Transition

So...let me tell you this...I feel like a real, taken serious, respected minister. Not that I don't think my ministry up to this point hasn't been real or serious but now that I am transitioning into a full-time position I feel different.
Let me open up the difference and try to put it all out there at least so I can see it.
The difference is that I've spoken with my new pastor in the past two weeks more than I've talked to my current pastor in a couple months. He checks in on me. He takes me out to lunch. He emails me with ideas for the ministry and spends time invisioning our futures as ministers together. This is what I've been looking for. Not a pastor who rarely makes time to meet with me, has no real opinion on what I should or should not be doing, and has never taken me out to lunch or spent time casting vision with me for anything. Not that my current pastor isn't a great man. Don't get me wrong he is very compassionate, caring, educated and loving. He just doesn't invest in me like I had hoped a man who is my ministry superior would. So there is difference number one.
Number two would be that there won't be the distraction of a secular job anymore. Thursday is my last day at Chick-fil-A and I can't wait to take off that responsibility and pass it along to someone else. Again, please don't misunderstand what I'm trying to say here. Robert has been a good enough boss. He hasn't hounded me when things didn't get done he has been real good at letting me do the job the way I wanted to do the job and has worked with me where most bosses wouldn't. But knowing that there won't be anymore 7:00am phone calls asking me when I'm coming in is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to things I'm not going to miss about CFA. I know I'll still get phone calls but hopefully they'll be from people who really need me, not people who just want to bug me.
Third will be the drive. If anyone really knows me you know I'm not a city boy by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not a redneck either. I just like things to be slower. I like being able to drive and relax. I hate bumper to bumper traffic. At Grace I won't ever have to worry about this.
Lastly and probably the most significant difference is my dream, my desire has come true. I am going to be a full-time youth pastor. I get to go to work knowing that everything I do, even the most small and insignificant task holds eternal impact in the lives of teens. I finally feel like God sees in me what I hoped for so long He did. By being called into this ministry I feel like God is telling me I've got what it takes to step up into the big leagues of ministry.
There are so many expectations but I'll let God worry about that. I'll just do my best to be obedient, dillegent and faithful. I will seek God with all that is within me. I will praise Him through the darkest times of pain and sorrow as well as the times of indescribable joy. I will trust Him with my Bellevue group. After all, He loves them so much more than I do and is much more capable of giving them what they need regardless of what one man who appears to have a say on what the church will or will not support says. God's purpose will be accomplished and those kids will have what they need, whatever that may be.
I will trust him wiht my new group. I will trust that if I become transparent and open myself to them then they will accept me and take me as their own. I will invest in and serve those God has entrusted to me now and worry about those He will send to me later. I will be God's man.

Pray for me because I'm terrified. I've never done this before, my life has never been this way nad I don't want to miss any of it. I love God. I love my family and I love this ministry. I just want to be God's man.