic, but looking back I think I stand by that answer. I'm a Youth Pastor so you can't make me grow up.

I may be sore while I type this and I may have some skinned patches from the carpet, but if the same opportunity presents itself next week I'll do it again. Maybe one day I'll "grow up" but I really hope I don't.