The Hook

Some of you may or may not know this, but STATIC Youth is a corporation that is currently in its infancy stage. We are developing a dynamic and innovative middle school aged education/ministry program. We (my partner Theresa and I) have written all the text books and activities for this program. We push ourselves out of our own comfort zone, and place ourselves in the shoes of the youth, seeing the program and God from their eyes.  What a humbling experience.

I do not tell you this to get accolades, I tell you this so I can talk about another gift God has given me. In the process of creating this program, I have had to learn how to write, how to compromise and how to deal with people I really do not want to deal with. God has placed me in many situations that really where not comfortable for me, but I survived. Parents who do not understand what STATIC Youth is all about, they are still looking for the old fashion way of reaching our youth. Looking for the traditional books and homework, well STATIC tossed all that. Yes we stay true to the teachings of the church, I would have to say more than any other program I have used, and I have been teaching middle school religion for over 18 years now. Our main book in the Holy Bible, our kids use the Catechism of the Catholic Church and concordances, they are required to create their own service project and we place on them the responsibility of their faith. We call them in to the Church through a 3 year Confirmation process (6^th thru 8^th grade) and challenge them to except their faith as their own, no longer that of their parents.

Dealing with middle school age youth can be and is a challenge, dealing with the parents of the youth can sometimes seem even more challenging and working with others on a highly creative and fast pace project has its own set of challenges. God has set before me a set of challenges that often times try me to the end. When things go too smoothly for too long, I know God is just letting me rest for the big one just around the corner. 

It is the way of God, it is sort of funny, He gives you a gift freely, but there is always a hook. To me he has given many gifts, and STATIC is one of them, but man this hook can really hold you down sometimes, or so it seems to me. In reality I know that God never holds me down, but rather it is my own human nature that does. I am my own weight, I keep me from flying as God wants me to, I set in to my skin each and every hook that keeps me tethered to this earth, keeps me from flying to new heights daily.

The challenges God places before us are not hooks, they are not to slow us down or to discourage us, they are launch pads for us to jump off of and fly, to spread our wings and achieve new and exciting things. They allow us to praise God from new places and to see the world new once again.

This is the gift God has offered me, and I have taken the challenge of it. Static may or may not become the next new thing in education (although I do believe it will) we may fail at this, in the worlds eyes, but I know God has great things planned for me, and STATIC is a part of it all.

Paul