The youth of today are powerful, hopeful, passionate people. They have big plans for their future and expect quite a bit from the adults in their lives.

Inside of them, they carry the knowledge they can change the world, and they get frustrated with us when they feel we don’t see that or think we don’t trust them with their own lives. Youth have so much passion, but passion swings both ways.

In this past week of my internship at St. Luke Lutheran Church, I’ve become more involved with the youth here at St. Luke, especially with the Sr. High. On Fridays, many of our Sr. High participate in Friday Night Live (FNL), which starts at 7 p.m. and goes until 10 p.m. At FNL, we get together, have a devotion and play games. On this particular night, there was some conflict. Someone, who is growing up into a very Godly adult, slipped up.

We don’t need to fear failure or dwell in guilt from our sins. God has a higher calling for us. He calls for us to have passion, to be courageous. God can work in spite of our falls. We need only to let Him.

Alaine Reichle | Contributor

Days before, as I was spending time with someone I’ll be working closely with, I found out they’d had some downfalls while in college and high school. This is someone who has made me feel the most welcome at my internship, someone I highly respect and care for and  someone who I consider very intelligent.

Both of these people have been wonderful blessings in my life. I can see God working through them and using them in magnificent ways. Both of them remind me of David. David was the ‘man after God’s own heart,’ yet among his sins were the murder of his friend and adultery. This man, David, was no stranger to really dropping the ball. However, David was wise. He learned from his experiences and allowed God to work through his weakness and shortcomings.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

We don’t need to fear failure, or dwell in guilt from our sins. God has a higher calling for us. He calls for us to have passion, to be courageous. God can work in spite of our falls. We need only to let Him. Those who are great among us learn from their stumbles, and they get back up again, and again, and again. Our life is an occasion, let us rise to it.

Alaine Reichle is the family life intern at St. Luke-Ann Arbor. She works with programs for junior and senior students, such as the Wednesday Night Live Bible Study, confirmation sessions, and Sunday morning education classes. Alaine can be contacted at areichle@stlukeaa.org.