Psalm 119 True North United Tonight!

At True North we’ve been going through Psalms on Scripture of the Day. Today’s Psalm is Psalm 119.

So one day at True North Headquarters we debated what to do with this chapter. Should we break it up over a few days and go through it slowly? Should we just hope that the students eat up all 176 verses on their own?

Obvious answer: no to all of the above options. Instead, let’s get all the people of True North in one room and read the whole thing together.

So that is what we are going to do tonight at True North United. We will eat, we will hang out, and we will sing worship songs, but the main course of the evening is a feast on the longest chapter in the Bible.

Last night and this morning (partly after reading this article), I was remembering some of my main desires before going into youth ministry. I wanted students to be excited about the gospel and excited about God’s Word.

I pray that tonight bears much fruit towards that second end. My desire is that the students of True North would be students of the book, and that every day they would cry out, “Oh, how I love your law; it is my meditation all the day!”

Game Day

Across the country this morning, hundreds of college football players are waking up with one thought on their mind:

“It’s game day.”

With the agony of intense physical effort and the straining of the strategizing mind, these young men and their coaches have spent the entire week getting ready for today’s game. They have watched films of the opponents. The coaches have crafted a game plan. The players have run through the plays countless times. The whole week has been leading up to today–this is what they live for!

As these young players go through the morning of game day, I doubt any of them are thinking thoughts like, “Why does this game have to take up my whole day?” or “Couldn’t I be doing something else with my weekend?” Rather, these students would give up anything else to be doing what they are doing.

Like football players, I have the pleasure of working on the weekends. Just like them, I spend the whole week getting ready for Saturday and Sunday. And I cannot help but think that I am more privileged than them.

Don’t get me wrong, I love college football. Just from looking at the scoreboard on my computer screen or flipping on my TV, I love feeling that excitement of competition. If my team is playing, their game will be a thought in my head the whole day.

Even so, I think I’ve got it better than those players and coaches. Sure, what they are doing must be incredibly fun and exciting, but can it honestly compare to the excitement of doing the ministry of teaching and talking to students about the Lord? I’m sure it must be fun to watch film and strategize all week for the big game, but isn’t spending the week studying God’s Word sweeter?

Every Saturday, watching football teams from across the country take the field helps me put my job into perspective. I can only imagine how fun it would be to be a part of that, but I would never trade my job for it. Like those players get amped for the big game, I anticipate getting to do the work of the ministry on Saturdays and Sundays at True North.

That is why when I wake up on Saturday and Sunday, I smile and say to myself,

“It’s game day.”