Every time I have to go down Atascocita Road, I make the mistake of going down West Lake Houston Parkway. I have to correct myself and get back to the right street. The last time I did that, it made me think… If I didn’t correct myself, then I would never get to my destination. It also made me think about how small changes can make a bigger impact down the road.

Just think about it for a second. If you are going somewhere and you are off course by just one degree, after one foot, you will miss your target by just .2 inches. Which is not a big difference. However, if you travel a mile, you will be off track by 92.2 feet. Which is a noticeable difference. If I traveled from San Francisco to Washington D.C, a one degree difference would make me 42.6 miles out of the way. If I traveled to the moon, I would miss it by 4,169 miles. Going to the nearest star, I would be off course by 441 billion miles.
Over time, a mere one-degree error in course makes a huge difference. The scariest thing is that we cannot really tell where we went off course. If I traveled west, when I needed to travel east, then I could tell you what went wrong. However, one-degree is so small at the beginning, you cannot really tell what happened.

One Sunday school class, I had a topic of talking about laws and what they have to do with faith and love. We got a little off track, but it is what God needed us to do. We started talking about worry. I stated that the Bible tells us not to worry about tomorrow. I reminded the youth what was shared in Matthew 6: 25-34,

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? … Why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘what shall we eat?’ or ‘what shall we drink?’ or ‘what shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

The teens responded that if they do not worry about the future, then nothing will get done. It made me sad. They spend their whole lives, as teenagers, worrying about school, social life, the future, and tons of other things. So, oftentimes, I get the excuse of not coming to church because they have homework to do. Now, I am not saying do not worry about school or do not do their homework, but this is concerning.

Church has been put on the back burner. I remember while growing up, there were no sports on Sundays or Wednesdays. Now, there are tournaments, rehearsals, and concerts every day of the week. Church is the first thing to drop or cancel. I am concerned. Not because I am a youth coordinator whose job is to get youth to come to church, but because I am a Christian and know that this is how Satan wins. Satan wins with just a one degree difference. We see at the beginning it is no big deal. No one says anything. It is okay to miss one Sunday. It is okay to miss one devotion. It is ok to not give money this week. It is just a “one-time thing,” like a cheat day in a diet.

That is where Satan wins battles. He doesn’t do it with huge things. People will see right through that. No, Satan’s biggest achievement is when people do not even realize he exists. That one decision takes the edge off. It leads to another decision that takes away from God, and it adds up. But only one at a time. Then we end up in a totally different place than where we wanted to go.

So, how do we get back on course? First thing we need to do is to take off the rear view mirror. Like in a car, the rear view mirror allows us to look behind us. We see what church used to be. We see the errors we made. We need to not look back. We are where we are. Now, what do we do? We are going into uncharted territory.

Just this past week, the church had to deal and now has to continue to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. With church only going virtual and no meetings during the week, we have to find ways to reach people. It can be scary, but man, can it be exciting. We get to find new ways to reach people. Thank God for technology. We are able to stay in contact and have meetings online. We get to reach people where they are most comfortable. It is a new era for church. We just have to continue to change with the times and be flexible. God’s work is never done.

Another way to get back on course is to take small steps. Just as we saw one degree can get us off course, one degree can get us back. Get back into your devotion. Come back to church one Sunday. Volunteer with the youth and children. It does not take much to make a small step. If you just take one step at a time, after a while, you will see a huge difference. Like Jesus says in Matthew 17:20, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Imagine the possibilities for AUMC if we move one degree for God this week. How many more people can we reach?

Thank you and God bless,
Chris Blankenship, Youth Coordinator
AUMC Family since 2019