Identity Crisis

I'm going to need to make this one quick, it's pretty late, and it's been a real long day. Today was our first full day of our second week in Anderson, Indiana. I hosted more basketball tournaments today, they went really well, but there were so many kids. My voice is pretty much shot from yelling out teams. It's incredible how this school has a 15 million dollar field house, and no megaphone or something. The main point of my post comes from something I witnessed tonight. Have you ever had something happen that was so absolutely insignificant, but it just hits you in a way you can't describe? Tonight during celebration there was a video of a kid walking through his high school. As he walked down the hall, there were words on the heads of the people he saw. Some of the words said, "jock" or "slut". Some of the other words said "nerd", "punk", "player", "#14" (referring to what that girl meant to the player). It's hard to give a visual of this, but imagine walking down the halls of a high school and knowing all of these kids are given a label. The key word in that sentence was GIVEN. Most of these kids fall into these stereotypes, and what they are deemed, is what they are. The message tonight was about having an identity in Christ. The message explained about how we are ONE in Christ, we are the body, we are who we are, not who the rest of the world tells us we are. Anyway, we did this thing tonight where all the teens brought a mask with them into session, which they decorated to explain their personalities. What they did with them during worship was drop them in these cans that were placed throughout the room. They would later be used to be stapled onto a wall into a giant hand. But one of my jobs was getting these giant bags full of faces and bringing them onto the stage. The very first kid to come to the can, just took off his mask, and looked at it. He looked as his mask in a way similar to how someone would look into a mirror. He was looking deeper than just the skin. With all he had, he dropped it into the can, and said a word or two, it seemed to me like he was saying goodbye. Now I'm not quite sure, but that hit me in a way that I can't explain. I know this kids whole life, he was labeled. Who knows what his label was, but he knew that people had seen his appearance, and known about his life, and they had put a word on his face. It's an intense feeling seeing someone drop that crappy view the world has of them, and picking up a cross instead. Almost as to say, the mask is gone, this is what I have now? I dare you to tell me who I am. So once again, something, just a small thing, will have a lasting impact on my life. For the rest of the night I did security rounds, which was a real good time. This youth group invited me to their group for pizza and guitar hero. I've been hanging out with these guys for just a few days, but already I know God put me on their hall for security for a reason. Just talking with them tonight about life was amazing, it's just one of those things that reassures me that ministry is what I will be doing for the rest of my life. Thanks for reading, keep loving. -Adam