Unite Southampton

I remember whilst I was a young person and student, I was encouraged to do something useful with all the spare time I had - endleass summer holidays and all that. You know, things such as spend a few weeks helping with a Christian holiday, or going on a "mission trip". Doing good stuff with your time. No arguements.

Whilst trudging up Snowdon, not much to see and with by surprising weighty 6 month old daughter on my back, I wondered at the amount of work that went in to building paths that hadn't been there the last time I walked up there with my Dad. You see with all the boots hitting the hill, erriosion is a big problem and will blight the awesome landscape as we try to enjoy it. I assume that lots of volunteers, particularly students, must give up their time and considerable energy to get it done.*

Volunteering for things like this would have been seen as a waste of time at my university CU. Why do that when you could be telling someone about Jesus? I totally subscribed to that logic.

It shocked me to realise that I probably still think like this. Is it not possible to help reduce errosion on Snowdon AND tell someone about Jesus? But it's abother example of our dualist thinking that hinders us being effective as the church.

So, if you are a youth or student leader, give some thought to what you encourage your young people to get involved with. Train them to think of life as being one thing, not two. Don't forget to show them how to do this by your example as well. And most importantly (for me), let me know how you do that last bit if you figure it out.

* I might well be wrong about this, it might have been done with some Lottery grant or other. However the idea still works I think.