All Worth It

There are times in everyone’s life who works with students when you wonder, “Is it worth it?” The long hours, the sacrifice, the low pay (or no pay), zero recognition, and so on seem to take a toll on us. In the midst of moments like these though, God often shows up and reminds us why the work we do is totally worth it.

I was recently on a trip with students in Memphis. At the beginning of the trip, one of the girls on the team didn’t really seem to connect with any of her team members. She was shy, quiet, set apart from everyone else, would never smile or laugh, and pretty much stayed completely to herself. After two days of this behavior, I was worried she would stay like that. So on the third day we put her in a leadership position and she seemed to do pretty well at it. She gave direction when needed and even started to open up in conversation. But it wasn’t until that night in our team time when three or four different students gave her specific words of encouragement that we saw real change take place. Immediately after our time of encouragement, she turned to a adult staff member next to her and through a small smile whispered the words, “I’m not invisible anymore.”

And she wasn’t. The rest of the week she couldn’t stop smiling and laughing and building relationships with all the other students around her. It was truly God at work and amazing to see. And I was yet again reminded of how all the work and all the sacrifice was totally worth it.