Arm's Length Away

YL Culpeper Fishbee

I've started to realize that each interaction I make with someone may be the last one for quite some time.  Culpeper Young Life Fishbee and hanging out at McDonalds afterwards, waving a big goodbye as I head out the door and then as I'm driving realizing that I am probably not going to see those people again.  Maybe not for a few years, maybe not ever.  I thought that I had sufficiently kept myself at an arm's length from people, knowing that I was soon departing to another land.  I was wrong.  These YL leaders and kids became part of my life.  Somehow between Club, the mulch delivery, the leadership meetings, and the hang-outs I forgot about my "arm's length" policy.  I was throwing a fish, a real fish, like it was a Frisbee to someone on my team and it all seemed perfectly normal and made complete sense to me.  Why wouldn't I be here, in this field, throwing a fish to a teenager?  Duh.  This has become my new normal.  I used to hear about the crazy YL games but now I'm part of it.  That's what YL Culpeper did.  They turned "stories" into my reality.  I didn't just hear about how amazing it is when a leader has a connection with a kid and gets to talk about real things with them, I got to witness it.  Working with these leaders for the past semester was like getting a tiny glimpse of what YL can be/will be in Ecuador one day.  Where YL alumni come back to spend hours lifting and moving huge bags of mulch to help send some other kid (they don't even know) to YL Camp because they want to.  Where kids talk about their most memorable club and you realize they actually were listening to the talk and it impacted them.  Where members from the local community commit to support and encourage leaders.  I appreciate so much the experience that I've had with this group.  I love how my idea to stay an "arm's length away" was given a "bear's hug" rebuttal.  God did not create us to be spectators from afar.  I've learned that YL is an all-in kind of deal.  YL Culpeper, thanks for teaching me how!

"Taste and see that the LORD is good"  Psalm 34:8