Bless to impress

For various reasons, next week I need to IMPRESS some people with my skills and talents. As a strong believer in the concept of servant leadership I always find a certain conflict within myself when trying to demonstrate ability and competence whilst maintaining suitable humility. Of course, Jesus' response to people demanding that he impress them was usually to ask them a question, tell them a story with a hidden meaning or beginning a sentence with the phrase "woe to you..." (though the last one was not so often in response to people to be honest!)

Of course as in many things it's more about discernment than about testing how GOOD someone is, well it certainly is for me.

I don't tend to do youthwork in the mode of trying to impress young people with how cool I am (though occasionally they do say I am which I find quite unfathomable!) but rather in that more incarnational model of coming alongside them, sharing in their journey and their story and helping them see themselves in the greater story of God and find God in their own story.

Unfortunately that slow, dedicated and personal model of ministry is never very impressive if you try and judge it in terms of SUCCESS but I don't see the point of measuring success that much as it's not really about how well I've done. It's whether or not I'm doing what God wants for me and for the young people in front of me which really counts.

So am I going to impress? I don't know. Am I going to endeavour to discern... I certainly am.