Youth: What we don't know ... maybe I don't really want to know?

Came across this item the other day at YS Marko, a blog about working with youth in a church.

I'm not up on the phenomena, but apparently, some web pages allow people to post their secrets anonymously.

In the blog post, YS Marko points to such a web page and clipped a few excerpts of what some teen girls wrote about.

I was with the youth group on Tuesday night and they all seem to be happy well adjusted kids.

What would they post if given that opportunity?

Would they share such things with anyone?

And I have to ask myself this question: would I really want to hear it?

What would I do if I heard such a secret?

Its one thing to read about such things in the abstract, its quite another to connect such gut kicking secrets with a person you know.

I want to believe that I would be able to respond with love and acceptance and not shock and rejection.

I want to believe I would have the wisdom to know what to say if something needed to be said or to say nothing but just give a hug or a pat on the back.

At a YS conference I went to a couple of years ago, I remember one speaker said, there is no such thing as a "typical youth volunteer" because we get all kinds of kids in a youth program so we need all kinds of youth volunteers.

I'm probably as far from a "typical youth volunteer" as there is and so that statement comes back to my recall periodically when I think it is time to call it quits.

I can engage in a little navel gazing here but I have to remember it is about Jesus and helping our students connect with Jesus.