Ruby Tuesdays and the Future

High school guys don't love salad bars. At least that was true about me in high school. I don't know if that is still true. Birkenstocks are back in style so I suppose anything is possible. Regardless, it was in the shadow of a salad bar that my life changed.

I remember it like it was yesterday even though fourteen years have passed. My youth minister, Scott, took me out to lunch as a senior in high school. He took me to a Ruby Tuesdays in Lexington. It was at the bottom of a bookstore. There was a fountain. We sat at a high-top table. He had a yellow legal pad with some notes. There are a hundred other details I could include but it'd be boring. 

The reason I remember all these things is not because of a weird affection for salad. The reason this is burned into my memory is because of what Scott said to me at that lunch. He asked me what I thought about his new strategy for the student ministry. I think it was the first time an adult had sincerely asked my opinion about...well, anything. It was like Scott sincerely wanted to know what I thought because he respected my insight. That's a game changer for a young person.

Then he started telling me what he saw in me. He said he thought I would be a "#1" some day. He meant that I was destined to be the point leader of something big. Up until that point I thought I might get involved in youth ministry. I thought it'd be cool to take students on trips and preach to them weekly. Scott elevated my vision. He called out something in me I didn't see in myself. I needed that.

Many of us need others to call out our gifts, strengths, and potential. We take humility too far and deprecate ourselves into mediocrity. We need someone to look us in the eyes and call us to something more. I'll never forget that lunch. It was the moment what God unlocked a future of leadership that may have gone unfulfilled.

As the recipient of such a vision cast, I feel called to raise others' visions. It's truly an honor to look someone in the eyes and tell them that God has more in store for them than they could ever imagine. They have gifts beyond their current understanding. Their story will be bigger, scarier, and far more fulfilling than they could ever imagine. It takes me back to a salad bar fourteen years ago; a moment I'll never forget.