Jitters

I’m nervous.  Not terrified, but nervous.

Tomorrow I help out with Vacation Bible School.  I haven’t been in or near a VBS since I was probably 11 or 12 years old.  I’ve never worked one.  Never organized one.  I spent many years in a college campus ministry where small children were the exception, and my formal ministry years have been in older congregations where children were also the exception.  

But I’m blessed to be helping out our daughter congregation down the road with their VBS, since their pastor took a Call in December and they are working with an interim minister.  I’ll be telling stories to little kids for a few hours each morning.  I’ll be surrounded by slightly older kids who will be herding the smaller ones around and supplying the energy and craziness that makes VBS such an amazing thing for everyone.  

But I’m still nervous.  I figure it’s probably a good thing to be nervous once in a while, to be standing on the edge of (if not outside of) my comfort zone to do something for someone else.  And I know that regardless of my jitters, it will be a great experience for everyone involved, and I’m humbled again that I am paid to be nervous, paid to take chances and stretch myself, paid to share the love of God with so many different people in different ways.