Changes From the Inside Out – by Justin Bowman

As a Youth Worker spending time with students in the 5th - 8th grade age range I get to talk to students of all different sizes.  Some look me in the eyes, and sometimes I get down on one knee to be at eye level with certain students. Though I actively notice the difference in the sizes of the students I work with, for the longest time I didn’t consciously realize the difference…until someone else pointed it out to me. 

A group of us were attending one of the several Youth Workers Conventions we’ve been to when a well-known Junior High Youth Pastor showed us a set of pictures. The first picture was of him with two 8th grade boys (who were taller than him) the second was of him with two other 6th grade boys (very much shorter than him) and the difference astounded everyone in the room.  I noted how I wanted to take such a picture with a few of the students I have spent time with to document this difference for myself. About a year later I actually remembered to do so, but I have some thoughts I would like to share before revealing the photos.

After capturing the photos I sat and thought about the extreme changes that can occur physically between the 5th grade and 8th grade years. After a while I was drawn to think the following: if a person can have such radical change physically in just four years, how radically can they change spiritually during that same time frame?

Now, generally speaking, when students enter the ministry in 5th grade they are normally little rambunctious balls of energy who seem to bounce off the walls and have energy levels that are difficult for most to keep up with. By the time they leave 8th grade they have developed a level of maturity that allows them to have actual, meaningful conversations with us as adults.  Trust me when I say this, these are two very different plots on the maturity scale…but I absolutely love spending time with both. 
A Bible verse I came across expresses what happens during this time frame in such a simple way.

Luke 2:40

The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom…

This particular verse is actually referring to Jesus. As the children around us grow I feel that they undergo basically the same process. Perhaps not to the divine levels of Jesus’ spirituality, but their wisdom increases nonetheless. A very simple statement, but it carries a deep and profound meaning. Sometimes we don’t realize the changes on the outside are signals of the countless changes occurring on the inside.

Fairly often a student will say something profound that catches us leaders by surprise, and causes us to realize that as they grow they figure things out in ways that help us to learn a thing or two. Most of the time these comments come from 8th graders, 5th graders usually say the things we won’t ever be able to figure out. 

Middle school is a time when students project the image of wanting to distance themselves from most everyone. As you can see from the images below, this is a phase when a lot of change happens in a relatively small amount of time, and students need someone to guide them through this time of rapid changes from the inside out.