Prior to beginning Meyer Family Ministries nearly thirteen years ago, I was director at a Christian Teen Center here in our corner of Florida for ten years. Our building was open every day after school and nearly every evening. We had a couple of Bible studies each week. One was geared to middle school kids and the other was for high school, college and career young people.

During the afternoon, I supervised a lot of kids playing pool, ping pong, carpet pool, air hockey and foozball. There was an outdoor basketball court, and a softball field which doubled as a soccer field. We had a lot of fun together. Integrated in our schedule was time for one on one visiting and counseling. The local courts sometimes assigned troubled kids to me as a volunteer community control person.

At one point, we had a fine woodcarver who came in and taught our kids how to turn a block of wood into a pelican, squirrel, or even an unrecognizable free form piece of art. Of course, giving some of these kids sharp knives produced more than a little apprehension in my heart! We all knew how to spell “911”!

We seemed to attract mostly kids from some of the tougher neighborhoods within walking distance of our building. The born again kids were involved with their own church groups and seldom showed up at our place. It was a real mission field!

God blessed us with a fine group of volunteer helpers. My wife had a vision for establishing a puppet team. They practiced regularly and performed in area churches and nursing homes. Pat and I did concerts when invited. Our Friday night group managed to get to McDonald’s just about every week. It was the closest thing to near food we could afford to scarf up.

In the midst of the benign bedlam that often occurred, I insisted on standards of conduct that would keep everybody happy. Those standards were also designed to keep kids from maiming other kids! We didn’t allow smoking on the premises and insisted that their bodies were covered to the point of decency.

There are always kids within a group like this who push the rules of conduct to the limits. Some of them found the most inventive places on the property to sneak a smoke. Candy disappeared from the kitchen area unless we watched it very closely. One of the boys figured out a way to reach up through the exit orifice of the Coke machine and trigger the mechanism that allowed him to steal sodas. The Coke company never figured out a way to keep him from stealing our sodas! Just had to watch him like a hawk!

There were times we got a bit discouraged because, in spite of the fact that we presented the gospel in a variety of ways, not many came to know Jesus. We often wondered just how much real good we were doing even though our efforts were sincere and inventive.

Outside of our meetings, we had a couple of our girls who came up pregnant. Some of them ended up in serious trouble with the legal authorities. We just did our best and left the results to the Lord.

Now fast forward with me fifteen years. About a year ago, I went to my favorite oil changing place. Tonka was up on the rack. The young man who changed my oil knew me by name. I didn’t recognize him. When I questioned how he knew me, he told me that he was one of the kids who came in every afternoon to play games. When I worked with him, he was barely five feet tall. He stood there at six foot, three inches tall! Now he was telling me about his wife and THREE children. He said, “You know, Jerry, you probably didn’t realize at the time what an influence you and the Teen Center had in my life. I didn’t know it then, but a lot of what you taught us DID have a real impact on my life. I’ve never forgotten what I learned. I want to raise my kids to know Jesus, too.”

In the past few years, I’ve had quite a few similar experiences. Seems like we were all having some influence and impact in the lives of kids even though we didn’t see it at the time. We just kept planting seeds. I recall a story about a man who was a travelling salesman during the depression. He sold dry goods and seldom made enough to even meet his travel expenses. When asked the inevitable question “Why” he continued to make calls even though he was operating at a loss, he said, “This depression is going to get over one of these days. These merchants are going to remember me when I call on them and they DO have money with which to buy my products. I figure my job now is to keep showing the merchandise and keep my name and face in front of them.”

Paul had a similar view. He didn’t believe that he was responsible for the results. His job was to “show the merchandise.” To the Corinthian church he penned these words, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” (1 Cor. 3:6)

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THESE EXPERIENCES?

• All of us are called to plant seeds.
• Others of us are called to water the seeds through follow-up.
• God, and God alone, takes full responsibility for the results and brings the harvest of increase.

Isn’t that neat? John a little different way: “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” (John 12:32) Our job is to lift up Jesus. He does the drawing and brings the results.

Wherever God has called us to minister, keep in mind that we are not responsible for the results. We ARE responsible for faithfully fulfilling the call to which He’s assigned us. The Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, was known as the Weeping Prophet. Part of his weeping undoubtedly came as a result of the fact that he had very few converts to his preaching. He kept right on doing his job. The results were God’s responsibility.

Be encouraged. Keep planting the seeds. Keep the watering can handy and use it often. Give God all the praise and thanksgiving for the results He brings from our humble efforts.

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