JAZBAR

I think a lot of analogies that pastors use are really lame. Like, when a pastor says something like "Our lives are like peanut butter...bumpy in some places and smooth in others, but as long as we are close to God He will STICK to us" Really??! Really??! Ok...I might be the only one but my life is not like peanut butter. I realize that Christ himself used parables and analogies but I don't recall any about peanut butter in the Bible.  At the risk of sounding corny my life is more like Jazbar's wheel!  Who is Jazbar you ask? He is our hamster.  Our 4 year old really wanted a pet but there was no way we were adding one more "thing" to our lives. So, we went with a small, furry rodent that cannot leave her 12X12 cage. Turns out Jazbar bites too which makes it even easier to leave her in her cage. Yes, she is a she. I wish I could tell you why her name is Jazbar but I have no idea, our 4 year old named her that.  I am fairly confident he hasn't actually been to a JAZZ BAR, so I have no clue where that came from.

Anyway, this small furry rodent of ours has this small yellow wheel. You know..an exercise wheel. The stupid thing never ceases to amaze me. She will run for literally hours on that thing. You know how I know she is stupid? She isn't.going.anywhere.   She will run and run and run and run on that thing like she thinks she is in a marathon. The poor thing ACTUALLY thinks she is getting somewhere. I kind of feel bad for her.  At the risk of sounding to analogy-ish...at the moment I am feeling a little like Jazbar.  I mean, we have spent 11 years of  our life investing in students lives and 11 years later what do we have to show for it? If I am completely honest with myself I can only name probably 20 or so of the hundreds of students who have gone through our youth ministry who I am still in touch with.  So, what about the other 500? Where are they now? Did we even make an impact? Do they remember our names? Our faces? our passion for Christ? Or are we just running on the "Jazbar wheel"....going nowhere and getting completely worn out in the process.  This ministry life is exhausting sometimes.  The good news is...Jazbar is still alive because he keeps running...and so I guess I will keep running too, in hopes to stay alive in this ministry world.

Dang it...That was a corny analogy huh?! I am sorry, it's just that every time I blog that stupid hamster comes out to run and I figured I owed it to her to give a little shout out.