What Else?

 

“What else?” 

A question that I spent no small amount of time hearing come from the mouth of a friend of mine. It is a question that I find myself repeating to a small group of junior boys a decade later, and when I do I laugh to myself and every so often send that friend of mine a text about how that seems like a lifetime ago. Tonight I did something that all those years ago that friend of mine pushed me into long before I realized I would be at this point by asking a simple question. But I’m getting ahead of myself so let me back up a little and explain.  

When I outgrew the college ministry at church several of my friends came together and created a small group for people our age, not in college, but not yet married. A sort of limbo group that to put bluntly the church as a whole in the world often forgets exists. What I didn’t realize then was just how much that group was going to help define my faith, teach me a love of grappling with a text or teaching it, and a love of the Old Testament. It all started with two words.  

I am an introvert. I am not a people person. I don’t talk in groups if I can help it, even groups of people that I know you will find me quiet more often than not. Enter one Chris Lee. Now, I’ve known Chris for the better part of twenty years and known of him longer. What I didn’t realize was how this guy who is basically the most die hard Vols fan you will ever meet and only one of two people I know who will wear Chacos all year long was going to take an introverted guy and help me find my voice.  

When the group started I stayed quiet for a few weeks. If other people answered questions I didn’t have to. At some point I answered and a phrase I learned to dread long before I learned to love it for both the simplicity and the impact it had was uttered “What else?” I just looked up at him and responded with “Nothing else, I told you what I had to say.” He laughed. It wasn’t long after that I realized that there was often more to an answer sitting in my head, and Chris had given me permission to let it out in a way that was brilliant, and I unashamedly stole it for dealing with students. It was a challenge to think deeper without being overbearing. When you are dealing with teenagers it can be hard to walk a line between encouraging them to think deeper and coming across like you think they are dumb. That question bridges the gap beautifully. Students are far smarter than most give them credit for, they will occasionally drive you crazy, but boy is it fun watching God work in them.  

Answering that question eventually led to him asking me to teach occasionally. By then I had taught a grand total of once and for a sum total of five minutes- a lesson on thankfulness to the middle school students. In this circle it started with Exodus which at the time was a book few pastors taught as a whole. So getting commentary or hearing what others had learned about the book was a challenge in and of itself, but it also gave me a huge love for the studying part of teaching. Even now, that is my favorite part. Other books followed, like John. Which is also a really fun book to work through, and one that there is more material to glean from when studying. But Chris being Chris was great at knowing the people in that circle, and their interests, and the things they were passionate about. He certainly knew me and knows me well. I still get text most every Thanksgiving about the dog show. That is important not just because knowing your small group is an important thing, but because when you know someone in that group has a passion for something a passage speaks on, it is a great chance to let them share, and if they are normally quiet help them learn to open up. In my case that was a passage on orphans. I taught the passage and then looked at the topic from the viewpoint of the context of what we’d read and layered it with statistics and stories of orphans and adoption in a current time. The point being that Chris not only knew me enough to know that I would resonate with the passage, but he was also entirely unselfish and asked me to teach it. There were four of us who rotated teaching, but Chris was the leader.  

These days Chris is an associate pastor. Eventually he left to pastor and leadership of the group changed to various staff members, we became a much smaller group as time went on and people married, and then it disappeared for a few years. It came back four years ago at the leadership of a couple I’ve known basically my whole life. The Hall’s have been in my life in some form or fashion since I was ten years old. When they first approached me when they started the group I gave them various excuses as to why I couldn’t attend. They didn’t stop asking. I continued to give excuses. And then one of my best friends told me I should come because she had been going and it was great. Then God decided to sit me in front of the Hall’s at church during a children’s program so they could mention that I should really come and see what it was about. I got the point and did exactly that.  

I’ve spent almost every Monday since April 26,2021 at that Bible study. I’ve looked at things and learned things I wouldn’t have imagined learning about because they were never afraid to tackle subjects when it would have been incredibly easy to throw on a video study and call it a day. In fact in twenty plus years of small groups and bible studies I’ve done two of my favorite in the last four years- one on world religions and the other we just finished on the Beatitudes. I built relationships that I didn’t expect and really have no idea what I would do without.  

So why “What Else?”  

Well, tonight, in a full circle moment I became the leader of that group as the Hall’s stepped out. A position I wouldn’t have ever seen myself in a few years ago much less a decade ago when I heard that question for the first time. And while I will inevitably ask it of those in that circle (although we actually have our tables in a square) I find myself asking it of God. Not in a condescending or accusatory tone, but in an entirely open-handed way from a guy who has learned that God puts you where he wants you and that is the best place to be. My journey into student ministry started much the same way albeit more reluctantly. This time there was no pushback from me. There was surprise, but like I said I am an introvert and while I’ve lead the class occasionally this is a whole new role. But I had no doubt that “Yes” was the only answer to the situation when asked. I can’t tell you what God is doing, or what He’s going to do in the coming time, but I can tell you I’ve learned to trust Him when he puts me in situations I don’t always feel ready for. That is the beauty of it all. That faithfulness I’ve witnessed over the past almost two decades of student ministry taught me well that He has my best interests in mind. I don’t have to know why He works the way he does. My job is only to trust that He is in fact working and to be obedient.

So, in as grateful and maybe as encouraging a tone as I can get across on a screen, what is your “What Else?”