My job is more fun than your job.

It's true. You'll try to deny it. You'll wish that it wasn't true. You'll be jealous.

It's just a fact: My job is more fun than your job.

Until your job includes pool parties where dunking is expected, drinking coffee and talking about the Bible with curious teenagers, going to summer camp, playing Ultimate Frisbee every week and playing games with Fun Noodles...well, your job just can't compete.

Of course, those of you in youth ministry know what I'm talking about. You know that it is not all fun and games. It's also one of the most challenging and humbling jobs that you can fathom. You get paid for all kinds of things and wonder "did I really pay for graduate school to strategize in shaving cream flights and night games" or ask if they pay you enough when you're riding on a bus for 18-hours or cleaning up after a camper who got sick at 3 a.m. (They don't. Trust me. I never thought I'd be envious of how much first-year public school teachers make. Then I started working at churches.)

It's still the most amazing job in the world.

And summer is the best part! Ultimate Frisbee on Mondays, Open Gym on Tuesdays, Wild And Crazy Wednesdays and Summer Nights on Thursdays. The first week alone has included fluffing new Sack Chairs, getting schooled by high school boys on the Frisbee field and dunking middle school girls (mostly getting dunked repeatedly) at a pool party.

"Find something you love. Get somebody to pay you for it. And you'll never work another day in your life." Todd or Kurt told me that in the summer of 1996 at about 3 a.m. at Noah's Ark in Buena Vista, Colorado. I was a high school student. The words stuck, and I followed that advice.

And it's only the first week...